Interview with Tony Award Winner BETTY BUCKLEY
As our favorite guest is enjoying rave reviews for her performance in HELLO, DOLLY!, Betty Buckley returns to Showbiz Chicago in this encore interview and discusses how she found balance and serenity at her Texas ranch with her amazing cutting horses.
Interview with Tony Award Winner BETTY BUCKLEY from Showbiz Chicago on Vimeo.
BETTY BUCKLEY: Called “The Voice of Broadway” by New York Magazine, a legendary, Tony Award Winning performer, 2012 Theatre Hall of Fame inductee and a 2017 recipient of the Julie Harris Award for Artistic Achievement, given by The Actors Fund. Broadway: Triumph of Love (Tony Award nomination), Sunset Boulevard, Carrie (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), Song and Dance, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Cats (Tony Award), Pippin, 1776. London: Dear World; Sunset Boulevard (Olivier Award nomination); Promises, Promises (Evening Standard Award nomination). Off Broadway: Old Friends (Drama Desk Award nomination), White’s Lies, Elegies, The Eros Trilogy, Juno’s Swans, I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road. Regional: Grey Gardens (Ovation Award nomination), Old Friends, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Threepenny Opera, Buffalo Gal, Camino Real, Gypsy. Film: Split (Saturn Award nomination), The Happening, Wyatt Earp, Another Woman, Frantic, Tender Mercies, Carrie. Television: “Preacher,” “Supergirl,” “Getting On,” “The Leftovers,” “Chicago Med,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “The Pacific,” “OZ,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Without a Trace,” “Eight Is Enough.” Recordings: 18 solo albums (two Grammy Award nominations), most recently Hope released on Palmetto Records in June 2018. Teacher of scene study and song interpretation for over 45 years. Two Honorary Doctorates for her contribution to musical theater from The Boston Conservatory and Marymount Manhattan College.
Showbiz Chicago’s HELLO, DOLLY! Review Excerpt:
What makes this revival so powerful is how Jerry Zaks and new book writer Michael Stewart is able to access the power of womanhood that composer Jerry Herman invests in his creation. Dolly Gallagher Levi is a complex woman far ahead of her time and smarter than any male that comes into her bath. Though she is grieving the loss of her own husband and trying to reinvent herself in an age when women are relegated to certain norms, Dolly still believes in the joy finding a perfect mate can bring a person. Complex, oh yes. But so is Mame Dennis, another character Mr. Herman brings to life with power and abilities far beyond those of mortal women.
Each of the prior Dolly’s have brought their star power to the role, sometimes at the expense of the character itself. Now comes Betty Buckley who innately brings a complexity to the role akin to no other. As she did with her reinvention of Norma Desmond, Ms. Buckley’s Dolly Levi is flawed, funny and unflappable. She will having you belly laughing at one moment and choking back a tear at the next. Then there is that unmistakable, powerful, belting Broadway voice, perhaps the finest ever heard on the stage, which has only gotten richer over time.
Ms. Buckley gives vibrant interpretations of Herman’s score including the opening “I Put My Hand In”, “Before The Parade Passes By”, “So Long Dearie” and of course the title song when danced with Warren Carlyle recreating Gower Champion’s “The Waiters Gallop” is pure theatre magic.
ABOUT HELLO, DOLLY!
Broadway In Chicago is thrilled that four time Tony Award-winning Best Musical Revival HELLO, DOLLY! opens tonight for a limited four-week engagement at Broadway In Chicago’s historic Oriental Theatre (24 W Randolph St) through Saturday, November 17,2018.
Tony Award®-winning Broadway legend Betty Buckley stars in HELLO, DOLLY! – the universally acclaimed smash that NPR calls “the best show of the year!” and the Los Angeles Times says “distills the mood-elevating properties of the American musical at its giddy best.” Winner of four Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival, director Jerry Zaks’ “gorgeous” new production (Vogue) is “making people crazy happy!” (The Washington Post). Breaking box office records week after week and receiving unanimous raves on Broadway, this HELLO, DOLLY! pays tribute to the original work of legendary director/choreographer Gower Champion – hailed both then and now as one of the greatest stagings in musical theater history. Rolling Stone calls it “a must-see event. A musical comedy dream. If you’re lucky enough to score a ticket, you’ll be seeing something historic. Wow, wow, wow, indeed!”
Led by four-time Tony Award-winning director Jerry Zaks and choreographed by Tony Award winner Warren Carlyle, the entire creative team of the Broadway production will reprise their roles for the National Tour of HELLO, DOLLY!, including four-time Tony Award winner Santo Loquasto (Scenic & Costume Design), six-time Tony Award winner Natasha Katz (Lighting Design), Tony Award winner Scott Lehrer (Sound Design), Andy Einhorn (Music Direction), Tony Award winner Larry Hochman (Orchestrations), Tony Award winner Don Pippin (Vocal Arrangements), David Chase (Dance Arrangements), and Telsey + Company (Casting).
HELLO, DOLLY! began performances on Broadway on March 15, 2017, and officially opened on April 20, 2017. Having broken the record for best first day of ticket sales in Broadway history, the box office record at the Shubert Theatre twelve times, and shattering The Shubert Organization’s all-time record ten times, the production ended its historic Broadway run on August 25, 2018.
Cities and dates for the national tour of HELLO, DOLLY! are available at www.hellodollyonbroadway.com
PERFORMANCE DATES Tuesdays at 7:30PM Wednesdays at 2:00PM and 7:30PM (no matinee performance on 10/24)
Thursdays at 7:30PM
Fridays at 7:30PM Saturdays at 2:00PM and 8:00PM Sunday, Oct. 28 at 2PM and 7:30PM; Nov. 4 & Nov. 11 at 2PM
TICKET INFORMATION
Individual tickets for HELLO, DOLLY! at the Oriental Theatre are on-sale now and range in price from $27 – $108 with a select number of premium seats available. Tickets are available now for groups of 10 or more by calling Broadway In Chicago Group Sales at (312) 977-1710. Tickets are available at all Broadway In Chicago Box Offices (24 W. Randolph St., 151 W. Randolph St., 18 W. Monroe St. and 175 E. Chestnut), the Broadway In Chicago Ticket Line at (800) 775-2000 and online at www.BroadwayInChicago.com.
ABOUT BROADWAY IN CHICAGO
Broadway In Chicago was created in July 2000 and over the past 18 years has grown to be one of the largest commercial touring homes in the country. A Nederlander Presentation, Broadway In Chicago lights up the Chicago Theater District entertaining more than 1.7 million people annually in five theatres. Broadway In Chicago presents a full range of entertainment, including musicals and plays, on the stages of five of the finest theatres in Chicago’s Loop including the Cadillac Palace Theatre, CIBC Theatre, Oriental Theatre, and just off the Magnificent Mile, the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place and presenting Broadway shows at The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University. For more information, visit www.BroadwayInChicago.com.
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