“Vitality” is the word that springs to mind to describe the innovative Signature Theatre/Ford’s Theatre co-production of “Hello, Dolly!” Also: “vision,” specifically that of director Eric Schaeffer, who has shown once again how effective “less is more” can be.

Like its larger Broadway predecessors, this smaller-scale “Hello, Dolly!” tells the charming story of intrepid matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi, an independent woman who refuses to fit into the conventional mold of most late-19th-century women. But this time her story is told with a cast of only 16.