How does playwright Thornton Wilder make philosophy entertaining? Wilder’s Dolly the Matchmaker puts her actions where her philosophizing is, and Horace Vandergelder--his fortune, and everyone connected with him and it--will never be the same. What fun for us to watch and learn!
The play starts a third year of Asolo Repertory’s five-year study of the American character in Yonkers, NY, circa 1900. Wealthy, gruff merchant Horace Vandergelder (commanding Steve Hendrickson) works against daughter Ermengarde (Andrea Adnoff, lovesick) marrying artist Ambrose (Paul Herbig, determined to elope). Ermengarde being sent to New York to romance-abetting relative Flora Van Huysen (Carolyn Michel, delightful in and out of confusion) turns out to be Horace’s fine mistake.
Tightwad Horace himself wants to wed widowed milliner Irene Malloy (Olivia Williamson, discouraged though desirous of adventure), thus gaining a housemistress. (Tyla Abercrumbie’s shuffling maid isn’t making the grade anymore.) Horace employs Dolly Levi to accomplish the match, but she concocts a scheme to snag him and see his assets properly distributed--like manure, she says, that makes things grow.
Meanwhile, Buddy Haardt’s stalwart Cornelius Hackle, Horace’s underpaid, overworked chief clerk, decides to take advantage of the boss’ absence. He and timid underling Barnaby (Owen Teague, adorable) overcome their trepidation to seek an adventure including their first kisses in NYC. With caution abandoned, they meet and treat Irene and her young assistant Minnie (sweet Allie Henkel) to an extravagant fling at a leading restaurant. There Horace will also meet the romantic alternative to Irene that Dolly arranges. Horace’s wallet gets around as much as all who, in grand-old American style, take chances for self-fulfillment. Director Peter Amster puts his skill as a choreographer to optimum use in keeping characters and situations on the move. He sees to it that with not only their downstage speeches but also pivotal conversations directed at us, we become part of each scene, taken into the action, almost as Dolly’s co-conspirators. Asolo publicity tells us not to expect Jerry Herman songs from his show based on The Matchmaker. But music introduces this production and continues in the restaurant with a soulful contribution by Brian Owen’s Gypsy Musician. There, as well, we see a bit of dancing and later Irene, Minnie, Cornelius, and Barnaby harmonizing “After the Ball” in amusing Barbershop Quartet style.
Low comedy comes in the shape of Douglas Jones’s crafty Malachi Stack, a resourceful scamp of an assistant to Horace’s parental scheme. He’s a natural to team up with the disillusioned, dirty Cabman played by almost unrecognizably made-up, popular Rep actor David Breitbarth.
A sepia print of old New York backs Russell Metheny’s up-front scenery, all movable under a sort of see-through cage. Sets ride up and back, side to side, from Horace’s store to Irene’s shop to Harmonia Gardens (with room-dividing solid screen) to Flora’s ornate living room. In moves between various parts of New York, romantic characters take flight across the proscenium, keeping up momentum.
Lighting reflects both characters’ situations and the times of day, shining on Virgil C. Johnson’s array of detailed, often layered, multi-hued period costumes. There are no don’ts among the inventive hair-dos. A few extravagant hats become humorous props.
All in all, Thornton Wilder’s and Asolo Rep’s The Matchmaker is right on the money!
Answer: When he embodies it in widow Dolly Levi’s confidences to us about the relationship between money and happiness, about how spreading the first to the young can bring about growth of the second, and about how both can be intertwined with success in romance and love.
