EVERYONE’S favourite matchmaker, Dolly Levi, has rolled into town, courtesy of Buttershaw St Paul’s Amateur Operatic Dramatic Society.

Following their successful production of Fiddler on the Roof last year, the society returns to the Alhambra stage with a glittering production of Hello Dolly, continuing tonight and tomorrow.

The show is produced by Judith Smith and features lively dance numbers choreographed by Cathryn Laban, to a showstopping score under the baton of Chris Pelly.

The popular musical is the story of feisty Dolly Levi, who travels to Yonkers, New York, to find a match for miserly unmarried and wealthy Horace Vandergelder. Could it be that the meddling widow has finally met her own love match?

Originally performed in 1964, the show was a hit on Broadway and was made into the 1969 Oscar-winning film starring Barbra Streisand.

“If you like your musicals big, bright and bold, then head down to the Alhambra because Hello Dolly is the show for you,” says Lizzie Horsley of Buttershaw St Paul’s. “This production is polished and entertaining and bursts with life and colour from the opening bars of the overture right through to the finale.

“A strong line-up of principals is led by Anne Tonks, in fine voice as Dolly Levi and well matched by some excellent characterisation from Ian Moorhouse as Horace Vandergelder. Kathryn Mitchell as Irene Molloy and Richard Armstrong as Cornelius Hackl, who provide the romantic interest along with Christa D’Apolito and Elliott Matthews as Minnie and Barnaby.

“Add a brass band live on stage, plenty of humour, some elegant and colourful costumes and you have the perfect antidote to a cold winter’s night.”

* Hello Dolly runs at the Alhambra tonight and tomorrow. There is also a matinee tomorrow at 2.15pm. For tickets call (01274) 432000.