How 'WALL-E reinvigorated 'Hello Dolly!'

Musical director and producer Curt Parry takes an insider's look at Naperville Central High School's production of "Hello Dolly!"

Every year, the responsibility of choosing the musical for Naperville Central High School falls on the faculty production team. There are many considerations and it is rarely a simple task.

Choosing this year's show was just as challenging, until my wife and I decided to see a summer movie. We went to "WALL-E," the successful Disney creation about a futuristic, love-smitten robot, built for the mundane task of organizing Earth's garbage. It is a brilliant movie that opens (quite curiously) with music from "Hello Dolly!"

The very first frame begins with the "Dolly" character Cornelius singing, "out there, there's a world outside of Yonkers," a lyric from the showstopper "Put On Your Sunday Clothes."

I tapped my foot right along with the song - thinking very little of it - until the movie turned later to yet another "Dolly" tune, "It Only Takes Moment."

As the film progressed, and "Dolly" songs continued to be reprised, a sudden realization came over me - I knew we should produce, "Hello Dolly!" as this year's NCHS show.

This marks the first time we are repeating a musical at Naperville Central High School, at least in my 24 years as musical director here. It was also the first musical drama director Mike Doman and I produced together in 2000.

Besides a totally different cast (the first high school cast would now be in their mid- to late-20s) the production team includes Nick France as technical director, Lindsay Swanson as choreographer, and Kris Visher as costume designer. Central's cast and crew numbers over 60, and the show is accompanied by a full 20-piece pit orchestra with keyboard accompaniment by James Rennie.

Based on "The Matchmaker" by Thornton Wilder, "Hello Dolly!" is the tale of Dolly Levi, the well-known matchmaker who, as well as pairing various other characters, tries her best to get the match she wants - the half-a-millionaire, Horace Vandergelder.

My research indicates the show ran for 2,844 performances and briefly held the record for the longest-running Broadway production before it was overtaken by "Fiddler on the Roof."

During the Broadway run, "Dolly" star Carol Channing was succeeded by the likes of Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye, Betty Grable, Pearl Bailey, Phyllis Diller and Ethel Merman.

The 1969 film version featured Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau. The Louis Armstrong character was added to that movie and does not appear in the Broadway version.

It may be interesting to note that the new version of "Dolly" offers an updated and transposed version for high school girls playing the part. The music is arranged in a more accessible key for these younger girls who should not be singing like the mature, low-voice altos in the preceding list. The pit exchanges their music book with the optional material when it comes time to play for Dolly's musical numbers.

Composer, Jerry Herman (to his delight) said that the movie "WALL-E" has created new interest in productions of "Hello, Dolly!" The composer told Variety: "The movie will only make it more vital, more of an event, and I think a lot of kids would come and see where those songs came from."

Other popular musical numbers include: "Before the Parade Passes By," "Elegance," "It Takes a Woman," and the title number, "Hello Dolly!" Naperville Central looks forward to entertaining a new, or returning, audience for its production this weekend.

Some of Broadway's most memorable songs and characters are contained in our production. The students are rising to the occasion in a grand style, and their effort has been educational for them and inspirational for me.

I am always amazed that this high school cast is re-creating from the same material that Broadway used when it first appeared there. I have the very wonderful job of helping it all come together. I know you will enjoy the results!