"Isn't the World Full of Wonderful Things?"

Michael Muckian, Shepherd Express

Theater by its nature tends to plumb the depths of both intellect and emotion, with the best of the art form drawing the audience into both the narrative and the heart that beats at the center of the production. For the Tony Award-winning American Players Theatre that’s generally business as usual, but every so often a performance takes those elements one step further. It’s fair to say that APT’s production of Madison-born Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Thorton Wilder’s The Matchmaker meets and beats that mark.

The 1954 comedy, a rewrite of Wilder’s earlier play The Merchant of Yonkers, concerns the efforts of Dolly Gallagher Levi (Tracy Michelle Arnold) and her efforts—both covert and overt—to bring together various couples, some of whom don’t even know they want to be together. If that sounds familiar, then know that this and earlier versions of the same narrative by other authors eventually became the hit musical Hello, Dolly!

The storyline will be familiar to fans of drawing room comedies, complete with misunderstandings, mistaken identities, mismatched couples, and even a gender switch, albeit a brief one. The characters in the action, which takes place both in Yonkers and New York City in the early 20th century, are eccentric to a fault, driving the nearly three-hour play down a variety of roads lined with laughter and heart.

Seeking a Suitor?

In short, the story is this: Yonkers merchant Hoarce Vandergelder (a delightfully cranky Triney Sandoval) seeks a suitor for his niece Ermengarde (Kelly Simmons), but one that isn’t the artist Ambrose Kemper (Jonathan Gardner), the young woman’s beau and clearly the right match. In the meantime, Vandergelder decides it’s time to once again marry and leaves for New York City to court the favor of Irene Malloy (Phoebe González) while his assistants Conelius Hackl (Colin Covert) and Barnaby Tucker (Trevyn Wong) are left behind to mind the store.

Read Full Review Here