Lawson Taitte

IRVING – How do I love Julie Johnson? Let me count the ways ...

SONYA N. HEBERT/DMN

Julie Johnson stars as Dolly Levi, the matchmaker who tries getting herself a rich husband, in Hello, Dolly!

First of all, she can make me like Hello, Dolly!, a musical I had hoped never to see again. Go crazy for it, actually.

That clarion voice of hers can shift from bright trumpet to rowdy trombone, with hidden reserves of satin and velvet. I doubt Carol Channing, Mary Martin or Ethel Merman ever sang the part this well. (Her diction is as sharp as Ms. Merman's, too.)

Her strength as an actor takes Michael Stewart's book back to the play by Thornton Wilder it was based on. For once, we believe in the musical version's Dolly Gallagher Levi as a breathing human being. Ms. Johnson radiates the wistful tenderness required by Dolly's soliloquies to her late husband, but she also has the grandeur for the character's oratorical excesses.

Lyric Stage wisely built the production of the Jerry Herman classic that it opened on Saturday around Ms. Johnson. That doesn't mean, however, that it has skimped on the other elements.

The man matchmaker Dolly Levi has set her own sights on, Horace Vandergelder, is usually a throwaway. Bradley Campbell instead sings it powerfully, projects authority and blusters just the right amount.

Arianna Movassagh makes as charming a Minnie as you could want. You leave the theater wishing she had more to do.

The younger love interests fall to seasoned pros. Lyric founding producer Steven Jones has been playing Cornelius Hackl since the days when he was a touring actor. Catherine Carpenter Cox, his Irene Molloy, was Lyric's Evita. They play these roles in high style and with strong voices – both occasionally strained at the limits of their ranges.

Director Cheryl Denson deserves the credit for putting all these performers together and convincing them that Hello, Dolly! deserves more care and respect than it has been given over the last 40 years of endless touring and stock versions. You may miss Broadway standards of polish in the many dance numbers, but otherwise this is likely to beat any other performance you've seen, hands down.

As long as Ms. Johnson cares to play her, we can all hope this Dolly will never go away again.

PLAN YOUR LIFE Through May 10 at Irving Arts Center's Dupree Theater. Runs 140 mins. $24 to $30. 972-252-2787; www.lyricstage.org.

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