North American Tour of My Fair Lady

[The Boy From Ohio]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 12:00pm

I searched and didn't find anything.
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/109741.html

[sgv123]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 12:04pm

what is that u were looking for?

[Piercemn]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 12:21pm

The last time I saw MFL onstage, it starred Edward Mulhare as Higgins and Ann Rogers as Eliza. It was a ghastly production, but at least I got to see the original sets. I doubt I'll see this production. I don't think I could sit through it again.

[Piercemn]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 12:21pm

The last time I saw MFL onstage, it starred Edward Mulhare as Higgins and Ann Rogers as Eliza. It was a ghastly production, but at least I got to see the original sets. I doubt I'll see this production. I don't think I could sit through it again.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 12:40pm

Thanks to my niece's curiousity, I've been rekindled with the 1964 film-version and we're both excited for the upcoming tour. Talk about timing. She just can't fathom how great the music and the book really are. I also love seeing that someone from yet another generation has embraced MY FAIR LADY and she doesn't follow theatre or Broadway at all.







It is currently one of the largest touring productions with a cast of 35, orchestra of 16 and 25 technicians who bring the show to life eight times a week.

It takes ten 45' trailers to move the production from one venue to the next. The show finishes in one venue on Saturday evening and opens at the next venue on the following Tuesday, just three days later.


SETS AND PROPS

There are 425 books on the set of Professor Higgins study.
The dustbin lids used in ‘With a Little Bit of Luck’ are reinforced lids, with specially designed handles and are attached using velcro. These props are changed 12 times throughout the tour.
The ‘marbles’ used when Eliza learns to speak clearly are chewable mints!
The company consume food and drink on set including eight bread rolls (for the men around the fire eating during ‘Wouldn’t it be Loverly’), 24 Maltesers (all the chocolates eaten throughout the show), 32 Mint Crumbles (marbles as above), four blocks of cheese (for the men around the fire eating during ‘Wouldn’t it be Loverly’), two Jamaica Ginger cakes and four jam tarts (tea being eaten by Pickering and Higgins during Eliza’s lessons), four litres of Coke (the brandy for Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering) and 600ml of Ribena (mixed with food colouring for Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering’s Port)

COSTUMES

There are 162 separate outfits in the show, including one ‘fat suit’ for the character Zoltan Karpathy.
Eliza’s ball dress has over 5897 beads, all of which are hand sewn on.
195 costume changes occur during each performance.
The quickest costume change takes 30 seconds and is from Eliza’s everyday outfit to her stunning dress for the ball. This is a complete costume and wig change and takes five people! (three dressers and two wig people).
The largest hat in the show is worn for the Ascot scene and is one metre wide, including feathers.
After each show there are six loads of washing.
24 shirts are washed, starched and ironed each day.
7kg of washing powder and 3 litres of conditioner are used each week.

WIGS AND MAKE-UP

There are a total of 46 Wigs in the show (20 real hair and 26 acrylic), eight moustaches and one beard. Eliza alone has six wigs.
There are 75 wig changes during each performance.
10 cans of hairspray and 800 baby wipes are used each week.

TECHNICAL

There are 300 separate lights in the lighting rig. All the lights together are a quarter of a million watts of light bulbs. It would cost £12,500 to replace each light unit and £1/2 million to replace the entire lighting rig.
The electrics department use over seven miles of cable. The automation department uses 2520' of cable.
88 flying pieces of scenery move during each show. There are 42 bars in the grid used to hang the scenery on. The weight of the set items that are flown is 7980kg (5282kg scenery and 2698kg of lighting).

Six motors are used for the set item known as the floral hall arch and 12 motors are used to hang the electrics trusses.
There are 171 lighting cues, 13 automation cues and 15 flying cues.

When the Study set changes, it takes eight local stage crew, three local fly operators, four stage management crew and the automation operator.

It takes73 crew to move the show in the allocated three days.

GENERAL FACTS

My Fair Lady was adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion that was in turn based on a classical myth by Ovid in which Pygmalion fell in love with Galatea, a beautiful female statue.

My Fair Lady opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre, New York on 15 March 1956 where it ran for 2,717 performances. The stars of the show were Rex Harrison (Professor Higgins), Julie Andrews (Eliza), then little known to American audiences, and Stanley Holloway as the dustman Alfred P. Doolittle.

My Fair Lady subsequently opened in London with the same cast on 30 April 1958 at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. It enjoyed a record-breaking 5½ year run at that theatre that remained unbeaten until 19 December 1994 when it was overtaken by the Cameron Mackintosh production of Miss Saigon.

The My Fair Lady Broadway cast album spent over 300 weeks in the US chart, many of them at number 1.

My Fair Lady was filmed in 1964. It won the 1964 Academy Award for Best Picture together with seven other Academy Awards for Best Actor (Rex Harrison), Best Director (George Cukor), Best Colour Cinematography, Best Colour Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound, Best Score (Andre Previn) and Best Colour Costume Design (Cecil Beaton).

