Hello Dolly!

The final show of the Mount Washington Theatre Company opened tonight and it went well, I thought. Few technical glitches - though the few that were were fairly large - and solid performances all around.

Our Dolly and Vandergelder are actually a married couple who met on this stage. Naturally their chemistry is good. And her performance as wonderful. She didn't overplay the part, as is so easily the case with a role such as this, and her voice was clear and strong. Now, bear in mind that this time my vantage point wasn't the back of the house, but back stage left next to the patch board. I managed the roll-drop (called the Olio, though I don't know why; isn't a roll-drop a roll-drop?) and other flying scenery and also managed the patch box.

You might think that this sounds like light work, however, bear in mind that the olio is 20 by 12 foot painted peice of canvas suspended from the rafters on a large steel cylinder with 20 feet of inch wide steel pipe running along the base of it to keep it stretched. Needless to say, it weighs a fair amount. Flying it in is never an issue. Flying it out requires two people to make it look smooth.

Anyway, pissing and moaning aside, I thought the show did very well. The set was large - almost too large, but that's moslty with specific elements - and looks impressive. There are moments backstage when I'm impressed by how well our dock manager coordinates the whole thing.

Tonight's audience loved specific numbers so much that they applauded before the ends of certain songs - like the title number. In any event, while it's not a perfect show or probably even excellent, it's still very good and solid. There hasn't been a show so far that I wouldn't have reccomended a patron to see.

But that's all for this season folks.

-S.