Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
March 22, 2007 issue
Blue Ridge Community Theater Presents Hello, Dolly! at Farthing Auditorium March 30 to April 1
Story by Sam Calhoun
Get ready for a music-filled romp through a web of romantic entanglement as the Blue Ridge Community Theater (BRCT) presents its spring 2007 production, Hello, Dolly!, from Friday, March 30, to Sunday, April 1, at ASU’s Farthing Auditorium.
Showtimes are 8:00 p.m. on March 30 and 31, and 2:00 p.m. on March 30 and April 1. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and children. Groups of ten or more receive a $1 discount on each ticket. To purchase tickets, call the Farthing Auditorium box office at 828-262-4046 or click to www.brctnc.org.
“Rehearsals are coming along great—it all looks great,” said BRCT Board Chair Kathleen Rowell. “The main characters are just wonderful.”
Hello, Dolly! originally opened on Broadway on January 16, 1964, at the St. James Theater where it ran for 2,844 performances. Directed and choreographed by Gower Champion, the original cast included Carol Channing, David Burns, Charles Nelson Reilly, Eileen Brennan and Alice Playten.
Although facing stiff competition from Funny Girl with Barbara Streisand, Hello, Dolly! swept the Tony Awards that season, winning awards in 10 categories—out of 11 nominations—a record that remained unbroken for 37 years until The Producers won 12 Tonys in 2001.
The plot of Hello, Dolly! originated in Einen Jux will er sich machen, an 1842 play by Austrian Johann Nestroy that Thornton Wilder adapted for his 1938 play The Merchant of Yonkers, revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955. At the play’s core is widowed matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi who travels to Yonkers, N.Y., to visit Horace Vandergelder, a prominent, wealthy bachelor in need of a wife. While there, she convinces him—and his two stock clerks, Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker, his niece Ermengarde and her beau Ambrose Kemper—to go to New York City. Dolly, who has decided to nab Vandergelder for herself, arranges a match between the two clerks and the woman Vandergelder has been courting, a woman named Irene Molloy, and her shop assistant Minnie Fay. Love triangles ensue, culminating in a free-for-all at the Harmonia Gardens and trip to night court. As the curtain falls, all the characters are matched with their ideal partners.
The BRCT cast for the spring production of Hello, Dolly! is nothing short of talented. Burlene Franklin, the theater arts teacher at Avery County High School, is playing Dolly Levi, and Joe Clark, a professional actor and current entertainment director for Tweetsie Railroad, is playing Horace Vandergelder. Lees-McRae performing arts graduate Lilly Nelson is playing Ermengarde, junior ASU theater major Matthew Lucas is playing Ambrose, Lees-McRae dance and musical theater graduate Stephanie Deal is playing Minnie Fay and Lees-McRae religious studies and performing arts major Meghan E. Ray is playing Irene.
Rowell is using this production to thank three retiring members of the board for their contributions over the past several years—Alma Ward, Graydon Eggers and Janet Speer. A special thank you letter will be printed in the Hello, Dolly! program.
Hello, Dolly! will be the last show for director Dr. Janet Barton Speer, producer Alma Ward and orchestra conductor Graydon Eggers, so Ann Holder, publicity chair for the BRCT, hopes all community members will come out and share the end of a 20-year era with the BRCT.
The changeover in board members signals a new direction for the BRCT. According to Rowell, the BRCT’s new direction will include dinner theater shows, murder mysteries, big musicals and a strong partnership with the new Watauga County High School to “help make their new theater an amazing place for drama, music and dance for future generations. Our partnership will include sharing experience, time and money,” she added.
For more information, click to www.brctnc.org.
Want To Go?
Dates: Friday, March 30, to Sunday, April 1
Times: 8:00 p.m. March 30 and 31/2:00 p.m. March 30 and April 1
Location: Farthing Auditorium, ASU
Cost: $15 adults/$10 students and children
Hello, Dolly! Cast List
The following community members are part of the BRCT’s production of Hello, Dolly!. 
Main Cast
Dolly Levi: Burlene Franklin
Horace Vandergelder: Joe Clark
Cornelius Hackel: Carlos Garcia
Irene Malloy: Meghan Rey
Barnaby Tucker: John Warrick
Minnie Faye: Stephanie Deal
Ambrose Kemper: Matt Lucas
Ermengarde: Lilly Nelson
Ernestina: Rebecca Mayes
Judge: John Schoo
Rudolph: Audan Parks
Stanley: Robin Austin
Clerk: Justin Bulla
Head Waiter: Nick Donchak
Mrs. Rose: Mara Edwards
Women’s Chorus (townspeople, Harmonia Garden guests)
Logan Angell
Laura Carringer
Amanda Carringer
Mary Boone Claytor
Meredith Condrey
Beth Connolly
Sydney Corn
Laura Coston
Skyler Courreges
Caryn Crozier
Amelia Fan
Juli Hedrick
Barbara Hosbein
Kristen Johnson
Kaitlyn Kingston
Susan McCachren
Laura McKinny
Hanni Murdter
Ariel Nicastro
Cathy Penson
Tinker Rautenberg
Tatum Reese
Katie Rondinero
Peggy Sigmon
Mary Dean Silver
Torrey Slack
Freda Smith
Mary Taylor
Cassie Vance
Casey Wagner
Wendy Whitley
Nancy Zettervall
Men’s chorus (townspeople, glee club, guests, waiters)
Dwaine Hodges
Nick Cato
Daniel Teague
Mark Gay
Brian Gay
Brian Goings
Scott McKinny
Roland Mullinix
Thomas Rowell 
Chorus/dancers
Noelle Austin
Lauren Hedrick
Caitlen Marie Nelis
Jessica Presnell
Broadway Awards and Nominations for Hello, Dolly!
Hello, Dolly! won ten Tony Awards in 1964, the year it originally appeared on Broadway, and went on to win a Drama Desk Award in 1970 and two Tony nominations in 1978 and 1996.
1964 Tony Award Best Musical (winner)
1964 Tony Award Best Composer and Lyricist (Jerry Herman, winner)
1964 Tony Award Best Actress in a Musical (Carol Channing, winner)
1964 Tony Award Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Charles Nelson Reilly, nominee)
1964 Tony Award Best Scenic Design (winner)
1964 Tony Award Best Costume Design (Freddy Wittop, winner)
1964 Tony Award Best Choreography (winner)
1964 Tony Award Best Direction of a Musical (winner)
1964 Tony Award Best Conductor and Musical Director (winner)
1964 Tony Award Best Producer of a Musical (winner)
1964 Tony Award Best Author of a Musical (winner)
1970 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Performance (Ethel Merman, winner)
1978 Tony Award Best Actor in a Musical (Eddie Bracken, nominee)
1996 Tony Award Best Revival of a Musical (nominee)
Did You Know?
In 1969, Barbara Streisand starred in the film adaptation of the play, produced by 20th Century Fox, directed by Gene Kelly and with a supporting cast that included Walter Matthau, Michael Crawford, Marianne McAndrew, Danny Lockin, E.J. Peaker, Tommy Tune and Fitz Fel, with a cameo by Louis Armstrong in what would be his final film appearance.