Channing Charms Original And Full Of Zest, Channing Puts Her Comedic Talents To Full Use In Character Of ‘Dolly’

“Hello, Dolly!” through Sunday, July 9, at the Spokane Opera House; call 325-SEAT for tickets

As I was sitting in the audience of “Hello, Dolly!” I had a feeling I don’t have too often. I felt lucky.

I felt lucky that I was seeing this legendary musical the way it ought to be seen: with Carol Channing kicking up her heels in the title role.

We’ll never get to see Ethel Merman do “Gypsy!” and we’ll never get to see Rex Harrison in “My Fair Lady.” But, because Carol Channing is still almost as good as new at age 74, we can still see one of the legendary performances in musical theater, almost as if the intervening 30 years never happened.

I caught this national tour a few weeks ago in Salt Lake City, the better to write a timely review for the Spokane run, which starts tonight. This top-drawer production (it hits Broadway this fall) deserves the accolades it has been getting around the country. It’s a bright, energetic, happy bit of musical fluff which has a charismatic performance at its center.

Many of these “aging legend” tours have fairly low ambitions. Merely seeing the star in the flesh is enough. This tour is not like that. Channing truly dominates the stage, exactly as she must have done in 1964 when the show opened on Broadway.

This is a three-ovation performance. Channing gets an ovation when she drops her newspaper and shows her face for the first time; she gets an ovation after her high-stepping “Hello, Dolly!” number; and she gets another one at the curtain call.

Granted, she might have been a little more spry in 1964. But she can still gallop around the circular runway, and she still has few equals for sheer comic timing and chutzpah. This is a woman who loves to make people laugh, and when she milks the crowd, leaning toward us with that ingratiating ear-to-ear grin, we don’t get the impression that she is pandering to us. We get the impression that she is grateful for us.

Her voice, which has always sounded like gravel, now sounds even deeper, like chunks of broken asphalt. In fact, the first few times she pronounced the name of “Horace Van-derrr-gelder,” dragging it out for comic effect, she sounded exactly like Walter Matthau. You can’t say that about too many actresses.

At other times, with her wide, rubberized mouth, she reminded me of Lucille Ball, come back to life.

But she is unmistakably Carol Channing, as original and unduplicatable as W.C. Fields or Stan Laurel. She is, above all, an excellent comedian, playing every line for maximum comic effect.

“Some women paint and some sew,” says Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi, matchmaker extraordinaire of Yonkers, N.Y. “I meddle.”

Channing is not the only fine performer in this show. Michael DeVries, as Cornelius Hackl, is a talented physical comedian who also is capable of bringing tears to the eyes with his touching rendition of “It Only Takes a Moment.” His pal Barnaby is played by Cory English, who has the charm of a shaggy puppy-dog. This particular puppy dog is also a fine dancer and actor.

Jay Garner makes a good, blustering Horace Vandergelder and Lori Ann Mahl and Florence Lacey are delightful as Minnie Fay and Irene Molloy.

I was a bit disappointed in some of the sets, which tended to be routine painted flats. However, the Harmonia Gardens restaurant set, with its staircase, is impressive.

The costuming is inspired, and Channing’s costumes are particularly memorable. Her long, brightly colored gowns give her the look of a Roman candle, or should I say, an eternal flame.

The choreography adheres closely to the original Gower Champion conception, which is to say that it is terrific. There are a number of show-stoppers, including “Before the Parade Passes By” and the phenomenal precision-tray routine by the waiters in “The Waiters’ Gallop.”

But the number that will stay in my memory is the title song, in which the employees of the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant welcome Dolly Levi back where she belongs.

Channing sashays around that runway, belting out the song more like a blueswoman than a Broadway star, and soaking in the adoration of the crowd.

It’s a thrilling moment, and one that anybody who loves the classic traditions of musical comedy will not want to miss.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo