Jerry Herman's exuberant musical, based on Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker, follows Dolly Gallagher Levi, a strong-willed widow and professional matchmaker in turn-of-the-century New York, as she sets out to arrange a match for wealthy, cantankerous merchant Horace Vandergelder — while quietly scheming to land him for herself. Her meddling sends Horace's young clerks on a chaotic, romantic escapade to New York City, complete with mistaken identities and near-misses, culminating in the show's famous parade sequence at the Harmonia Gardens restaurant. Filled with big, brassy production numbers including the title song and Before the Parade Passes By, the show is a joyous, old-fashioned love letter to musical comedy itself. Dolly's irrepressible charm and determination to re-enter the parade of life after years of mourning give the show its emotional core beneath the spectacle.

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