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On Bernadette Peters

 No one is asking me to write more about "Hello, Dolly," but that's just fine. I'm doing it anyway.


Beyond "I Put My Hand In," there is one additional great number in this show. It's "So Long, Dearie"--it's essentially a Taylor Swift song. In a classic Taylor Swift song--"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," "Babe," "Dear John"--Swift narrates the story of a bad relationship, via parenthetical references, while also formalizing her "kiss-off message."

I'm really gonna miss you picking fights--
And me. Falling for it. Screaming that I'm right.
And you would hide away and find your piece of mind--
With some indie record that's much cooler than mine.

From the canonical "Dear John":

Long were the days when my nights once revolved around you.
Counting my footsteps--
Praying the floor won't fall through....again....

Jerry Herman has fun with objects, subjects, adverbs:

Wave your little hand and whisper, So long, Dearie.
Dearie shoulda said SO LONG so long ago....

The history of the relationship is conveyed through one great line (a line that Bernadette Peters makes a meal of):

On those cold winter nights--
You can snuggle up with your cash register.
It's a little lumpy.....but it rings!

I found this song puzzling when Carol Channing performed it--I found Channing's work grating, so the thought of being without Dolly did not seem so terrible. But Bernadette Peters is a different proposition. If Dolly was her last major role on Broadway (a Broadway that knows a Sondheim revue is not a "real" musical)....then she went out on a high note.

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