Hawkins & Miller Back On WWT Stage Together In 'Hello, Dolly!'
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Kira Lace Hawkins and Robert J. Miller last appeared on the Wagon Wheel Theatre stage together in the Christmas show of “Oliver!” She was Nancy, he was Fagin. It was their first time working together. The two well-known and well-liked Wagon Wheel veterans are back together for the theater’s production of “Hello, Dolly!” starting today. It is Miller’s only show this summer in Warsaw. Miller plays “the comic protagonist” Horace, while Hawkins takes on the title role of Dolly. “It’s one of the Golden Age musicals. It was based off a Thornton Wilder play that he wrote in the early 1900s called ‘The Matchmaker.’ It’s just such a beautiful (show). Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Beautiful score ... I think it’s just one of those that everyone loves to come and see, even if they’ve seen it before, and hopes to see again in the future,” Hawkins said. “Every song is like a toe tapper,” Miller interjected. “If it’s not a toe tapper, it’s one that gets you weepy. There’s a few of those in there. But it’s all recognizable music. It’s songs that you hear, that you’ve heard your whole life. If you’ve never seen the show, you never knew where they came from. Small kids will know (the show) from ‘Wall-E’ because it was a big thing in ‘Wall-E’ because he had the movie version of the musical. That was half the soundtrack to that show.” In the musical, Dolly is a matchmaker. She likes to arrange anything, even beyond relationships, Hawkins indicated, but the musical focuses on her matchmaking. “She ends up helping three other couples get together while she arranges her own marriage at the same time. She’s a widow and she’s sick of being a widow, so this is her moment to kind of, as she calls it, rejoin the human race and find a new partner for herself at the same time,” Hawkins said. Horace is Dolly’s biggest client, Miller said. He’s a well-known “half-a-millionaire” that Dolly decides from the beginning she’s going to marry for his money. “I don’t even know this because she’s suppose to be setting me up with someone else, but she’s just decided she needs to take me in,” he said. “Dolly’s character, I would say, wants to run everything but she is a liberated woman before the term existed. That’s the whole point is that she controls everything because she’s the smartest person in the room at all times.” Horace may be the only person who gives Dolly a run for the money, but she still wins, Miller said. Playing Dolly is Hawkins’ second performance this season where she plays a strong woman. In the musical “9 to 5,” she played Violet Newstead, also a widow but a strong woman who finds a new love. “I’m finding many, many similarities between the two characters,” Hawkins noted. “But speaking just from a feminist kind of view ... even before Women’s Suffrage we’re talking. It’s exciting to think about this time in the 1890s-ish when there could have existed this woman who just managed everything around her. “A reality for a widow in that age, too, would have been that she didn’t have any income and so, like she says in one of her monologues, she’s tired of living hand to mouth. And there really aren’t opportunities for her. And the one job or opportunity she can find is to marry this rich, rich man. What she wants to do is take his money and spread it around and do good in the world. It’s not necessarily that she just wants to be lavished and have all these things. She wants to help the world with his money. She sees that he’s just sitting on the big pile and she’s not happy with that,” she continued. Hawkins added that the feminist bent has made it fun for her this season to play strong women. Miller said Horace is extremely good at making money. He’s also very smart in managing money, but in the end it comes out that Horace likes to help people. “Dolly is bigger than life. She’s very gregarious. And Horace is the guy who would sit at home and have a sandwich when he could afford to go to the most expensive restaurant. And he will go to that restaurant and he could buy that restaurant, but he’s going to complain about the prices because he’s very frugal. He’s a very frugal person. And it doesn’t mean that he’s got a closed heart, but he’s extremely frugal and she’s going to slap him out of that,” Miller stated. He said they’re such great personalities that there could have been a sequel to the story of Dolly and Horace. Along with the great music in the show, Hawkins said there’s also so much ensemble dancing. “These kids, these adults, these amazing ensemble members are doing some really cool amazing things,” she said. There are ballads which get to the truth of the characters and tell where the characters are at that moment, she said. “One of my wife’s favorites is ‘Before the Parade Passes By.’ A beautiful song. There’s so many titles in there you don’t realize you know until you start hearing them and then you’re like, ‘oh yeah,’” Miller said. Both actors also talked about how great the period costumes were and how fun it was to perform in them. The show is set in the 1890s in New York. “The costumes are beautiful and, of course, Stephen Hollenbeck has taken it upon himself to build all the ensemble costumes, I think two for me. He’s just remarkable, that team ... they’re all amazing,” Hawkins stated. Miller said, “It’s also a great time design wise because that period was very colorful. They did things with color that now we consider gauche, but in that time period, it’s always, instead of a three-color palette, they had a seven-color palette. And they’d all be bright, fluorescent colors.” Hollenbeck is really getting all of that into the costumes, Miller noted. “It’s kind of fun to see how bright and sumptuous his color choices are.” “Which also obviously translates into Jen Dow’s amazing wigs. She styles all the wigs for every member of the ensemble. To get that period up-do look, she’s so talented. And these guys are having to manipulate their hair, the late 19th century way,” Hawkins commented. After doing more modern shows like “Shrek” and “9 to 5,” she said it’s fun to go back in time with “Hello, Dolly!” To watch the complete interview, visit the free video section on the Times-Union website at www.timesuniononline.com The musical hits the Wagon Wheel Theatre stage today through July 13. Tickets range from $16-$34. Discounts are available for college students and on designated performances for seniors. For more information, visit wagonwheeltheatre.org or call 574-267-8041.
