E. Faye Butler (Dolly Levi, Drury Lane Dinner Theater South, Chicago, 1991)

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E. Faye Butler

I became familiar with E.Faye Butler as a result of my my interviewwith Georgia Engel.
First and foremost, when E. Faye Butler was approached toplay Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly in1990, there hadn’t been too many opportunities for African-American women tolead a cast in the Chicago Theater scene, especially in musicals. When theyapproached E. Faye about this, she was very excited. It was Dolly! It wasn’tsomething that would be traditionally done so she was excited by it. DavidDillon and Marc Robin, who co-directed, contacted E. Faye to tell her theywanted her. 

Director David Dillon

David also happened to be a good acquaintance with Jerry Herman.Jerry and David had known one another for quite a few years and had worked on a benefit together in Chicago in 1987. David worked closely with Jerry even getting him to reinstate one of Merman’s cutsongs, Love, Look in my Window. Johnny Lazarra, who produced the show, had never spent the kind of moneythat was spent on this production on any prior production. E. Faye even forwentpart of her salary because she believed in this show so much. Most of thechorus was making more money than E. Faye! One of the things she desired wasauthentic costumes and she really wanted to make sure that they had a staircase. 
The Drury Lane Dinner Theater South was in the round. They had to take one of thesections of the theater out in order to build the stairway. They had never donethat before. It cost a lot of money taking out an entire section. That is whereE. Faye’s salary went, that and the costumes. John Beasley, who playedVandergelder, had done a lot of film and television. E. Faye loved working withBeasley. He was cantankerous as Horace. 

John Beasley

He was strong and wise and he is such agreat actor. He was open to the process. He wasn’t a great singer and E. Fayeloved that about him. He came with such a strong acting background. He gave hera lot to work with. Again, that helped her heavily as she dug deeper into thescript. The text came alive a lot stronger with Beasley at the helm.David Dillon had great instincts on the show. He was the onewho connected E. Faye with The Matchmaker.He suggested she go back and read it, think about it, and bring some of thattext forward to Hello, Dolly. He desiredher to look at the heart of Dolly. He didn’t want to do just another retellingof Dolly. That’s why he went back to Jerry Herman. David always felt that therewas a hole in the show when Dolly “jumps” from talking to Ephraim to Before the Parade Passes By.  AddingLove, Look in my Window connected alot with E. Faye as well as the audience. Marc Robin, who also choreographed inaddition to co-directing, made a beautiful pas de deux reminiscent of whatDolly and Ephraim may have done as kids. There were many beautiful picturesthat the two directors created.  E. Faye Butler was the reason for the show instead of theother way around. They built the show around her. At the time, this was E. Faye’s first leading lady part.Now, she approaches characters from what she learned from her approach todiscovering Dolly. When they were sitting around the table, in the early stagesof production, E. Faye wanted a multi-cultural cast. It wasn’t important to E.Faye that this be an African-American company. She wanted it to berepresentative of an American city and town. Marc and David put together areally good multicultural cast. She didn’t want Horace to beEuropean-American.  
It was important thatHorace and Dolly be of the same race as to not confuse the audience. Once thatwas in place, they started to work on the material. David said to E. Faye thathe had been taking to Jerry Herman and that there were two songs that were notused in Dolly outside of Merman’srun. Jerry was willing to allow this production to use one of thosesongs. They went off of the old Merman 45. Jerry said he didn't have the charts for that song readily available, but since David had the Merman recording, he just asked that they copy what was there.

Jerry asked that they transcribe the songs and to record them with E.Faye singing them and to send back to him so he could OK it. The song theyreinstated was Love, Look in my Window.That song goes before the Ephraim, let mego…speech. After the speech is Beforethe Parade Passes By. E. Faye approached Dolly as a meddlesome “everybody’sfriend.” From E. Faye’s perspective, she’s a bit of a con woman, but in a niceway. She gets what she wants; she’s “ballsy.” E. Faye would LOVE to revisit Dolly. If she was to do itagain, she would go even deeper into the text. So many times, people go for thecomedy of Dolly and not necessarily the heart. E. Faye did go back to TheMatchmaker as part of her preparation.
E.Faye did see Carol Channing play Dolly in her last tour in1994. After knowing the story of Dolly and the additional songs that wereoriginally written for Merman, E. Faye somewhat missed the text with Channing. She felt the meat of who Dolly Levi is from TheMatchmaker was missing. She feels there is much more there than a lot ofpeople really look at. Dolly is such a strong woman of her time doing what sheis doing, making a way for her with such a strong spirit. She loves and shewants love and she needs love. Sometimes that doesn’t come through for Dolly. E. Faye also saw Florence Lacy play the role. She loved her,thought she did a lovely Dolly. It was a different take on Dolly completely,but totally Flo. That is the best thing about Dolly. You have to have a part ofyourself in that character in order to do a good Dolly. That’s what it is. Youhave to be vulnerable in order to share a part of yourself with an audience. E. Faye has only seen one Dolly who missed the mark. It wasEdie Adams at the Bucks County Playhouse in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. 

