ABSTRACT
David Merrick was the producer of Hello Dolly. He was also a brooding, complicated man who relished his nickname around Shubert Alley of “The Abominable Showman.” Dolly has now finished descending the stairs and is about to launch full force into the title song. A month before Hello Dolly first opened in New York City, legendary singer Louis Armstrong made a recording of the song “Hello, Dolly!” to promote the musical. When the show premiered on Broadway, Kapp Records released Armstrong’s rendition of the title song as a commercial single. The impact of a powerful title song for branding purposes cannot be over emphasized. The one two punch of a hit show with a popular song of the same name is no doubt a large contributor to the historic 2,844 performance run of Hello Dolly making it, at the time, the longest running Broadway musical when it closed.
