Dans les années 1890, Dolly Gallagher Levi est veuve et marieuse à New York. Horace Vandergelder, riche marchand de Yonkers, l’engage pour lui trouver une moitié convenable. Tout en s’efforçant de lui présenter quelques partis, Dolly a en réalité déjà décidé que la «demi-fortune» de Horace lui convenait tout à fait. Pour arriver à ses fins, elle s’assure la sympathie des deux employés de la boutique, Cornelius et Barnaby, véritablement harcelés par leur patron peu avenant, et de la nièce de celui-ci, en favorisant leurs rencontres avec leurs bien-aimés respectifs.. aux frais de Mr Vandergelder ! Tout sera bien qui finira bien, après de joyeux quiproquos, des chansons, des danses, des parades, des portes qui claquent, des plateaux qui tournoient, des poulets farcis qui volent, des tartes à la crème, j’en passe et des meilleures.

Avant de créer Hello, Dolly !, Jerry Herman avait écrit les chansons de trois revues et d’un musical à la gloire d’Israël, Milk and Honey, au succès honorable. Il fut engagé pour Hello, Dolly ! sur… audition ! Le compositeur était indéniablement très à l’aise dans l’écriture de chansons destinées à mettre en valeur la personnalité de femmes hors du commun, ce qui devint par la suite son image de fabrique. La chanson-titre «Hello Dolly !», très spectaculaire dans sa construction mélodique, son orchestration et sa mise en scène, est l’occasion d’un numéro de revue avec grand escalier, boys surexcités, robe de lumière et chapeau emplumé, et n’a jamais été surpassée en efficacité. Pourtant, la chanson n’était pas prévue à l’origine et a été rajoutée après les traditionnelles avant-premières de province. Elle est ainsi la seule chanson gratuite du spectacle, car toutes les autres chansons sont complètement intégrées au contexte du livret et font avancer le récit. Le titre devint un triomphe international, repris en particulier par Louis Armstrong et propulsé au sommet des charts, reléguant même en seconde position les Beatles ! Le rôle de Dolly Levi est une aubaine pour les grandes dames du théâtre, et toutes celles qui avaient refusé le rôle pour cause de «vulgarité» furent les premières à pointer leurs plumes lorsqu’il fallut succéder à la créatrice du rôle, Carol Channing : Ginger Rogers, Ethel Merman, Betty Grabble, Dorothy Lamour, etc. perpétuèrent à travers Broadway et l’Amérique entière le succès du spectacle. Hello, Dolly ! fut même présenté en 1967, avec un succès égal et une distribution entièrement noire menée par Pearl Bailey et Cab Calloway . La comédie musicale a également été adaptée dans de nombreuses langues étrangères et fut représentée avec grand succès par Annie Cordy en 1972 en version française.

1 Hello, Dolly! peut-être considéré comme un Top musical

Elle est adaptée de la pièce de Thornton Wilder, The Matchmaker (1955)[1], elle-même inspirée d'une pièce du dramaturge autrichien Johann Nestroy, Einen Jux will er sich machen (1842).

Original Broadway production
The musical, directed and choreographed by Gower Champion and produced by David Merrick, opened on January 16, 1964, at the St. James Theatre and closed on December 27, 1970, after 2,844 performances. Carol Channing starred as Dolly, with a supporting cast that included David Burns as Horace, Charles Nelson Reilly as Cornelius, Eileen Brennan as Irene, Jerry Dodge as Barnaby, Sondra Lee as Minnie Fay, Alice Playten as Ermengarde, and Igors Gavon as Ambrose. Although facing competition from Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand, Hello, Dolly! swept the Tony Awards that year, winning awards in ten categories (out of eleven nominations) that tied the musical with the previous record keeper South Pacific, a record that remained unbroken for 37 years until The Producers won twelve Tonys in 2001.
After Channing left the show, Merrick employed a string of prominent actresses to play Dolly, including Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye, Betty Grable, Pearl Bailey (in an all-black version with Cab Calloway, Mabel King, Clifton Davis, Ernestine Jackson and a young Morgan Freeman), Phyllis Diller, and Ethel Merman after having turned down the lead at the show's inception. Two songs cut prior to the opening — typical Mermanesque belt style songs "World, Take Me Back" and "Love, Look in My Window" — were restored for her run. Thelma Carpenter played Dolly at all matinees during the Pearl Bailey production and subbed more than a hundred times, at one point playing all performances for seven straight weeks. Bibi Osterwald was the standby for Dolly in the original Broadway production, subbing for all the stars, including Bailey, despite the fact that Osterwald was a blue-eyed blonde. Bailey received a Special Tony Award in 1968.
The show received rave reviews, with "praise for Carol Channing and particularly Gower Champion." The original production became the longest-running musical (and third longest-running show) in Broadway history up to that time, surpassing My Fair Lady and then being surpassed in turn by Fiddler on the Roof. The Broadway production of Hello Dolly grossed $27 million. Hello, Dolly! and Fiddler remained the longest-running Broadway record holders for nearly ten years until Grease surpassed them.