Edie Adams

It waslike an “instant cake mix Dolly…or microwave Dolly.” It was if someone took herout, thawed her, put her in a costume, put in the microwave, turned her on, andput her on the stage. E. Faye just didn’t get it.  There was no comedy there. E. Faye loves Jerry Herman. Jerry is a sweetheart. She hasbeen very fortunate to do a couple of celebrations in which he was honored. Onceat the Helen Hayes Awards, E. Faye was chosen to do some of his music. Jerry isa loving, kind man. E. Faye had the honor of Jerry sharing songs with her. Shelikes him because he is straight forward. She loves that he fights for what hebelieves in. She cannot say enough about him. She thinks that it’s wonderfulthat this man has such a love of music. He has been blessed with such anamazing talent. He is still doing it.      E. Faye first fell in love with Dolly when she started takingapart the Ephraim, let me go…speechin rehearsal. She really looked at it and then went back to The Matchmaker. She knew that Dolly wasa warm, loving, caring person who wants so much out of life. She has lost her soulmate in Ephraim. The first time that E. Faye heard the entire score to Dolly was when she was in college. Priorto that, she only knew the title song due to frequent radio play. Ribbons down My Back was the first songfrom the score that took E. Faye’s breath away. She was searching for anaudition song. That was a song that spoke to her. As she began to listen to theentire score, she said to herself that this was really a beautiful show. 
Thereis a lot of beautiful music in the score that she had not heard prior to herexploration. She thought the patter songs were quite funny. The Drury Lane Dinner Theater, now a Walmart, was on thesouth side of Chicago. On the second performance a heckler of the worst kindappeared at the theater. E. Faye was filled with such joy and love because theyhad such an amazing cast. The theater had gone out of their way to make this theperfect production. It was E. Faye’s first leading lady role in a role that isnot traditionally portrayed by an African-American. She comes down the aisle atthe top of the show, passing out Dolly’s business cards. When she entered on “Mrs.Dolly Levi”, a man in the center section of the theater stood up and shouted, “Ididn’t pay my money to see a ni**er play Dolly!” That was a major realizationfor E. Faye, in a moment that was otherwise filled with immense joy. Theproducers had to pull him out of the theater as he wanted to continue thatprotest. He refused to sit down or leave. They had to forcibly removehim. The theater sat about eight hundred people. The entire cast froze onstage. E. Faye stood there with these cards in her hand contemplating her nextmove. If she stopped, she was dead. She knew that she had to keep forgingahead. Otherwise, she would give him power. She also had all these peoplestanding on stage. She kept on going. As she forged ahead, he kept yelling overher. It was absolutely one of those moments in her life she will never forget. Itwas her worst moment with this show. There was never any feeling of race with this productionuntil that man stood up. There was, however, a significant increase ofAfrican-American audiences for this production. That is a show that mostAfrican-Americans would not have gone to. It was amazing how many people sawthe show and told E. Faye that they had seen Pearl Bailey do it. They thoughtthe show was lovely and charming and they loved the music. It did introduce somany African-Americans in that community to theater at large as well as toDolly. She still has African-American business owners who, eighteen yearslater, tell her that seeing her in Dollywas the first time that they went to see a live show. There is a Mrs. Harris inChicago, who owns a restaurant, who still calls E. Faye “Dolly”. It doesn’tmatter what show she does, Mrs. Harris says, “Dolly…” E.Faye simply respondswith, “Yes ma’m.” E. Faye doesn’t even think she knows her name. When she seesher walk through the door, it’s Dolly!    On the back end of it, she knew she had something that mostactresses playing Dolly had never had. She had a song that had rarely been doneon stage. Jerry Herman didn’t give that song to Barbra Streisand. He didn’tgive it to Pearl Bailey. He didn’t give it to Carol Channing. E. Faye was amongthe first to sing this outside of Ethel Merman. Hello, Dolly isabsolutely among the top five shows of her career. It changed the face of hercareer. It changed the way people see her and perceive her. Without a doubt, itwas the first time that people looked at her as a leading lady. That is a bigmountain to climb in this business. People finally look at you and go “oh, she’sno longer the girlfriend of so and so with just the eleven o’clock number. Shecan be the leading lady.”E. Faye brought a sensibility to the production that came asa result of being raised by strong women. Her father died when she was young. She had the strength of a lot of women who had to survive by themselves aftertragedy and raised E.Faye with a strong sense of who she was. That’s who Dollyis. She has a strong sense of who she is. She still wants and needs love. Sheis just waiting for permission. E. Faye watched her mom do that. She sacrificedgetting married again because she wanted to wait and make sure it was the rightman at the right time and he was going to do the right thing. E. Faye pulled alot from her mother and her grandmother. E. Faye’s grandmother just passed inMarch of this year (2012) at one hundred and two. E. Faye learned a lot aboutthe period and how elegant it was, the way women held themselves, how to be alady. Sometimes, unless you’re doing one of these productions, one tends toforget that. Just wearing a corset changes the whole feeling of what you do. E.Faye loves wearing a corset on stage. She thinks it gives you a whole differentperspective of where you are and how you act. Putting on those buttoned upshoes and the skirts, two or three underskirts, with the jackets, with the gloves,with the hat and purse; you realize it wasn’t an easy life. It was all of thosedynamics. E. Faye continued to tweak her performance after she opened.She said you can’t help but tweet. The more you are within that armor, the moreyou understand her. Dolly has armor about her. There is strength to Dolly. Shehas armor, but the lovely moments of this show is when she pulls the armorback.  When she is teaching Cornelius andBarnaby to dance, it is just lovely. She is trying to match everyone up becausethat’s what she wants. The one thing that E. Faye learned from playing Dolly thatshe has carried forth in her life and career is to “go for what you desire. Don’tbe afraid.” She has also learned not to be afraid to be vulnerable on stage. Itis a very hard thing to do on stage. It serves you well. Audiences have loved Dolly over the years because of themusic. It is recognizable. It is family oriented. We don’t have a lot of showslike that. It makes sense. It tells a great story.
The title song is what Jerry Herman does best. He finds atheme. He finds the right phrase and he sticks to it. He does it with simplicity.Add to that Dolly in a red dress with an all male chorus. There is somethingabout all men singing a song. It is strong and hard, especially after thatamazing Waiter’s Gallop. You settlein your seat and celebrate the pageantry of it. Americans love pageantry. It’slike singing the Star Spangled Banner.Dolly is sacred to E. Faye. There is no “spin” on her. It’sakin to those that bastardize the StarSpangled Banner. We all know how it was written.  For Faye, there is a gradual build up and thetitle song until you hit the stride of that rhythm. There is a heartbeat therethat runs through that song. It starts to move. It then accelerates. It getsfuller and fuller and fills you with so much joy.

