Greetings to you, “Hello, Dolly!” And happy anniversary, too.

The touring company of the hit revival, with Tony winner Betty Buckley as the irrepressible Dolly Levi, arrives at the Benedum Center, Downtown, Tuesday to close out Pittsburgh CLO’s summer season.

And next week, on Aug. 11, the movie version of “Hello, Dolly!” — with Barbra Streisand directed by Pittsburgh’s Gene Kelly — will celebrate its 50th anniversary a little early. The film debuted Dec. 16, 1969, but on Aug. 11 and 14, it will reappear in select movie theaters courtesy of Fathom Events and the TCM Big Screen Classics series.

The story, set in Yonkers and New York City in the 1890s, centers on a strong-willed widow who arranges marriages. She’s also in search of husband No. 2 for herself and sets her sights on the irascible Horace Vandergelder while generally scheming for the benefit of several younger couples. 

Carol Channing was 43 when she originated the role of Dolly on Broadway, while “Funny Girl” star Streisand was 27 when she played the role in the 1969 movie version. Streisand’s relative youth did not sit well with some critics, zeroing in on the idea of a widow pursuing a wealthy older gent — Walter Matthau, then 49, as Horace Vandergelder.

In his New York Times review, Vincent Canby wrote, “I had the odd feeling that she must have been married to him at the age of 8 and lost him at 10” when she was widowed, for someone as young as Streisand to be playing Dolly.

On Broadway, though, the most recent revival has been a boon for actors of a certain age. Bernadette Peters, 71, and Donna Murphy, 60, followed or backed up Bette Midler, 73, who won a Tony Award in the 2017 revival that spawned the current tour, starring Buckley. 

Here are some more facts and figures about the “Dollys” to get you on your way “Before the Parade Passes By.”

On stage

• Some fans may know Buckley, 72, through her TV work, from “Eight Is Enough” to HBO’s “Oz,” but the Theater Hall of Famer may be best known for her Tony-winning role in “Cats.” She was Broadway’s original Grizabella — the role being played by Jennifer Hudson in the upcoming screen version of “Cats” — and so memorably sang the showstopping “Memory.”
• Buckley inaugurated the Trust Cabaret Series in 2012.
• The storied history of the Jerry Herman-Michael Stewart musical, “suggested” by Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker,” began in 1964. CLO has welcomed “Hello, Dolly!” twice before, in 1986 and 2004, and the original musical Dolly, Channing, played the role here in 1994.
• Louis Armstrong made the title song his signature in 1964 and won the best male vocal performance Grammy. When asked about topping the charts with “Dolly,” he is quoted as saying, “It sure feels good to be up there with those Beatles.” He also sang the song in the 1969 film version.

On screen

• The movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won three: for production design, sound mixing and “original musical” — best original score today.
• Kelly was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award, while Michael Kidd was the choreographer for a cast that included future “Phantom of the Opera” Michael Crawford, Walter Matthau and Tommy Tune.
• Although Times movie critic Canby eviscerated the movie as overblown — a relatively kind word that he did not use — and it has a 43% rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes, the audience rating is a fresh 76%.
• Writing for AwardsCircuit.com, Christopher James said the movie deserved better than its reputation would suggest. “The film may be famous in its own right as a [Barbra] Streisand musical vehicle,” he wrote in April, when “Dolly” closed out the TCM Classics Film Festival. “However, ‘Hello Dolly’ is arguably more famous for its high $25 million production budget. Despite being in the top five grossers of 1969, the film was a money loser at the time. This signaled the end of the grand ’60s musicals.”

Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg. Sign up for the PG performing arts newsletter Behind the Curtain at Newsletter Preferences.

First Published: August 5, 2019, 12:00 p.m.