Tonight we went to see Hello Dolly at the Nottingham Playhouse. I interviewed Kate on the radio a while ago when I stood in for Jason on Nottingham LACE, which seems like such a long time ago now. I was asked at short notice to review it for The Nottingham Evening Post (as I still call it), but I declined as I didn't know enough about the story to do it justice. I do live music and comedy, which I consider my areas, there are people better equipped to write about theatre. I haven't seen the film version, starring Bette Midler in the Kate Williams role (see what I did there?), and so went in totally blind, apart from the actual song 'Hello Dolly'.

What I witnessed was Broadway standard acting and singing from everyone involved. I could have been watching an MGM musical at home on a bank holiday afternoon, albeit an MGM musical with occasionally wobbly sets, but that was part of the charm. It would be tacky of me to single out Kate Williams for her lead role of Dolly, as I know her, but I do believe that she was born too late. Louis B Mayer's loss is Nottingham Operatic Society's gain. Mark Pollard and Rob Palin (Cornelius and Barnaby) would be brilliant as a double act, especially in pantomime. I mean that in the best possible way, as pantomime is something I happen to be very fond of. This will be a dull blog if I name all the cast, but every one of them sparkled, making Hello Dolly an absolute joy to watch.

This time next year the society are doing Oklahoma, and I for one can't wait.