I am sorry now that I did not get to see Bette Midler in Hello, Dolly! but I really thought that Bernadette Peters gave a wonderful performance, as did Victor Garber, both of whom completely surprised me. Of the Dollys I've seen - Channing, Mary Martin, Ginger Rogers, and Streisand in the film - I would say she wasn't as good as Channing or Martin but she was much better than Rogers or Streisand. She looked great, she was very funny, and she seemed to be having a wonderful time playing a character actually in her age range. I wish she would backphrase less in her songs.
Garber is a cerebral performer, lacking the gruffness and bluster of David Burns, Walter Matthau, and other Vandergelders I've seen. I think he's a good actor but I thought he was too soft for the role. I was surprised how much I liked him. I also liked Santino Fontana as Cornelius and Charley Stemp as Barnaby very much, but I was disappointed by Kate Baldwin. The orchestra sounded good, but I wish they had kept the original orchestrations. The designs looked great and Jerry Zaks and Warren Carlyle kept the production fluid and constantly in motion. This is also the first Zaks staging of a revival where I never felt the tempos were pushed to a frenzy.