If you’ve been making yourself a nervous wreck trying to figure out who, if anybody, would replace Bette Midler as she departs from the title role in the smash Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! come 14 January, the suspense is over. It’s none other than Bernadette Peters.
After a short span when the show will be dark, Peters will step into Dolly Levi Gallagher’s shoes on 20 January, and she’ll then have her own official opening night on 22 February.
Another change expected in tandem with the Midler-to-Peters shift will see Broadway, film and television veteran Victor Garber assume the blustery persona of Horace Vandergelder, the object of matchmaker Dolly’s own personal matrimonial strategy. Garber replaces that other Broadway, film and television veteran David Hyde Pierce.
Peters, who started on stage as a child, ascended toward Broadway royalty almost immediately after her break-out role in the 1968 Off-Broadway production of Dames at Sea. It’s a career that has brought her seven Tony nominations and two wins.
Iconic roles she has created range from Mabel Normand in Mack and Mabel to Dot/Marie in Sunday in the Park With George and the Witch in Into the Woods. The two latter roles are part of her long association with Stephen Sondheim.
She has also won acclaim for her star turns in revivals of such classic shows as Gypsy, On the Town and Annie Get Your Gun. Her most recent Broadway appearance was her searing portrayal of Sally in the 2011 revival of Follies, and earlier, in 2010, she replaced Catherine Zeta-Jones as Desiree in the revival of A Little Night Music.
Her first Tony Award as Best Leading Actress in a Musical came in 1986 with Song and Dance. The second was in 1999 for Annie Get Your Gun.
Her Broadway work was interrupted in the late 1970s into the early 1980s by a stint in Hollywood, gracing such films as The Jerk, Pennies From Heaven and the 1982 version of Annie.
Most recently, she has kept busy with television, including her current stint as the sexy chairwoman of a New York symphony orchestra in the Amazon streaming series Mozart in the Jungle, and her long-established appearances as a concert performer.
And as many of you pet lovers surely know, Peters is a long-time advocate for the canine world, being a co-founder and active spokeswoman for Broadway Barks, an animal adoption charity.
Ron Cohen
Readers may also be interested in:
Hello, Dolly! – Sam S. Shubert Theatre, New York – Review
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