Theater News

Betty Buckley to Star in First National Tour of Hello, Dolly!

Jerry Zaks’s revival of the Jerry Herman-Michael Stewart musical will hit the road later this year.

Betty Buckley will play Dolly Gallagher Levi in the first national tour of the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!
Betty Buckley will play Dolly Gallagher Levi in the first national tour of the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!
(© Scogin Mayo)

Broadway legend Betty Buckley will star as Dolly Gallagher Levi in the first national tour of the Tony Award-winning revival of Hello, Dolly! The tour will kick off October 2 in the Connor Palace at Cleveland's Playhouse Square.

Buckley, best known for her Tony-winning performance as Grizabella in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, joins a roster of show-business luminaries that includes Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey, Ginger Rogers, Ethel Merman, and, in the recent Broadway revival, Bette Midler, Donna Murphy, and currently Bernadette Peters in playing the title character.

Based on Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker, Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly! premiered on Broadway in 1964, starring Carol Channing in the title role. This new Broadway production won four 2017 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical.

Led by four-time Tony Award-winning director Jerry Zaks and choreographed by Tony Award winner Warren Carlyle, the entire creative team of the Broadway production will reprise their roles for the national tour of Hello, Dolly!, including four-time Tony Award winner Santo Loquasto (scenic and costume design), six-time Tony Award winner Natasha Katz (lighting design), Tony Award winner Scott Lehrer (sound design), Andy Einhorn (music direction), Tony Award winner Larry Hochman (orchestrations), Tony Award winner Don Pippin (vocal arrangements), David Chase (dance arrangements), and Telsey Company (casting).

For more information on Hello, Dolly! on Broadway, click here.