A friend was kind enough to bring me some groceries and stayed to watch this wonderful Barbara Streisand musical, which somehow I’d never seen before. Hello, Dolly! is a delightful movie based on the Broadway play by Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart.

Unlike many stage dramas and comedies, musicals often move well to film since they can take advantage of the broader canvas. In Dolly, for example, we can actually see Yonkers and the contrast between it and Manhattan, something much more difficult to do on stage. Even more vivid, perhaps, is the contrast between Vandergelder’s Feed and Hay Store, which has made Walter Mathau’s character a rich man, and the Harmonia Gardens restaurant, where Vandergelder is simply one among many. Many great songs, especially the number by the waiters at Harmonia Gardens before Dolly enters and then right away, the showcase title song when Streisand comes into the restaurant. We even get Louis Armstrong as the bandleader there, in his last screen performance, doing a verse and chorus with Streisand. Of course all ends well.

Another reason to love the web: listen to Streisand sing a Dolly medley on the Ed Sullivan Show.

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