HELLO DOLLY

Everybody loves Dolly.  She may be a meddler, and she may have her own interests uppermost in mind.  But she is all heart, and with her around life's never dull.
Director Wendy Holmes has chosen a composite set which, with quickly installed and struck units, keeps the action flowing, and she turns to positive advantage the waiters' sex change, while David Lodge ensures the music never flags.
As Dolly, Gilly Giles sets the stage ablaze with her every entrance.  Against such a sassy, irresistible force the curmudgeonly Horace of Geoff Coventry has not defence.  Steve Whitehouse and Gareth Davis revel in their temporary freedom as Cornelius and Barnaby, and Julie Farmer and Juliette Albone are equally at home as widow Irene, eager to live a little, and the bubbly Minnie.  Alison Davis plays the ever-tearful Ermegarde, courted by Chris Stephens as Ambrose.
Welcome back, Dolly!
Bill Stone (Western Evening Herald)
(Abridged for length)