Cameron Mackintosh first presented a new production of My Fair Lady in London in 1979, directed by its creator Alan Jay Lerner, where it played for two years at the Adelphi Theatre following a highly successful UK tour sponsored by the Arts Council. This production starred Liz Robertson (Eliza), who in 1981 married Alan Jay Lerner, Tony Britten (Higgins) and Dame Anna Neagle (Mrs Higgins).

The Cameron Mackintosh/Royal National Theatre production of My Fair Lady opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 21 July 2001 to a record breaking advance.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 1:26pm

Thanks for posting that Brody!

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 2:29pm

I'm debating whether or not to make the 2-hour drive to see this play in Nashville, since it's not coming anywhere near me. But it sounds like it will be a "big" production.

[The Boy From Ohio]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 3:12pm

WOW. Thanks for the info, Brody. I was planning to see the show because it's a classic and I've never seen it onstage. Now it sounds like it will be a great production. It starts the BAA season in Cincy in late Sept. I can't wait.

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 3:18pm

It's my 2nd favorite show of all time, and this production is LONG overdue for the States. I'll have to go to L.A. to see it, though, but I definitely will.

[Shawk]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 3:27pm

It's one of my favorite shows as well, and I loved this production when I saw it in London.

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 3:32pm

Who did you see in it, Shawk?

[mikeyb16]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 3:34pm

I too love this show. I saw the UK Tour 3 times last year and still loved it. I saw Christopher Cazenova as Henry Higgins and Amy Nuttall as Elisa Doolittle and they were absolutely BRILLIANT as the characters :)

[popular_elphie]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 3:36pm

Yay Justin Bohon!

[Shawk]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 3:38pm

I saw Jo Riding and Alex Jennings. They were both quite good.

I thought the "A Little Bit of Luck" number went on a bit too long and was a bit too "Stomp," but I really enjoyed the staging and the concepts behind the production.

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 7/25/07 at 7:38pm

AW! I love Joanna Riding!

[mrkringas]

Posted: 7/25/07 at 8:01pm

This is a delightful production! Take the 2hr drive RentBoy as you wont see another production in the US that will breath such life into this show. The two leads were wonderful in the UK tour and it really really works.

Although they aint quite as good as seeing Jo Riding or Laura Michelle Kelly in the role.....but still good enough!

[AngusN]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 3:44am

Joanna Riding and Amy Nuttall were both SUPERB.
It was a shame they decided to record Martine's version; she was dire. Tbey couldn't even make her sound decent on the recording. In 'Wouldn't it be Loverly' she sounds like she has a very bad cold, and in 'I Could Have Danced All night' her voice sounds so thin and weak. Bleh!

[Born To Reign]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 7:54am

Got to see this. Baltimore or Pittsburgh, here I come!

[hawkeyemania]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 10:09am

I will get to see this production multiple times in Iowa City, as i am the marketing intern that will be working on all of the musicals that we have coming into town........so excited!!!

[Rotel1026]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 10:11am

Is this going to make it to Broadway eventually? I thought I'd read awhile back that the tour was a warm up for a stint on Broadway.

[jaystarr]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 10:32am

Hi All-

I am going to see it in Boston and post my review , though I am still debating whether to post it on the BOSTON board or the MAIN BOARD....

and here's the info for Boston:



My Fair Lady
Feb. 5 - Feb 17, 2008
Opera House-Boston

Length
2 Hours + 50 Min

Description
“PROBABLY THE GREATEST MUSICAL OF ALL TIME!” – London Daily Telegraph

MY FAIR LADY, Lerner & Loewe’s legendary musical, premieres in the United States direct from its 50th Anniversary London production and U.K. national tour. Starring are acclaimed British theatre actors Christopher Cazenove and Lisa O’Hare who earned rave reviews for their dynamic performances as Professor Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle. “The cast is superb!” “A more perfect Higgins I have yet to see!” Based on the Cameron Mackintosh/National Theatre of Great Britain’s award-winning London sensation, and hailed as “the revival against which all others will be measured” this glorious, new production features one of Broadway’s most beloved scores including “The Rain in Spain,” “I Could Have Danced All Night’ and “Get Me to the Church on Time” and brings together the original U.K. artistic team with direction by four time Tony® winner Trevor Nunn (Les Misérables), choreography and musical staging by two time Tony® winner Matthew Bourne (Mary Poppins) and production design by Anthony Ward (Gypsy).


for more info... on tour route

official website :
https://www.myfairladythemusical.com/


Hope this help

J*

Updated On: 7/26/07 at 10:32 AM

[americanboy99]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 10:55am

I saw the last national tour and it was ghastly.

[mrkringas]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 11:15am

Well this is the non-ghastly Cameron Mackintosh production of the National Theatre Production. A real delight!

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 1:58pm

Did they not just have a tour? I saw it, I think about 2 years ago. Or is it the same one?

[Justin D]

Posted: 7/26/07 at 4:19pm

I saw it in london, nice set, i thought the conveyer belts in the stage floor was an interesting way to move scenery on and off. but i;ve never been a huge fan of the show.