Hello, Dolly! takes over MHS PAC this weekend
SUBMITTED PHOTO/KATIE ERNST
A crowd gathers at the Yonkers train station ready to make a trip to New York City to find love. The scene comes from the Second Stage production of Hello, Dolly!, which takes the stage this weekend.
For 11 years, the Maryville Young Players have provided a summer camp-style musical theater experience for students up to the ninth grade, but there weren’t too many similar experiences for older kids or adults. This year, MYP remedied that.
MYP’s Second Stage was created for people who graduated out of MYP, adults who never got the chance, and for just about anyone else, and for the first show, the organizers decided to put on Hello, Dolly!
The play takes place at the turn of the 20th century in both Yonkers and New York, New York, as widow-turned-matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi tries to set up well-known hay and feed magnate Horace Vandergelder on a series of dates to try and find a wife. However, Levi’s plan is to marry Vandergelder herself, which sets off a comedic run of events.
The show was iconic when it premiered in 1964 and continues to be a cornerstone theatrical production today. Having won Best Musical the year it came out, Best Revival in 2017, and numerous accolades for individual actors and actresses, Hello, Dolly! was quite a challenge for the new community theater group, especially on MYP’s truncated three-week rehearsal schedule.
But director Marilyn Rhea said her actors were ready for that challenge.
“We have risen to the occasion in a way I never expected and put in some amazing work,” Rhea said. “This isn’t for the faint of heart, whether you’re the director, an actor, or on the production team, because it’s very demanding.
“But because we worked on a truncated schedule, we compressed the experience to the point that it was very strong and intense. It’s not easy, as I watched people backstage putting multiple hours in getting the space ready for us during the day and shutting it down at night, but it’s full of joy. It’s definitely a labor of love.”
Rhea had previously directed the show while teaching at Maryville High School. She said this time around was quite different from that experience.
“This is such a sophisticated show, so well-written with great music,” Rhea said. “To direct adults in these parts who have that life experience and developed talent adds a new dimension to it for me. I loved working with the high school kids, but this has been very special.”
The general idea of the show, Rhea noted, was that of resilience, and that all starts with the titular Dolly Gallagher Levi. Maryville High School vocal music director Vanessa Parsons, who said this was a role she has wanted to play for a very long time, is bringing the challenging lead role to life.
“I’ve always loved theatre, from the time I saw Hello, Dolly! with Carol Channing at the Starlight Theater when I was three years old,” Parsons said. “I like being a director, but I missed being on the stage myself.
“What’s amazing to see in community theatre is that we found a lot of talented people throughout the community. It’s great to work with these people and watch them shine as they use their talents.”
Because of the sheer size of the role, Dolly was one of two roles which were cast before the auditions. The other was that of Horace Vandergelder, a role which went to Parsons’ husband, Northwest Missouri State University grants coordinator Tye Parsons.
“Horace is a widower, and because of his life experiences, he’s a bit crusty,” Tye Parsons said. “He’s consumed by making money over enjoying life, and he wants to get married again not out of love, but out of having someone to help around the house.
“I enjoyed doing theatrical productions in high school, but I didn’t do too much after that. When we started MYP, I thought — as many others did — that something like this for adults would be great, so when we got the chance to do it, we went for it.”
The cast is littered with several MYP graduates. Wyman Wheeler, a North Andrew High School sophomore who aged out of MYP last year as Captain Hook in Peter Pan Jr., plays the role of Barnaby Tucker.
“Barnaby is a wide-eyed youth, very open to follow his buddy Cornelius to any adventure,” Wheeler said. “He’s also cautious, as he wants to make sure the pair isn’t caught by Mr. Vandergelder as they wander around New York City. He’s optimistic, but warily so.”
In the show, Tucker falls for Mrs. Molloy’s apprentice Minnie Fay, brought to life by Sarah Smith. The Knox College music major also went through MYP before graduating from Maryville High School, and said she was excited to get back into musical theater.
“At Knox, they don’t have musical theater; they just have a theater department and I’m not in it yet,” Smith said of the Galesburg, Illlinois-school. “It’s exciting to be in this show and to see the work people are putting into it.
“My character, Minnie, is a little naïve, with only about an eighth-grade education and serving as an apprentice in the hat shop. She’s excited for adventure, but she can also be fooled very easily.”
The show is also filled with community members, including stay-at-home mom Christy Pearce, who plays Vandergelder’s niece Ermengarde. Pearce said her role emulates everything she doesn’t want to be.
“Ermengarde is every mom’s worst nightmare in that she doesn’t say many intelligible words and cries a lot,” Pearce said. “No parent wants to see their kid become an Ermengarde.
“It had been 15 years since my last show, but the last show I did was a reader’s theatre-type show. Interestingly enough, my character there was engaged to a man who was played by my real-life then-fiance, Jim, and in this show, Ermengarde falls in love with Ambrose, who Jim plays.”
Pearce wasn’t the only one coming off a long hiatus from the stage. For Natalie Arnold, a Maryville resident who commutes to St. Joseph to serve as principal at Oak Grove Elementary School, it had been nearly two decades.
“My last performance was in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which we did in 1998 here at Maryville High School,” Arnold said. “I performed with Celebration Singers, Madraliers, and the wind symphony at Northwest, but I hadn’t stepped on the stage in that long.
“My character, Irene Molloy, is a widow looking for a new husband to escape the millinery business, but she’s also ready for a new adventure and comes to realize she’s ready for a new love. It’s amazing to be back on stage, especially with the talent we have here in Maryville.”
The cast takes the stage this Saturday at 7 p.m. and this Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the Lee and Nina Schneider Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Maryville High School. Tickets cost $12 — $10 for students — and are available online, at the Maryville Hy-Vee supermarket, and at the door an hour before each performance.
Tye Parsons said that was a pretty good deal.
“First off, it’s a great show and very popular right now,” Tye Parsons said. “But more than that, it’s rare to see this kind of talent right here in Maryville.
“You’re getting this quality show right here, you don’t have to go to St. Joseph or Kansas City to see it. For $12, that’s not too bad.”
Rhea echoed that sentiment, adding on that audiences would be blown away by what they see and hear.
“It’s visually stunning, very colorful and full of movement and joy,” Rhea said. “The music will lift your soul, and despite the fact it takes place in 1900, the story is still timely.
“On top of that, you’ll get the opportunity to see your friends, family, and people from around the community in a whole different way. It will be an eye-opening experience.”
SUBMITTED PHOTO/KATIE ERNST
Dolly Gallagher Levi (Vanessa Parsons) looks wistfully to the distance while talking to her dead husband Ephraim about falling for Horace Vandergelder. Hello, Dolly! is the first production by the Maryville Young Players: Second Stage, which includes actors from around the community of all ages.