Diane and I donned our N95 masks and arrived at Shea’s Performing Arts Center to see an elegant classical musical, My Fair Lady. This touring company version didn’t stint on anything: the sumptuous costumes, the impressive rotating set pieces, and an orchestra worthy of the music.
Based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady was first produced on Broadway in 1956 starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison, with Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and Music by Frederick Loewe. It won six Tony awards, including Best Musical, and ran for 2,717 performances, which was a record for that time.
The 1964 film version of My Fair Lady, which won the Oscar for Best Picture and was the second highest grossing movie of the year (only Mary Poppins made more), was controversial for its replacement of Julie Andrews for a bigger star, Audrey Hepburn as Eliza, whose voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon (who also dubbed Natalie Wood’s Maria in the 1961 film of West Side Story. Ms. Nixon was quite a busy woman at that time).
Lerner and Loewe collaborated on sixteen musicals including, to name a few: BRIGADOON, PAINT YOUR WAGON, CAMELOT, and GIGI. My Fair Lady was their biggest hit.
Shereen Ahmed as Eliza Doolittle, the cockney flower girl transformed into an elegant lady on a bet by altering her speech, delighted us with her wonderful voice. Laird Mackintosh is a convincing obsessive/compulsive Henry Higgins although this production presents Professor Higgins as an obnoxious dilettante.
If My Fair Lady shows up in your neighborhood, I recommend you consider seeing this old fashioned, classic musical with its wonderful songs. Are you a fan of My Fair Lady? GRADE: B+
Musical numbers:
| Act I “Overture” – The Orchestra”Busker Sequence” – The Orchestra”Why Can’t the English?” – Professor Higgins “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” – Eliza and Male Quartet “With a Little Bit of Luck” – Alfred Doolittle, Harry, Jamie and Company “I’m an Ordinary Man” – Professor Higgins “With a Little Bit of Luck (Reprise)” – Alfred Doolittle and Ensemble “Just You Wait” – Eliza”The Servants’ Chorus (Poor Professor Higgins)” – Mrs. Pearce and Servants “The Rain in Spain” – Professor Higgins, Eliza, and Colonel Pickering “I Could Have Danced All Night” – Eliza, Mrs. Pearce, and Servants”Ascot Gavotte” – Ensemble “On the Street Where You Live” – Freddy”Eliza’s Entrance/Embassy Waltz” – The Orchestra | Act II “You Did It” – Colonel Pickering, Professor Higgins, Mrs. Pearce, and Servants “Just You Wait (Reprise)” – Eliza “On the Street Where You Live (Reprise)” – Freddy “Show Me” – Eliza with Freddy “The Flower Market/Wouldn’t It Be Loverly? (Reprise)” – Eliza and Male Quartet “Get Me to the Church on Time” – Alfred Doolittle and Ensemble “A Hymn to Him” – Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering “Without You” – Eliza and Professor Higgins “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” – Professor Higgins “I Could Have Danced All Night (Reprise) / Finale” – The Orchestra |
I love the splendor of a sumptuous musical!
I’m sure the play is as entertaining as ever, but out here in the hinterlands we only get the touring companies of knockoffs — MAYFAIR LADY, MY FAT LADDIE, and the one about lost cooking equipment, MY FAR LADLE. **sigh**
I saw MY FAT LADDIE with Robbie Coltrane, Jerry. Tons of fun!
Jeff, the schedule for the 2023 BROADWAY series should be released in a couple weeks. Diane and I have seen a lot of BROADWAY shows so there may be some overlap for the next season.
Jerry, you can always watch the 1964 movie version…
Yes, to both PYGMALION and MY FAIR LADY. We’ve seen both on stage. We saw the most recent Broadway revival with Lauren Ambrose as Eliza and Harry Haddon-Patten as Higgins, much younger than the role is usually cast. Terrific production, and we enjoyed it thoroughly. (There was a revolving set, which made it quite interesting during “I Could Have Danced All Night,” as Eliza had to not only sing but traverse different parts of the set.) We saw PYGMALION in London in 1974 with Diana Rigg and Alec McCowen. This was a mistake because we went the day we arrived, and jet lag caught up to us during Act !!. After that, we skipped seeing a show the day we arrived in London, or tried arriving on Sundays when the theaters were dark. I believe we saw MY FAIR LADY in Niagara-on-the-Lake with Patti & Phil Abbott, although my list is at home so can’t give dates.
My parents saw the original Broadway production, I believe, and my father played the original cast album often, along with other albums by Tony Bennett (Tony at Carnegie Hall), Harry Belafonte (also a Live at Carnegie Hall album), Della Reese (Della Della Cha-Cha-Cha), Camelot (original Broadway cast), Mantovani (many), etc.
Jeff, my parents owned the soundtrack to MY FAIR LADY and I played it a hundred times. I still know all the words to those classic songs!
Not really. But Paint Your Wagon. Now that made a great movie. Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin singing!
Steve,Lerner and Loewe aren’t considered as great as Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, but I think they’re underrated.
I absorbed a lot of Hollywood musicals during my childhood by TV osmosis (it was always on in the living room) but I never really paid attention to them until the lockdown hit. I’ve seen the film version of this and it’s OK. Lerner and Lowe are pretty reliable but I’m kind of split on the Andrews/Hepburn argument. The former was obviously better equipped for the part but the latter’s screen presence was undeniable lightning in a bottle.
This looks like great fun and I do have a live musical on my list of things to do when and if things ever get back to normal but I’m not setting foot in a crowded theater until I feel completely comfortable without a mask. I can’t sit through a movie let alone a live show with a mask wrapped around my face.
Byron, after enduring two years of the Pandemic, in the words of one of the hits of MY FAIR LADY: “I’ve Become Accustomed to My Mask.” To me, wearing a mask is like wearing a seatbelt. No problem. But, I understand when other people have issues with masks.
I saw a production in Seattle many years ago. They have one star and a bunch of talented but unknown people surrounding him or her! The star this time was Richard Chamberlain! Luckily, his Henry Higgings only had to talk his songs!
Bob, you are so right about the Henry Higgins’s songs: very wordy and not that musically demanding! DOCTOR KILDARE was a long way from Henry Higgins!