Matchmaker, The

Matchmaker, The (1955), a comedy by Thornton Wilder. [Royale Theatre, 486 perf.] Dolly Levi ( Ruth Gordon), who is supposedly helping the rich, smug, and pompous merchant Horace Vandergelder ( Loring Smith) save his niece from an elopement with an artist, is also supposedly helping the widowed Vandergelder find a new wife. To this end she has a pair of candidates she is pushing. But what Dolly is pushing most is Dolly, for she is determined that she will wed Vandergelder. She arranges for all the figures—the lovers, the candidates, Vandergelder's clerks, and, of course, Vandergelder and herself—to come together at a New York night spot. By the end of the evening she has paired everyone off to her satisfaction—which means she has gotten Vandergelder. Originally produced as The Merchant of Yonkers in 1938, the play was based loosely on Johann Nestroy's 1842 farce Einen Jux Will Er Sich Machen, whose central figure was one of the clerks. The 1938 version, which starred Jane Cowl, failed. But Tyrone Guthrie's madcap direction turned the revised farce into a major success for the Theatre Guild. Co‐producer David Merrick had even better luck with the piece when he turned it into the musical Hello, Dolly! (1964).