Much-loved musical Hello Dolly! on stage in Kirkcaldy

The full cast of KAOS who are performing Hello Dolly until Saturday. Pic: - Walter Neilson.

And what do you do for a living, Mrs. Levi?” asks Ambrose Kemper in the first scene .

“Some people paint, some sew... I meddle,” replies Dolly and we are on a whirlwind race round New York and Yonkers at the turn of the century as we follow the adventures of that most mischievous matchmaker, Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi.

Hello, Dolly! is the story of Mrs Levi’s efforts to marry Horace Vandergelder, the well-known grumpy half-millionaire.

The dancers in Hello Dolly. Pic credit: Walter Neilson.

Along the way she also succeeds in matching the young and beautiful Widow Molloy with Vandergelder’s head clerk, Cornelius Hackl; Cornelius’s assistant Barnaby Tucker with Mrs Molloy’s shop assistant, Minnie Fay; and the struggling artist Ambrose Kemper with Mr Vandergelder’s weeping niece, Ermengarde.

Mrs Levi tracks Vandergelder to his hay and feed store in Yonkers, then by train back to Mrs Molloy’s hat shop in New York, out into the streets of the city where they are all caught up in the great 14th Street Association Parade.

From there it is on to the most expensive restaurant in town, the Harmonia Gardens, where Dolly is greeted by the waiters, cooks, doormen and wine stewards in one of the most famous songs in the history of American musical comedy, “Hello, Dolly!”

What happens in the end? Dolly gets her man, of course. And he is delighted she caught him.

Anne-Marie Miller as Dolly Levi & Charles Sinclair as Horace Vandergelder. Pic credit: Walter Neilson.

She quotes her late husband Ephraim, “ Money, pardon the expression, is like manure, it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around, encouraging young things to grow.”

Hello Dolly! features such memorable songs as ‘Before the Parade Passes By’, ‘It Only Takes a Moment’, ‘Put on Your Sunday Clothes’, and, of course, the title number, ‘Hello, Dolly!’

Tickets are still available from the Adam Smith Box office on 01592 583302 or through www.onfife.com.

The show, which opened on Tuesday, runs until Saturday.

Deirdre McFarlane as Irene Molloy & Tony Livingstone as Cornelius Hackl. Pic credit: Walter Neilson.

Cast

Dolly Levi – Anne Marie Miller, Ernestina – Claire Johnston, Horace Vandergelder – Charlie Sinclair, Ambrose Kemper – Lee Cummings, Ermengarde – Megan McGeachie, Conelius Hackl – Tony Livingston, Barnaby Tucker – Scott Binnie, Iren Molloy – Deirdre McFarlane, Minnie Fay – Sophie Penman, Mrs Rose – Fiona Brodie, Rudolph Reisenweber – Clark Graham, Judge – Graham Ronald.

Production team

Director – Alasdair Hawthorn, choreographer – Carol Sinclair, musical director – Ronan Corkey, stage manager – John Urquhart.