Horace Vandergelder, a wealthy merchant in nineteenth-century Yonkers, NY, has a plan. He has been a widower for long enough and now he wants to find a wife. He recruits the help of local matchmaker, Mrs. Dolly Levi, but she has plans of her own. Meanwhile, Vandergelder’s niece Ermengarde desperately wants to marry her artist lover, but Vandergelder refuses to allow it. Furthermore, his clerks have run off to New York City on a mission ‘to kiss a girl’! There they find Irene Molloy and Minnie Fay, who are looking for excitement of their own. Hilarity and confusion ensues as everyone tries to secure their love lives and marry as they choose. Despite believing himself to be in charge, Vandergelder finds himself engaged to the astute Dolly Levi herself, who is determined to share his wealth for the greater good. Thornton Wilder’s madcap farce famously became the basis for the golden-age musical Hello Dolly!
The Matchmaker guide sections
