Sarah Boone: Theatre Jacksonville executive director takes us behind the scenes of the theater company's 2009 Production of Hello, Dolly starring Harvey Evans and Pamela Myers!

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Harvey Evans as Horace Vandergelder (Courtesy: Sarah Boone)

Theatre Jacksonville presented a concert version of Jerry Herman's Tony Award-winning Hello, Dolly! Feb. 14, 2009 at the Harold K. Smith Playhouse. Directed by Jean Tait, the concert co-starred Pamela Myers (Company) as Dolly Levi and Harvey Evans (Follies, Sunset Boulevard) as Horace Vandergelder.
Sarah Boone, Executive Director ofTheater Jacksonville in Florida, who produced this concert version of Hello, Dolly in 2009, has a love of Hello, Dolly that began when she sawthe film version starring Barbra Streisand when she was a young girl.That is a starting off point for so many and, therefore, the film shares a verysignificant place in Dolly’s legacy.Sarah was very small the first time she saw it and sheremembers it as being huge! She saw it the way it was meant to be seen, on thewide screen, and it was so much fun. As an adult, she has seen it on a smallerscreen, the television screen, and through different eyes. She is thinking shewas six or seven the first time she saw it. Although “many people” desire tofind fault with Streisand’s performance, Sarah actually enjoys her in the role.

Sarah Boone as Irene Molloy (Courtesy Sarah Boone)

Sarah grew up in the south and was a musical theater kidfrom the word “go”. She has worked her whole life in theater. She eventuallywent to New York and studied with Herbert Berghoff and Donna McKechnie at HBStudios. She has done stock and dinner theaters. She ended up going back andgetting an arts management degree at a later time in her life. She continued towork in some regional theaters in New York and got her current position atTheater Jacksonville which was originally founded in 1919. In 1926, it was incorporatedas The Little Theatre of Jacksonville; dollars and land required for theconstruction of the theatre's historic San Marco facility donated by Carl S.Swisher. It is one of the few remaining theaters of that movement. As of thiswriting, they are celebrating their ninety-third consecutive season. They arealso one of the ten community based theaters in the country. It started out asa community theater and continues to this date. As been talk of goingprofessional over the years but it has remained a community theater. They arehoused in a facility that was built in 1938. It is also part of the historicregistry. It has a proscenium stage and they do a season of five musicals andplays. They have a summer classic. They have a guerilla/second stage offering.Although they actually don’t have a “second stage”, they squish it in. Theyhave done a cabaret/musical benefit every year since Sarah began there (2000)which leads us to their association with Hello,Dolly! They had been doing a musical event every year around Valentine’sDay. In the past, they had had Donna McKechnie, Linda Purl, and Amanda McBroomamong others. In 2009, they came up with doing a concert version of Hello, Dolly! It, of course, is based onThe Matchmaker. Sarah thought thereis no better Valentine story. 

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Paterno

They started out on this journey with Hello, Dolly! Harvey Evans had played Barnaby early in his career butnever played Horace. Pamela Myers had never done Dolly. They came down toheadline for Theater Jacksonville and the rest of the cast and chorus was madeup of locals. The cast consisted of fifty people total.The casting of Harvey and Pamela was Sarah’s idea. They bothjumped at the opportunity. They also jumped to work with each other. She isfriends with both. The local casting was pretty much handpicked. There wasoutstanding local talent that they were familiar with. When the curtain roseand the stage lights illuminated  TheatreJacksonville’s Harold K. Smith Playhouse in San Marco for the full concertperformance of Hello, Dolly, itmarked the directorial return of Jean Tait with musical direction by EugeneGwozdz and choral direction by Rachel Clifton. 

