Hillbarn’s artistic
director makes grand re-entrance onto her
own stage
By Joan Gross
HELLO, TONI – It’s so nice to have you back wher you belong!
Toni Tomei, artistic director of Hillbarn Theatre, will star as Dolly
Levi in the title role in the Hillbarn stage production of “Hello
Dolly” starting May 7.
“Iam so pleased that she agreed to play Dolly Levi. She is the perfect
choice, but I wasn’t sure we could convince her to come out of performance
retirement,” said Lee Foster, executive director.
“Hello Dolly,” with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, and
book by Michael Stewart, first opened on Jan. 16, 1964 in New York starring
Carol Channing. It won 12 Tony Awards.
The plot involves the widowed Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi, a matchmaker
by trade, who travels to Yonkers in 1898 to arranger the second marriage
of millionare Horace Vandergelder. While there, she convinces him, his
two stock clerks and his niece and her beau to go to New York City. In
New York, she fixes Vandergelder’s clerks up with the woman Vandergelder
had been courting and hr shop assistant. Dolly has designs of her own
on Mr. Vandergelder.
“There are a lot of layers to Dolly. She has a history as a widow,
yet shows an optimistic feel toward life, love and people in general.
She is very business minded, practical, and enterprising, especially for
a woman in 1890. Dolly wants to help0 everyone and seizes every opportunity,”
Tomei said. Tomei remembers seeing snippets of Carol Channing on the Ed
Sullivan show and listening to the recordings many times. “The first
time I saw the show, it starred Jane Powell at the Circle Star Theatre
in the Round in San Carlos. I remember it being fun and uplifting,”
Tomei said. When she was 7 years old, Tomei started acting in the Children’s
Conservatory in Palo Alto. Later she was involved in drama during middle
and high school days, Foothill College and summer repertory theatre. Following
these early years, she studied acting in New York City at the Neightborhood
Playhouse School of Theatre and the Herald Berghof’s Actor’s
Studio.
She is best known for her leading roles including Nancy in “Oliver”
at Peninsukla Center Stage; Auntie Mame in “Mame” at Capuccino
Community Theatre; Nanette in “No, No Nanett” with Broadway
by th Bay; and Mama Rose in Gypsy at Peninsula Center Stage. When she
was playing Mama Rose, she was honored with a 1994 SF Bay Are Dramalogue
Award as Best Actress.
“Ever since I was training at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New
York, I have felt this exciting process of moment by moment, scenes changing
each night, as you are on stage interacting with another actor. I feel
a sense of immediate excitement of where I am going, depending on how
the other person interacts with me. I especially love dealing with the
audience. It is instant love and gratification, especially when you make
them happy,” Tomei said.
Besides acting, Tomei has worked as a director, stage manager, designer,
teacher and vocalist in countless productions. Since 2001 she has been
the artistic director of Hillbarn Theatre. Most recently hse directed
“Dracula in 2002, and previously “Forever Plaid” and
“1776.”
This is not the first time Russ Bohard of Pacifica has acted in “Hello
Dolly.” My first experience was on stage in 1972 when I was cast
as a waiter in the Capuchino High School production. I again performed
in the musical as a dancing waiter in the American Musical Theatre of
San Jose. This time, I was happily surprised as Horace Vandergelder,”
Bohard said.
He has notices during the rehersals at Hillbarn that Horace speaks in
exclaimation marks!! “Just about every line I speak as Horace is
followed by an exclamation mark. My challenge is to add some warm human
moment to his befuddled character,” Bohard said.
Having acted as Bill Sykes on the “Oliver” Peninsula Center
Stage with Tomei, Bohard is now delighted to be cast opposite her. “She
is a strong, talented actress. I have admired every work in which she
has performed, and Iknow how she will ‘wow’ the audience at
Hillbarn in this long awaited ‘return’ to the musical stage,”
Bohard said.
Maureen Quintana Broome of Newark also previously performed in “Hello
Dolly,” as Ernestina in the Piedmont Light Opera production last
summer.
This time she will take on the part of Irene Malloy, a widow who is determined
to marry again for comfort until Cornelius Hack blunders into her life.
“Although I have performing since I was young, this will be my first
solo singing role. This show holds a special place in my heart, for the
period in which it’s set, the costumes, music and best of all, working
with the wonderful actors, directors…
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