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Call on Bernie! Go Inside the Re-Opening Night of HELLO, DOLLY with the Great Bernadette Peters!
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Nov 3, 2022
'It's all about love. The audience ends up with an open heart and it is the most beautiful place to be right now in the world.' That's how the great Bernadette Peters feels about her new Broadway gig. Last night, two-time Tony Award celebrated her much anticipated return to Broadway as Dolly Gallagher Levi in the most successful and beloved production of the year, the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Revival of Hello, Dolly!.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World. Two-time Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters
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is back where she belongs in Hello Dolly! at the Shubert Theatre and we caught up
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with her and the company on opening night here at Sardi's. Welcome back to Broadway
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Thank you. To the Schubert. How does it feel? I know. It feels great. I love that theater. And what a production this is
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The Jerry Zaks put together and the cast is brilliant and most of them stayed
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and Bette set up a beautiful show and it's such a wonderful character
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I went last night, I saw you, I was like in the second row yesterday. I had the best time
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What are you enjoying the most about taking on this iconic role? You know, it's so well written
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It's just a beautifully constructed show that Jerry Herman and Mike Stewart
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and Gower Champion did originally and they took the Thornton Wilder book
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and they took the best parts of it and they turned it into
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beautifully constructed. And the character is just so wonderful. She decides to rejoin the human race after being a widow for about 10 years and then goes about doing it And she a matchmaker so she always you know trying to put people together and do the right thing and make people happy basically
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And just playing with this cast, I mean, sharing the stage with Victor Garber, what's that like with Cade and Gavin and the new kids
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Yeah, well, Victor is a dream come true. You couldn't have a better person to share the stage with
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and he's a wonderful Horace and we just love each other and appreciate each other
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and it's just terrific, support each other. I bet you have like Kate
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I mean, Kate adores you. Oh my God, Kate. I was praying she would stay
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because she's so brilliant in the role and she did and I love her too
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She's just great. What's it like singing the songs of Jerry Herman? You've had that obviously before with Mac and Mabel
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and of course Michael Stewart and Gary Champy. What's it like singing his songs
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just so moving. It's such an uplifting show, and I don't mean that in a corny way
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It's all about love and open. When you come to the show, you have to open your heart
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The audience ends up with an open heart. It's the most beautiful place to be right now in the world
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Finally, when you took your bow tonight, do you remember what you were thinking? No, I was just happy. I was just looking at everybody and shaking hands and being thrilled
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that we could all be in this beautiful theater together and enjoying what just happened on the stage
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What's it like sharing the stage with Bernadette Peters and Victor Garber
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Then we'll get into your other new cast member. I can't handle it. I can't even handle it that Bernadette looks at me
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and talks to me because to me, she has been the person who I look up to for my entire life She the person I tried to sound like to emulate Sunday in the Park with George I told her this Sunday in the Park with George is my favorite musical It meant so much to me growing up
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and that great performances video that I, I think I sat Graham down, my husband
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and I said, if you don't like this, we can't date anymore. And it was a test
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And he turned to me and said, oh, I love it. And I said, thank God. And now look where you are
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I know, and here we are. this is the pinnacle of of of a professional's career is to come to broadway and and perform and
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uh i feel like i'm on cloud nine you know i'm on i'm floating on on clouds right now and i feel so
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blessed to be here and i also feel so loved by everyone who's in the cast and the creatives and
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you know scott rudin who's who's who's given me this wonderful opportunity and put me up in an
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amazing apartment and kind of just made me feel worthy which is so great and you know when you
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come to a country and you don't know anyone and and it's it's great to have that support from
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everyone here and that's what's so great this broadway is a community and that's so magic and
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it's so special and i'm loving every second of it i really am what a way to get here
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bernadette peters i mean look at this hello dolly right i mean bernadette peters is just incredible
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from day one she's been a leading lady and a leading lady or a leading man doesn't just
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consist of someone who does a good job in with the performance it also consists of someone who
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leads the company not just the show and she does that with such grace and it's such a joy to be
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around someone who is a star in every aspect of the words i could not give her a higher praise if my trines Welcome to Broadway Thank you How does it feel I feel amazing I mean it totally beyond anything I could have dreamed of really I mean it truly
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incredible. I was telling them, I always thought that if I was going to make my Broadway debut
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it'd be like in a very serious play where I like cry and, you know, I'd have serious thoughts. I
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didn't think it would be in something like this, this beautiful musical that's so joyful and
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bright and you know with lots of people it's it's really i could not have imagined it happening this
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way sharing the stage with bernadette peters what is that like i mean she's the queen you know i
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mean she's there's nobody like her she's so unique and it's inspiring to work with her because i feel
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like she encourages everyone to be more themselves and to be more and embrace the things about them
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that are unique and wonderful and i mean she's my childhood icon i mean she's a big part of why
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when acted in the first place because I saw videos of her doing Into the Woods
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and Sending the Park with George. I mean, I don't even know how to put into words
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what it's like to be with her on stage. She's really extraordinary. What is it like sharing the stage with Bernadette Peters
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And like you said, you yell, you scream at her as soon as you come on, right? I do
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I feel so bad because each of these brilliant women that has been Dolly
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I have to scream like about this close to their face and before they like put something in my mouth
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and each time I meet them I say, Hi, hello, it's nice to meet you. I'm Melanie
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I'm about to scream in your face. And so they could really not like me. It is very nice that each one of them is very lovely and wonderful
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and just like we've been so lucky, we've had the best dollies on the planet
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It's really amazing. Best to be the title of a chapter in your book. I agree
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If I was writing a book, that would be a chapter, Screaming in a Diva's Face
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