Good Seats Still Available for Hello, Dolly!
Saddleback Civic Light Opera and the Department of Theatre Arts proudly present Hello, Dolly! starring Jonelle Allen as Dolly on July 11th-27th in the beautiful McKinney Theatre on the Saddleback College campus. Jonelle Allen is not only a Saddleback College acting professor but also an established film, television, and musical theatre performer. Directed by Myrona DeLaney with choreography by Roger Castellano and musical direction by Lex Leigh, this enduring Broadway classic is the winner of ten Tony Awards including Best Musical.
“And what do you do for a living, Mrs. Levi?’ asks Ambrose Kemper in the first scene of this most delightful of musical comedies. “Some people paint, some sew… I meddle,” replies Dolly. Hello Dolly is full of memorable songs including: Put on Your Sunday Clothes, Ribbons Down My Back, Before the Parade Passes By, Elegance and Hello, Dolly! And we’re off on a whirlwind race around New York at the turn of the twentieth century as we follow the adventures of America’s most beloved matchmaker.
Dates: July 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26 at 7:30pm and July 13, 20, 27 at 2:30pm.
Tickets can be purchased by calling (949) 582-4656 (noon-4 Wednesday through Saturday) and online at www.saddleback.edu/arts. Ticket prices are $24 general; $22 seniors; $18 students; $12 children 12 and under. Group rates are $18 each for groups of 20 or more.
Saddleback Civic Light Opera is part of the Department of Theatre Arts’ Summer of Theatre, and its comprehensive educational program.
Saddleback College is located at 28000 Marguerite Pkwy in Mission Viejo, just east of Interstate 5 at the Avery Parkway exit. Parking is available in Lot 12. Take Avery Parkway to Marguerite Parkway turn left to the third traffic light, which is Saddleback’s Marguerite entrance. Turn right into the campus and take the second left to Theatre Circle, turning right into Lot 12.
Located in Mission Viejo, Saddleback College provides quality higher education and training to the greater south Orange County community. Having served more than 500,000 students since 1968, Saddleback College offers over 300 degree and certificate programs to help students reach their personal, career, and educational goals. For more information, please visit www.saddleback.edu and for Fine Arts information, please visit www.saddleback.edu/arts.
About Jonelle Allen
Jonelle Allen
Ms. Allen, who spent six years as Grace, the entrepreneurial post-Civil War frontier café owner in CBS-TV’s Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, was four years old when she was cast in the revival Wisteria Trees starring Helen Hayes, Ossie Davis, Cliff Robertson and others at the New York City Center Theatre.
In the course of the play’s run, Ms. Hayes took Ms. Allen’s Aunt Bea aside and advised her, “Keep this child in the theatre, she has a natural gift.” It wasn’t until some twenty years later at Sardi’s that Jonelle again saw Helen Hayes in person.
Ms. Allen was in the spotlight at the famed theatrical hangout awaiting the first reviews following her opening night of the musical Two Gentlemen of Verona, in which she starred and which Ms. Hayes had attended.
Rushing up to a great actress and assuming that she would not recognize her, Ms. Allen recounted the circumstances and what Ms. Hayes had said to her Aunt Bea years earlier. Ms. Hayes smiling simply said, “See…I was right.” Ms. Allen received a Tony nomination as Best Actress in a Musical and won the Drama Critics, Drama Desk, Theater World, and Outer Circle Awards for her performance as Silvia in the New York Shakespeare Festival production.
Other Broadway credits include the original casts of Hair and George M, starring Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters. Ms. Allen has appeared in numerous feature films and television productions includingHotel New Hampshire, Cagney and Lacey, Hill Street Blues, Generations, Twice In A Lifetime for PAX-TV andStrong Medicine for Lifetime Network.
Ms. Allen won a Dramalogue for her performance of Aldonza in Man of La Mancha prior to embarking on the phenomenal run Dr. Quinn.
Ms. Allen also wrote and starred in Harlem Renaissance: The Life of Florence Mills which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland last year. This show was choregraphed by Ellen Prince, another Saddleback faculty member. Ms Allen is also going to perform Harlem Renaissance in the United States.
