COLLINSTON — There’s a reason “Hello, Dolly!” has remained a favorite of community theater companies across the world. It couples a great story with an irresistible score.
Based on Thornton Wilder’s farce “The Matchmaker,” “Hello, Dolly!” is the story of a meddlesome widow named Dolly Levi who insists on bringing romance into people’s lives, including a wealthy bachelor named Horace Vendergelder whom she has her sights on.
“Hello, Dolly!” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays, July 27-Aug. 18, with 2:30 p.m. matinees on Aug. 4 and 11, at Old Barn Community Theatre, 3605 W. Bigler Road. Tickets are $7-$25 and can be purchased at www.oldbarn.org or at the door.
“The show has a good theme of living in the moment, but you have to look for the happy moments,” said director Heather Gleason of North Logan, noting one of the show’s most famous numbers is the love song “It Only Takes a Moment.”
The Jerry Herman musical also includes several other rollicking numbers, Gleason said, including “Put on Your Sunday Clothes,” “Before the Parade Passes By,” “Elegance” and “Hello, Dolly!”
The Old Barn cast includes more than two dozen performers and features Teresa Jones of Smithfield as Dolly Levi; Marc Jensen of Preston, Idaho, as Horace Vandergelder; Sarah Rebekah Hall of Wellsville as Irene; Nick Hall of Logan as Cornelius; Kayli Nielsen of Smithfield as Minnie Fay; Chris Kidd of Logan as Barnaby; Tasha Bush of River Heights as Ermengarde; and Joseph Wall of Hyrum as Ambrose.
The show’s opening will be preceded by a Barn Burner Dutch Oven Dinner at 6 p.m. on July 26. The event serves as a fundraiser for the community theater, and includes dinner and a dress rehearsal preview of the musical. Tickets are $15.