Bette Midler Will Return To Star In ‘Hello Dolly’ On Broadway

Image by Getty Images

By Jenny Singer April 23, 2018

Promise you’ll never go away again, Bette!

The 2017 Tony Award winner for the titular role in “Hello, Dolly” will return to the Broadway stage for the final weeks of the production she made a smash hit. Bette Midler, who received rave reviews last year for her portrayal of Dolly Levi opposite David Hyde Pierce, will resume her role for the final six weeks of the revival’s Broadway run. Hyde Pierce will also resume his role, replacing Victor Garber. Midler will retake the reigns from Bernadette Peters, who took over the role from Midler in April.

“Hello, Dolly!” producer Scott Rudin announced that the show will close on August 25, after playing for 17 months. The production, which also won the Tony Award for Best Musical Revival, will go on to tour the country beginning in October, with “Cats” legend Betty Buckley in the title role.

For this, the fourth Broadway revival of the 1964 production, Midler was heralded as one of the great Dolly Gallagher Levis of all time.

It will be so nice to have her back where she belongs.

via GIPHY

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a student in the MFA Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa, a former staff writer at Glamour, and a former writer and editor at the Forward.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO