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Hello Dolly! review: Nifty Imelda's a five star Dolly with the musical wattage of a nuclear power station, writes PATRICK MARMION


PATRICK MARMION: Nobody expected anything less of Imelda Staunton. The star of Vera Drake is once again quite simply stunning - this time as matchmaker Dolly Levi.

The star of Vera Drake, who has just won an Emmy nomination for playing the Queen in The Crown, is once again quite simply stunning – this time as inveterate matchmaker Dolly Levi in Dominic Cooke’s hearty revival of Jerry Herman’s 1964 musical. Her beloved reputation is celebrated by the joyful title number in the Harmonia Gardens restaurant (famously performed alongside Louis Armstrong and spinning-top waiters in the 1969 movie starring Barbra Streisand as Dolly and Walter Matthau as Horace). Bill Deamer’s choreography could do with the escalation of a cartwheel or tap routine, while Rae Smith’s stage design, creating movement with a huge turning-scroll of architectural etchings of 19th century New York, often feels oddly empty.

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Nifty Imelda