WPA to present ‘Hello, Dolly!’ next weekend in Youngwood
Westmoreland Performing Art’s (WPA) Professional Theatre Company will present “Hello, Dolly!” next weekend.
The 1964 musical is based on Thornton Wilder’s 1938 farce “The Merchant of Yonkers,” which Wilder revised and retitled “The Matchmaker” in 1955. The musical follows the story of Dolly Gallagher Levi, a strong-willed matchmaker, as she travels to Yonkers, New York, to find a match for the miserly “well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire” Horace Vandergelder.
The show has had four Broadway revivals, and was also made into the 1969 film that won three Academy Awards.
“The beauty of the role is that it’s so rich and so fun that you can find something in every scene to connect with as an actor,” said Renata Marino, who plays Dolly in the show. “Plus her relationship with every character is written so well, and then you have the music and what she gets to do there, and it becomes an embarrassment of riches for an actor. Suffice to say it has been, and is, one of my dream roles.”
The show will be directed by WPA Artistic Director Tony Marino; Cynthia Baltzer of Latrobe serves the show’s musical director.
Tickets are $22 for adults, $15 for students and $20 for seniors. They can be purchased at The Palace Theatre Box office, at www.thepalacetheatre.org/events/wpa-hello-dolly/ or by calling 724-836-8000.
“Hello, Dolly!” will run from Sept. 22 and 23 at 7:30 p.m. and Sept. 24 at 2:30 p.m. at WCCC’s Science Hall Theatre at its Youngwood campus.