Hello, Dolly happened for Tony Parise because of Lee RoyReams.
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Tony Parise |
They had worked in the original 42ndStreet together and they remained good friends. When the summer tour of Dolly was being put together builtaround Madeline Kahn, Paul Blake of St. Louis’ MUNY Theater had a lot to dowith putting it all together. Because of Tony’s connection with Blake, theMUNY, and Reams, it all came together.Tony had heard all kinds of things about Madeline Kahn priorto this production, both good and bad. Therefore, he was a little excited and alittle scared. He had no idea what he was going to encounter. Immediately,however, she was a lovely, lovely person. She was not crazy as he was led tobelieve. She was very sane, very smart, very funny.
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Madeline Kahn |
At the end of the Dolly number,she turned to one of the dancing waiters and said “Hello, Cowboy!” (a nod to Blazing Saddles). In her brilliance andin her genius, in the reprise of Hello,Dolly, she figured out that Ah, SweetMystery of Life goes perfectly over the tune of Hello, Dolly. She sang it as an obbligato and Tony thought it wasthe most wonderful thing. She kept it in period. She was not breaking down thatfourth wall since Ah, Sweet Mystery ofLife is of that period. It was a perfect fit matching who Madeline Kahn iswith her screen persona. It was genius. The most wonderful day of Tony’s theatrical life for Tonywas at Jerry Herman’s townhouse on the East side. Lee Roy and Tony were sittingon the sofa.
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Jerry Herman |

He could listen to him every day of his life. Tony’s thought on why the Dolly number ALWAYS stops the showis all those men! Again, it is the simplicity of Gower Champion.
It is blackand white, block shaped. Then throw in those great male harmonies and Dolly inthat iconic red dress. It is such a work of art.

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Tony at Camp Broadway |
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Courtesy James Darrah (Cornelius Hackl) |
It is so hard for Tony to say what the future audiences of Dolly will be. As Tony has already said,it has such a great book, it’s a great story, and it is so romantic. He feelsthat our society has lost what romance is all about. In the current climate ofBroadway, he’s not sure how it would fit. He thinks it needs to be done,keeping the integrity of it, of course. He does feel that it needs to beupdated as far as the presentation is concerned in order to keep it “current”. He cannot explain that any better than that. He feels that there is a place forthat; it just needs to be rethought a bit.Doing Dolly justreinforced what Tony already knew of the genius of Gower Champion and hissimplicity. Tony has done Hello, Dollyat other places including Trinity High School starring Rudolph Giuliani's and Donna Hanover's daughter,Caroline!

Dolly is certainly among the top five shows of Tony’s career.
It is among the tradition of good old fashioned Broadway. What Gower did wasabsolute genius, but now, Tony thinks of what Gower would have done with today’stechnology and how things are presented. Tony can re-imagine what Gower woulddo now. Tony would honor him by bringing it forward to give it a new life.He feels that the person to do a new revival would beBernadette Peters. He thinks it would be a better fit for her than Gypsy.
As stated earlier, Lee Roy knew the show very well. Tony hadnever done it. He had only seen clips of it. What Tony, therefore, brought tothe production was giving Madeline Kahn the confidence to take on Dolly,
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Channing, Herman, Reams |
She actually told bothTony and Lee Roy after she won the Tony Award in The Sisters Rosensweig that there was no way that she could havedone that show without the experience she had with them in Dolly the previous summer.
It gave her the confidence andpermission to be Madeline Kahn within a role. Tony did not continue to tweak the show after it opened. Ofcourse, they were on a tour. Madeline insisted that Tony go on the tour withher.
He was the only choreographer that was allowed to go along. She reallyfelt more secure with him there. Of course, they had to tweak it for outdoorsand expand it for indoors when they got to Atlanta. They had to pull it in abit. During their tech rehearsal, the passarelle was not attached properly. Inthe middle of the tech
run through, it bolted and shook and Madeline hit thedeck and crawled off the passarelle.

Tonyhad to go out there and walk through the number on the passarelle and did theDolly number for her after they secured the passarelle so that she felt safeenough to go back out there. At the MUNY, there were two giant Percheron horsesthat pulled the streetcar across the back of the stage.
One of them had torelieve himself. Madeline had to step over a river of horse urine and not getit on her crinolines. Those were probably the worst experiences Tony had withthis production.
In St Louis, Tony’s hometown, the guy who played Rudolph gotsick and could not do a couple of performances. There of course were nounderstudies in summer stock. Because Tony was there and knew the show, he gotto play Rudolph at the MUNY. He had been out of Actor’s Equity for years sincehe was now a choreographer/director. It was kind of fun. He had the insider’sview as well. Tony stayed with the entire tour as choreographer, which ishighly unusual. As stated earlier, Madeline refused to let him go. Lee Roy didnot continue beyond Atlanta. Tony took it into all the cities.

Thank you Tony Parise for the gifts 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 desire 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!
Do you have any pics?
If you have anything to add or share, please contact me at Richard@RichardSkipper.com.
NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!
Please do what YOU can to be more aware that words and actions DO HURT...but they can also heal and help!
My next blog will be... My Exclusive interview with Emily Yancy (Irene Molloy in HELLO, DOLLY! with Pearl Bailey and Cab Callaway, 1967 )
Thank you, to all the mentioned in this blog!

Here's to an INCREDIBLE tomorrow for ALL...with NO challenges!
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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!
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