E. Faye Butler as Caroline, Matthew Demetrides as Noah and Milton Craig Nealy as The Dryer (Playbill.com)

David just told E. Faye to stay in her seat and have lots offun. Don’t over think it. Stay in the moment and have lots and lots of fun. That first night that E. Faye appeared at the top of thestairs and the audience didn’t stop applauding, she knew this was going to be agreat Dolly! She didn’t do anythingbut just appear there. It was that signature staircase and the guys standing atattention. It is the Waiter’s Gallopand everything building up to that moment. It is such a magical moment thatwhen “Dolly” steps out from behind the curtains, and she stands at the top ofthose steps, and she feels the love of people of people who have seen and heardthat number both on stage, film, and television, it lights your heart. Because of the success of this production, the theater thenhad cache. They could do any production they desired and get any actors theywanted. They now had production values. It was a credible show. E. Faye won aJoseph Jefferson Award, the first such honor for this theater. The JosephJefferson Awards Committee celebrates the vitality of Chicago area theatre byrecognizing excellence through its recommendations, awards and honors. She wonfor Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Dolly. It changed a lot ofthings for E. Faye AND the theater and for that area. She will always appreciateDrury Lane and Johnny Lazar for doing it. They took a gamble together and theywon. Their closing night, they cried and cried and didn’t want itto end. It was historic for everyone because it was a multiracial company. 

E. Faye Butler as Wiletta Mayer. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Everyone cried as they watched the staircase come down. Her opening night giftfor the company, she cooked Cornish hens, and beets, and potatoes for theentire company! She made thirty six Cornish hens! The entire company had agreat love for one another. One funny moment happened during a “senior” matinee. Theybus the audiences in from the senior citizen homes and assisted living facilities.They are great audiences. They know the show. Some were thinking they wereseeing Pearl Bailey. It didn’t matter.  On this particular matinee, in the hat shop scene when Dollyis teaching Barnaby and Cornelius to dance, Dolly’s line is, “You’re next Mr.Tucker.” A woman in the audience shouted out, “What did she say?” The womanbehind her shouted back, “You’re next little Fu@#er!”  As Pearl Bailey would have done, E. Faye brokethe fourth wall and said, “Thank you m’am.”If given the chance, E. Faye would love to do Hello, Dollyonce again even if she was playing Mrs. Rose. Mrs. Rose is an acquaintance fromDolly's old neighborhood.
Hello, Dolly gaveE. Faye Butler the opportunity to wish, dream, and put in motion everything shealways desired to do in this business as a stage actress. Dolly gave her the opportunity to think outside the box, to bebrave, to go after what she wanted. Ephraim is essentially speaking to Dollyand asking her to let go, to go out there and LIVE. Dolly did that for E. Faye as well!   
   
  Thank you E. Faye Butler for the gift you have given to the world and will continue to give!!

With grateful XOXOXs ,

Check out my site celebrating my forthcoming book on Hello, Dolly!
I want this to be a definitive account of Hello, Dolly!  If any of you reading this have appeared in any production of Dolly, I'm interested in speaking with you!

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If you have anything to add or share, please contact me at Richard@RichardSkipper.com.


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               My next blog will be... My Exclusive interview with Will Mead (Replacement Dancer in Carol Channing's First National Tour of Hello, Dolly! 1966)
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This Blog is dedicated to ALL THE DOLLYS and ANYONE who has EVER had a connection with ANY of them on ANY Level!