Hello, Dolly! (musical)

Hello, Dolly!
1964 Broadway poster
Music	Jerry Herman
Lyrics	Jerry Herman
Book	Michael Stewart
Basis	Play The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder
Productions	1964 Broadway 1969 Film 1965 West End 1975 All-black Broadway revival 1978 Broadway revival 1995 Broadway revival 1996 Mexico City 2009 Regent's Park Open Air Theatre revival
Awards	Tony Award for Best Musical Tony for Composer and Lyricist Tony Award for Best Book

Hello, Dolly! is a 1964 musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955.

Hello, Dolly! was first produced on Broadway by David Merrick in 1964, winning a record 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, a record held for 37 years. The show album Hello, Dolly! An Original Cast Recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. The album reached number one on the Billboard album chart on June 6, 1964 and was replaced the next week by Louis Armstrong's album Hello, Dolly!

The show has become one of the most enduring musical theatre hits, enjoying three Broadway revivals and international success. It was also made into the 1969 film Hello Dolly! that was nominated for seven Academy Awards, and won three.

The plot of Hello, Dolly! originated in an 1835 English play, A Day Well Spent by John Oxenford, which Johann Nestroy adapted into the farce Einen Jux will er sich machen (He Will Go on a Spree or He'll Have Himself a Good Time). Thornton Wilder adapted Nestroy's play into his 1938 farcical play The Merchant of Yonkers, a flop which he revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955, expanding the role of Dolly, played by Ruth Gordon.The Matchmaker became a hit and was much revived and made into a 1958 film of the same name starring Shirley Booth. The story of a meddlesome widow who strives to bring romance to several couples and herself in a big city restaurant also features prominently in the 1891 hit musical A Trip to Chinatown.