This is a show with very high production values. The costumes are spectacular, although the ladies wigs are too unrealistic, and the set is innovative and on the grand scale. The transitions from one scene to the next are slick and seam-free. This is a show dressed to impress and the audience get their money's worth from these two things alone.

It has to be said that Dolly is a show with a very thin plot line, so slim you think who cares!! However the songs are good and catchy and as a show in this sort of musical theatre genre it is toothsome if a little too sugary. The orchestra played the music with vivacity and the songs were belted out with gusto. Anita Dobson plays Dolly Levi with a will and loads of energy, however her voice at times hovers on the brink, making the audience slightly anxious but  they were all on her side. Darren Day shows his many years of musical theatre experience as Cornelius Hacki, though his acting with the excellent Louise English as Mrs Molloy was from the forest school of acting. Samuel Board as Horace Vandergelder has made the part his own and well conveys his role. Louise English is the best in the show for me as her acting is believable and she looks the part.

The choreography needs some adjustment as the thin male dancers seem to struggle with all the lifting they need to do.. Most of the dancing seems a rather uncoordinated, but this may settle down over the weeks of the tour. The waiter's gallop just went on and on and I lost interest at that point  The one thing that needs a serious looking at is the sound engineering. Why do companies employ sound engineers with hearing problems? The singing mike levels are too loud and at times it became uncomfortable, it sounded raucous not melodic.