HELLO DOLLY

My daughters, "The girlie-girls", and I had the delightful experience last night of attending the Chanhassen Dinner Theater production of "Hello Dolly." It is a wonderful musical, with great music, and a fun story of matchmaking in the once upon a time 1890's of American life.

Like a Norman Rockwell painting, it is hardly a true depiction of American life during that time of history. It has the fluff of unfounded nostalgia, but allows those viewing to leave outside the real world, much like the movie musicals of the '30's of the last century, distracted people from the ugly and brutal realities of the Great Depression.

What made the evening all the more special was the company of my beautiful daughters, in whose presence, my own decrepitude goes largely unnoticed. Those two girls of mine brighten up an evening in such wonderful ways.

The great cast numbers, "Put On Your Sunday Clothes", reminded me of the original movie version of Mel Brook's epic, "The Producers." In seeing some of these classic Broadway huge company song and dance numbers, it is easy to see that Mel Brooks fell back on them for inspiration in the classic opening to the fictitious "Spingtime For Hitler In Germany" musical of that movie.

Eileen Brennan as the Widow Malloy

I was stirred to tears by songs like, "Ribbons Down My Back," "It Only Takes A Moment," and the big song and dance number, "Hello Dolly." The hopes and the dreams these songs evoked, recalled for me the hopes and dreams I had as a young man as I courted Ruthie. The willingness of Cornelius Hackl to pursue the Widow Malloy even if it met that in loving her he would lose everything he worked for in his life. On her part, Widow Malloy, no longer thinking she could ever love again as she had her departed husband, realizes that this young store clerk from Yonkers, is her only chance for love once more to enter her life.

As the Beatles expressed in the song, "All You Need Is Love," love is such a simple goal in life, but it can seem to be so unattainable. Song after song in the musical, led me back through my life to past productions of this show. Just being in the Chanhassen Theater recalled all the shows that Ruthie and I attended during the 20 years I ministered at St. Hubert. We saw "I Do, I Do," "My Fair Lady," "42nd Street," "The Song of Music," "Camelot," and so many other shows while I was at St. Hubert.

Song after song led me back to the one in whom I have always found the greatest love, my bride, Ruth. I recalled a time, several years ago, when confined to bed from 9 pm to 9 am every day, I spent alot of time on my back, listening to the vast collection of music on my iPod. I spent much time with the music from "Hello Dolly" and wrote the poem below to my beloved Ruth.

Eileen Brennan and Charles C Rielly as the Widow Mallor and Cornelius Hackl

INTERLUDE: VALENTINE’S DAY 2012

 

Cornelius Hackl and Irene Malloy,

the most romantic couple

in musical history I argue,

Irene wearing ribbons down her back

dancing with her lover clerk

in the Harmonia Gardens.

Was it the doing of Dolly Levi

that brought these two lovers together,

or that charge, a spark exchanged

at the touch of his hand around her waist

her cheek resting on his shoulder

breathing in the scent of one another?

Encapsulated in a single moment,

indefinable and immeasurable,

the sudden realization that their soul-mate,

the one sought over a life’s time,

had been found.

No ribbons down your back,

nor romantic dances in exotic ballrooms,

as part of our history, but …

the same indefinable, immeasurable moment,

a smile, a touch of hand on an arm,

communicated to our mutual heart

a love that will last our whole life long.

Can we chart chronologically

that single moment, when we knew

within the cells of our body

we are one, or has that moment

never ceased, one moment

building upon another, then another?

While we can join our voices

with Cornelius and Irene,

and proclaim before the world

with certainty and sincerity

”And that is what love’s all about,

and we’ll recall when time runs out

 that it only takes a moment,

to be loved a whole life long,”

What of that moment

when time runs out,

could we live when the heart

we share stops beating?

When the breath we breathe

sounds its final exhalation?

Can Death sever our love

with one single swipe

of his sickle, or is Death

powerless in the face of our love?

Eternal our love, transcending

time and space, forever

joined, a living covenant,

one waiting for the other

till that time when we stand before LOVE

our spirits merged,

no longer male and female

but one forever made

in the image of God.

You might ask, where was Ruth last night? She was at home, resting from an injury she sustained on Thursday night at work. Of course, when Meg, Beth and I got home from the show, I went immediately to her and told her how much I loved her and gave her what she wanted the most from me ... I went and popped up a huge bowl of popcorn for her, just as she likes it. Love gets expressed in so many different ways, doesn't it?