On the London Stage - Playing It for Real - 'Hello, Dolly!' With a Little Less Flamboyance

NYTimes.com: "Is it possible for a Broadway musical war horse to reinvent itself in the absence of its legendary original lead? Most buoyantly, even against the odds movingly, in the case of the new London revival of “Hello, Dolly!,” the 1964 Jerry Herman musical that for a generation or two of playgoers will be forever associated with the saucer-eyed brio of Carol Channing, who originated the role of the Yonkers matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi. Ms. Channing was replaced many times on Broadway, not least by Ethel Merman, but in theater lore is held up to this day as irreplaceable."