COEUR d'ALENE - Well, hello Ellen Travolta.

Twelve years ago, she played Dolly Levi in the Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre's production of "Hello, Dolly!"

Dolly, and Ellen, are back.

"With age, you get better," Travolta said Thursday.

And she's brought many friends from that 2000 version of the musical with her.

Director Roger Welch, music director Steve Dahlke, choregrapher Michael Wasileski, and crew members Krista Kubicek (Irene Molloy), Callie McKinney Cabe (Minnie Fay) and Jack Bannon (Horace Vandergelder) are back, too. Add in Ellen's sister Margaret Travolta and daughter Molly Allen, and it's "sort of a reunion."

"It's a wonderful time to do it again," she said.

CST kicks off its 45th anniversary with "Hello, Dolly!" on June 14. It's expecting to pull in big crowds, as the 2000 shows packed the house.

"It's only taken me 12 years to realize this, but I love playing Dolly Levi because she is me," Travolta said. "I had a wonderful time playing the Wicked Witch in last year's Oz, but this truly, I'm Dolly. I really am the woman who has to know everything that's going on."

"It's very much like I am. I like to organize and get things done and control stuff, be bossy," she added, smiling.

"Hello, Dolly!" is based on the 1955 play, "The Matchmaker," by Thornton Wilder. The original 1964 Broadway production ran for 2,844 performances with Carol Channing in the title role, and swept the Tony awards, winning 10 out of 11 nominations. It was also made into a 1969 film starring Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau.

Roger Welch, director, said Travolta and her husband, Jack Bannon, "are absolutely perfect in their roles."

"This is one of the most flawlessly written musicals of all time, and the score is full of musical theatre's most recognizable hits," he said.

Those include "Put On Your Sunday Clothes," "Before the Parade Passes By," "Elegance," "Hello, Dolly!" "It Only Takes a Moment" and "So Long, Dearie."

Bannon described his character, Horace Vandergelder, as "rich, friendless and mean."

It is, he said, a great role.

"I love it because I love Summer Theatre," he said. "I've been lucky to be part of this off and on for almost 20 years."

The dancing and singing are superb, said director Roger Welch, and the script is funny.

"It's a really great night of theater," he said.

Bannon and Travolta shine in the spotlight.

"It's like the show as written for them," he said.

"They have a wonderful sense for the text and the style of this period," he said. "And Ellen is very much like this character. It's not a stretch for her to want her hand in everything, and making wonderful things happen."

Ellen Travolta said she loves being on stage with her husband, Jack Bannon. There is an easy chemistry between them.

"Nothing bad can happen with Jack Bannon on the stage," she said.

Their dynamics at home, she said, are similiar in ways to the stage characters of Dolly Levi and Horace Vandergelder.

"Although he's not grouchy," she added of her husband.

If you go:

• The Coeur d'Alene Summer Theatre's production of "Hello Dolly!" is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 14 through Saturday, June 16; 2 p.m. Sunday, June 17 and Saturday, June 23; and 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 21 through Saturday, June 23. Tickets are adults, $39.95, seniors (60+), $35.95, and children 6-12, $25.95. The musical will be at Boswell Hall in Schuler Auditorium at North Idaho College.