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Paterno

Eugene had worked with TheaterJacksonville for several years. He came down and spent a week working on theshow prior to the concert. He got the musicians together and it was a reallyglorious event. Jean has a terrific sensibility about musical theater and,about this particular production, about what would work most for a concertversion. She was able to really identify what was needed and made sure theykept the most important things.
They started having choral rehearsals in January. They didit very much like the Encores series in New York meaning they had scripts inhand for the concert. They were very familiar with the scripts but they didcarry them as a safety net. They pretty much knew their music. The actingrehearsals took place that week leading up to the Saturday night performance.Harvey Evan, Pamela Myers and Jean Tait came in the Friday night of the weekbefore.  They rehearsed Saturday morningand every evening that week leading up to performance. There were sixrehearsals that included Harvey and Pamela. They had a full dress rehearsal onFriday night.When it comes to Jerry Herman, Sarah believes he is agenius. He has given the world a body of work that will live on. Look at Hello, Dolly! It is a period piece. Itis also timeless. It worked in the instance of Theater Jacksonville without thecostuming and production values usually associated with Dolly. Sarah knew this was going to be a great Dolly even beforethey were in rehearsals. The fact that they were doing this on Valentine’s Dayreally added to that and Sarah knew it was going to be fine. There are always somedetractors who say, “Oh, you’re going to do this old show? WHY are you doingthis old show?” Sarah knew every single person that was going to be in theshow. They were all pros.    Harvey was a wonderful Horace. It was so wonderful to be onstage with him because of his wealth of experience in Music Theater AND Hello, Dolly! He goes back to the firstproductions including the first national tour with Carol Channing. He was justdelightful.Pamela is always just amazingly good. The most fun foreveryone was getting to work with these two pros. When you work with someone ofthat caliber, it steps your game up. Everyone with this company stepped away werefulfilled on a level that they had not been before. This production honored the script wholeheartedly; nothingwas added or left out. There have not been many concert versions of this show. Itwas very special. They got picked up on Playbill and TheaterMania and becauseof Harvey and Pamela’s involvement, there were articles nationally. That wasvery cool for Theater Jacksonville. It was done very traditionally. Because itwas a concert version, they were not in costumes (except for the famed Dolly gown). Because of the way the entireshow was presented, Sarah doesn’t feel they lost anything by not having one ofthe most iconic images: Dolly’s iconic entrance down the stairs of the HarmoniaGardens. Dolly/Pamela made her entrance from behindthe male chorus and the orchestra.    Sarah is still very pleased with that production and,looking back, would not have done anything differently. Sarah also played IreneMolloy which is the only “legit” character in the show. Sarah worked to makethat integration seem seamless. Eileen Brennan was so rich vocally when she didit originally. Finding her own sound in that part and to integrate into thewhole show was very important to Sarah. When she prepared for it, she didn’tdesire to come off as an outsider. The cast also included Michael Lipp, and Juan Unzueta. Onething that she took from this production was the ability to rely on the beautyand simplicity of a well crafted piece of theater. They had to minimize thingsto make it work. Instead of having a chorus of dancing waiters, they had astand out guy come out and do an aerial routine. This production was done in avery small pace. It was about choosing even the most precise choices withoutlosing the intent of the original creative team. She will not saw it wasflaw-free, but it was a lot of fun from an actresses’ and a producersstandpoint. They did not have any crisis with the show. There was a lot ofplanning that went on to make it go smooth. Everything was in place by the timethey got to production week.Even without the production values usually associated with Dolly,the title song still stopped the show. How could it not with a bunch of mensinging? There is something about her going down the line with those boys. Itis so endearing and Dolly is a survivor and you have all of these people lovingher and welcoming her back. It just fills your heart.          Because of the size and scope of a full scale production, itis not currently in the future cards for this theater. It also has only beenthree years, as of this writing, since this production. Sarah believes the major impact that Dolly has had on audiences for the past fifty years is joy.
   Cast List  Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi.... Pamela Myers
Horace Vandergelder .... Harvey Evans
Irene Molloy .... Sarah Boone
Cornelius Hackl .... Michael Lipp
Barnaby Tucker .... Juan Unzueta
Minnie Fay .... Miranda Lawson
Ermengarde .... Kellie Wyatt
Ambrose Kemper .... Tyler Ross
Ernestina .... Amy Noel Canning
Rudolph Reisenweber .... Jim Goodell
Judge White .... Karl Rogers
chorus ...

MaryBeth Antoinette, Joel DeCandio, Andrew Dickson

Matt Fischer, Renee Freeman, Erin Gawera

Claire Hibbard, Lee Hamby, Soo Young Jeong

Sung Su Kim, Tanner Lane, Lana Nichols, Lee O'Quinn

Rebekah Price, Chris Robertson, Mary Ann Vaccaro     

 Photos courtesy of Sarah Boone and Jeremy Paterno

Thank you Sarah Boone 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!


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


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  Here's to an INCREDIBLE tomorrow for ALL...with NO challenges!
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Richard Skipper, Richard@RichardSkipper.com                            
 This Blog is dedicated to ALL THE DOLLYS and ANYONE who has EVER had a connection with ANY of them on ANY Level!