Tour and regional Dollys
Dorothy Lamour, Eve Arden, Ann Sothern, Michele Lee, Alice Faye, Edie Adams, and Yvonne De Carlo played the role on tour. Molly Picon appeared as Dolly in a 1971 production by the North Shore Music Theatre of Beverly, Massachusetts. Lainie Kazan starred in a production at the Claridge Atlantic City. Both Tovah Feldshuh and Betsy Palmer played Dolly in productions by the Paper Mill Playhouse. Marilyn Maye also starred in several regional productions and recorded a full album of the score.

Original London production
Hello, Dolly! premiered in the West End at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on December 2, 1965 and ran for 794 performances. Champion directed and choreographed, and the cast starred Mary Martin as Dolly and Loring Smith as Horace Vandergelder, with Johnny Beecher as Barnaby, Garrett Lewis as Cornelius, Mark Alden as Ambrose Kemper and Marilynn Lovell as Irene Molloy. Dora Bryan replaced Martin during the run.

Revivals
The show has been revived three times on Broadway:
• November 6, 1975 - December 28, 1975, Minskoff Theatre - Starring Pearl Bailey and Billy Daniels in an all-black production (42 performances)
• March 5, 1978 - July 9, 1978, Lunt-Fontanne Theatre - Starring Carol Channing & Eddie Bracken. (147 performances)
• October 19, 1995 - January 28, 1996, Lunt-Fontanne Theatre - Starring Carol Channing & Jay Garner (116 performances)
In London's West End, the show has been revived three times:
• 1979 - Starring Carol Channing at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and Shaftesbury Theatre
• January 3, 1984 - April 27, 1984 - Starring female impersonator Danny La Rue as Dolly at the Prince of Wales Theatre
• July 30, 2009 - September 12, 2009 - Starring Samantha Spiro (Dolly) and Allan Corduner (Horace) at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Par. Spiro won the Olivier Award for her performance.

International productions
• The original German production of Hello, Dolly!, with the title character's surname "Wassiljewa" (Vasilyeva) rather than "Levi," starred Tatjana Iwanow (Tatyana Ivanov).
• The first production in Spanish was held in 1967 at the Teatro Nacional in Buenos Aires, starring Argentinian actress and tango singer Libertad Lamarque, who also did it in Mexico.
• In 1996, Mexican diva Silvia Pinal starred in the Spanish language version of the musical, ¿Qué tal Dolly? ("What's Up, Dolly?"), opposite Ignacio Lopez Tarso in Mexico City.
• In 1985, Cuban diva Rosita Fornes played Dolly Levis in a Cuban production of Hello, Dolly by the Teatro Karl Marx in Havana, Cuba. She also played the role in Camaguey city and in a television production under director Manolo Rifat.

Tours
• Mary Martin starred in a US tour, starting in April 1965 and playing in 11 cities. The production also toured in Japan, Korea and Vietnam for a special USO performance for U.S. troops.
• A second US tour began in September 1965, headed by Channing, and ran for two years and nine months. Eve Arden and Dorothy Lamour were replacements.
• In 2008, Anita Dobson toured in the UK.

Act I
Prologue (to the tune of Hello Dolly!)
(Call On Dolly) I Put My Hand In - Dolly and Ensemble
It Takes A Woman - Horace, Cornelius, Barnaby, Ensemble
Put On Your Sunday Clothes - Cornelius, Barnaby, Dolly, Ambrose, Ermengarde, and Ensemble
Ribbons Down My Back - Irene
Motherhood March - Dolly, Irene, Minnie, and Horace
Dancing - Dolly, Cornelius, Barnaby, Irene, Minnie, and Dancers
Before the Parade Passes By - Dolly, Horace, and the Company

Act II
**Elegance - Cornelius, Barnaby, Irene, Minnie
The Waiters' Gallop - Rudolph and the Waiters
Hello, Dolly! - Dolly, Rudolph, Waiters, Cooks
The Polka Contest (replaced "Come and Be My Butterfly" early in the run) - Instrumental (dance)
It Only Takes a Moment - Cornelius and Irene, Prisoners and Policeman
So Long, Dearie - Dolly
Hello, Dolly! (Reprise) - Dolly and Horace
Finale - The Company

Note: The songs "World, Take me Back" and "Love, Look in My Window", both sung by Dolly, were cut before opening but were re-inserted into the show when Ethel Merman played Dolly at the end of the original run. "World Take Me Back" was added after "It Takes A Woman", and "Love, Look in My Window" was added after "Dancing". Also, Horace Vangergelder's solo "Penny in my Pocket", although it received rave responses out of town, was cut prior to the Broadway opening for matters of time.
**Note: The song "Elegance", though credited to Herman, was written by Bob Merrill for the 1957 show New Girl in Town but deleted from the original production.

Génèse

  Implication de Strouse et Adams 

The role of Dolly Levi in the musical was originally written for Ethel Merman, but Merman turned it down, as did Mary Martin (although each eventually played it).[2] Merrick then auditioned Nancy Walker. Eventually, he hired Carol Channing, who then created in Dolly her signature role.[4] Director Gower Champion was not the producer's first choice, as Hal Prince and others (among them Jerome Robbins and Joe Layton) all turned down the job of directing the musical.