David Hyde Pierce will join Bette Midler on Broadway
Next year's eagerly anticipated revival of Hello, Dolly!, starring Tony Award, three-time Emmy, and three-time Golden Globe winner and two-time Oscar nominee Bette Midler, has now found a home and co-star. Tony and four-time Emmy winner David Hyde Pierce will take on the role of Horace Vandergelder, opposite Ms Midler's Dolly Gallagher Levi in the production, which will begin previews on 13 March 2017, before an official opening on 20 April 2017, at Broadway's Shubert Theatre.
The Shubert Theatre's current tenant Matilda The Musical will play its final performance on 1 January 2017.
David Hyde Pierce won a Tony Award in 2007 for his performance in 'Curtains,' and received a Tony nomination in 2013 for 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.' His other Broadway credits include 'La Bête,' 'Accent on Youth,' Monty Python's 'Spamalot,' 'The Heidi Chronicles,' and 'Beyond Therapy.' He also directed the 2015 Broadway premiere of 'It Shoulda Been You.' He is perhaps best known for his four-time Emmy Award-winning TV role as Dr. Niles Crane on "Frasier."
Hello, Dolly! features a book by Michael Stewart, and music & lyrics by Jerry Herman.
Directed by four-time Tony winner Jerry Zaks, this production will feature choreography by Tony winner Warren Carlyle, based on the original work by Gower Champion.
Synopsis: "At the turn of the 20th century, all of New York City is excited because widowed but brassy Dolly Gallagher Levi (Midler) is in town. Dolly makes a living primarily through matchmaking and is currently seeking a wife for grumpy Horace Vandergelder, the well-known half-a-millionaire, but it becomes clear that Dolly intends to marry Horace herself."
Additional casting and creative team information will be announced at a later date.
Hello, Dolly! first premiered on Broadway at the St James Theatre in 1964, picking up a grand total of 10 Tony Awards, including "Best Musical." It has since been revived three times - 1975 at the Minskoff Theatre, and 1978 and 1995 both at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. A film adaptation was released in 1969, directed by Gene Kelly and starring Barbra Streisand.
Bette Midler made her Broadway debut in the 1964 Broadway premiere of 'Fiddler on the Roof.' Since then she has starred in various special events on the Great White Way including a self-titled concert series in 1973 (for which she was awarded a Special Tony Award), 'Bette Midler's Clams on the Half Shell Revue' in 1975, 'Bette! Divine Madness' in 1979-80, and the one-woman play 'I'll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers' in 2013. She also acted as producer for the 2011-12 musical comedy 'Priscilla Queen of the Desert.' On screen she was nominated for the Academy Award for "Best Actress in a Leading Role" for "The Rose" in 1980 and "For The Boys" in 1992. She picked up Golden Globes for those movies as well as for her performance as Mama Rose in the TV adaptation of "Gypsy" in 1994. Other notable screen credits include "Beaches," "Hocus Pocus," "The First Wives Club," and "The Stepford Wives," amongst many others. As a recording artist she has earned three Grammy Awards, along with a further nine nominations and has released a total of 14 studio albums to date.
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