Imelda Staunton steps into the character immortalised by Barbra Streisand and proves there is nothing like a Dame for remaking a role in her own image. She joins the illustrious roll call of Dollys that include Carol Channing, Ethel Merman and Bette Midler.
Director Dominic Cooke dials down the Jewishness of the Jerry Herman/Michael Stewart story of professional meddler and All-American matchmaker Dolly Levi who can sort out everyone’s love lives except her own.
The vast Palladium stage is dressed with huge sets that rise and fall, trolley cars and a steam train that chuffs from Yonkers to New York City and a moving video backdrop of streets and buildings. It is impressive but it occasionally dwarfs the performers, particularly in the first half.
Dolly’s elaborate scheme to catch the rich Horace Vandergelder (Andy Nyman) and turn him from miserable miser to a man worth marrying while attending to his perpetually anxious daughter Ernestina (Jodie Jacobs, whose relentless crying is beyond irritating) and her beau keeps the motor running. But it is the adjacent story of Vandergelder’s two young employees Barnaby and Cornelius (Tyrone Huntley & Harry Hepple, both superb) and their misadventures in the big city that snare the attention.
Jenna Russell is a considerable asset, bringing emotional weight to lovelorn hatmaker Irene Molloy, particularly in the melancholy optimism of Ribbons Down My Back. Nice work, too, from Emily Lane as her assistant Minnie.
The big chorale numbers Before the Parade Passes By, It Only Takes a Moment and the title track are conveyed with proficient showmanship but the best numbers are the less conspicuous songs such as Elegance and So Long, Dearie.
The choreography lacks focus and there is an untidiness in the corps that will tighten up in time; the dancing waiters – beautifully caparisoned as they are in magenta velvet – requires some serious torquing. But there is no denying the powerhouse performance of Imelda Staunton who embraces the role with characteristic energy and intelligence, bringing light and shade to Dolly that only a serious actor at the top of her game could achieve.