And LIFE magazine photographers were there. Gjon Mili, such a wonderful documenter of the arts, is responsible for a great many pictures here, but Gordon Parks, George Silk, Bill Ray and many others all took their swings. Their pictures capture artists at work—including actors who would later become familiar faces on television, such as Jerry Orbach (Law & Order). Angela Lansbury (Murder, She Wrote) , Barbara Bel Geddes (Dallas) and Julie Newmar (Batman).

The thrill of theater is, of course, being there. This photos are the next best thing.

Nineteen-year-old Barbra Streisand played Miss Marmelstein in the 1962 Broadway play “I Can Get It For You Wholesale.”

George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Barbra Streisand, 1962.

George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” 1947.

Eliot Elisofon / The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jessica Tandy as Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” 1947.

Eliot Elisofon /The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A 1943 production of “Oklahoma!”

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Pearl Bailey during a curtain call for the Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! in 1967.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

Jerry Orbach (left) and an unidentified actress in a scene from the off-Broadway production of ‘Scuba Duba,’ October 1967.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Angela Lansbury opened on Broadway in “Mame” to a standing ovation, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A 1953 production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, featuring Madeline Sherwood (rear, second from left), Arthur Kennedy (right) and Walter Hampden (second from right).

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman (left) and Geraldine Page in the Tennessee Williams play Sweet Bird of Youth, 1959.

Gordon Parks/Life PIcture Collection/Shutterstock

Sidney Poitier on the set of Porgy and Bess, 1959.

Gjon Mili Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Sidney Poitier in a scene from “Porgy and Bess,” 1959.

Gjon Mili The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Gjon Mili The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

ason Robards Jr. (L) and Farrell Pelly (R) in a scene from the Eugene O’Neill play “The Iceman Cometh,” 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mary Martin and her fellow cast members soared in the 1954 Broadway production of the musical Peter Pan.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from “All My Sons,” 1947, starring Karl Malden.

Eileen Darby The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

Julie Newmar, right, with Claudette Colbert in a scene from the Broadway play “The Marriage-Go-Round,” 1958.

Photo by Ralph Morse/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Barbara Bel Geddes in the Tennessee Williams play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from Death of a Salesman, 1949, with Lee. J. Cobb as Willy Loman.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Patrick O’Neal (right) and Margaret Leighton in the play ‘The Night of the Iguana’ by Tennessee Williams, 1962.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hair, the original Broadway cast, 1968

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In Jesus Christ Superstar, Jeff Fenholt, as Jesus, was elevated with angels while Judas, played by Ben Vereen, was on a wing-shaped set platform.

John Olson/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

The post LIFE’s Images of Classic Broadway appeared first on LIFE.

LIFE said that with the new cast, “the performances have sharpened up. The dancing has extra snap, as if the hoofers are trying to outdo their excellent predecessors.” Pearl Bailey, it said, had the perfect temperament for the role of Dolly and “feels at home in every word.”

Audiences agreed. Clive Barnes, the powerful New York Times critic, raved about the show, in which he said Bailey drew show-stopping applause from the audience: “For Miss Bailey this was a Broadway triumph for the history books…She took the whole musical in her hands and swung it around her neck as easily as if it were a feather boa.”

Interestingly, Bailey told LIFE that when she signed on as Dolly, she was not told anything about the racial composition of the rest of the cast. The choice to use only Black actors was not without its dissenters—including Frederick O’Neal, who was the first Black president of Actor’s Equity and felt that a mixed-race cast would be more in line with the goal of integration. LIFE also cited white critics who found the idea of an all-black cast condescending, and mentioned that some wondered if this might lead to an all-white Porgy and Bess.

Bailey’s response to LIFE was: “If anyone was worried about integration, why didn’t they worry about it at the time of the first Dolly?”

Bailey’s performance earned her a special Tony award (as a replacement she wasn’t eligible for a standard nomination). When Bailey and the cast performed at the ceremony they were introduced by Carol Channing, who graciously raved about the success Bailey was having with her signature role.

Among those who came to see the production was Lyndon Johnson. He already had a connection to the musical from his 1964 presidential campaign, when Channing sang “Hello, Lyndon!” at the 1964 Democratic Convention. For this new production Johnson and his wife Lady Bird visited with Bailey and came on stage after a performance. LIFE said that this was the first time a U.S. President had appeared on a theatrical stage before an audience.

Bailey continued in the role until Hello, Dolly! closed its original run in 1970. She returned to a new production of the show in 1975, one that had been especially designed for her.

Pearl Bailey during a curtain call for the Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! in 1967.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

Pearl Bailey in a Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! when she took over the lead role in 1967.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

Jack Crowder and Pearl Bailey in the 1967 Broadway production of Hello, Dolly!

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

Jack Crowder and Emily Yancy were part of the all-Black cast in the 1967 Broadway production of Hello, Dolly!

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

Cab Calloway and daughter Chris, who both appeared in the 1967 Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! in 1967.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

Cab Calloway and Pearl Bailey performed in the 1967 production of Hello, Dolly!

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

The 1967 production of “Hello Dolly” at the St. James Theater in New York.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird (center) with actors Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway after a performance of Hello Dolly, 1967.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird with Pearl Bailey (right) after a performance of Hello, Dolly!, 1967.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

Pearl Bailey (left) and Cab Calloway (right) with President Lyndon Johnson and wife Lady Bird at a production of Hello, Dolly! that featured an all-Black cast, 1967.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

Lyndon Johnson and wife Lady Bird with Pearl Bailey and the rest of the cast of the musical Hello, Dolly! at the St. James Theater in New York, 1967.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

The post Remembering the Historic All-Black “Hello, Dolly!” from 1967 appeared first on LIFE.