My Fair Lady closing July 7- Page 4

[LuPita2]

Posted: 5/17/19 at 3:25pm

Deep, dark, imposing. All pretty racist to me.  And no, for the 6oth time, Jordan was not scary nor did he play scary. Several people have said this.  

Oh, and I saw Steven Pasquale when he was in his 20s in Miss Saigon.  I would have LOVED to see him as Freddy when he was young. Dark? Imposing? Scary? Ridiculous. Stop speaking for other people and their wants regarding theater actors. Thanks so much!

[CT2NYC]

Posted: 5/17/19 at 4:20pm

GeorgeandDot said: "My issue wasn't so much with his appearance, but with his voice and demeanor. As I've said now for the fiftieth time, his deep voice paired with an almost sullen demeanor made him feel like he was out of a Tim Burton film. Perhaps his performance has evolved since the early performances, but I found him to be far too serious and scary to be the childish, good for nothing Freddy that Higgins says he is. This has nothing to do with "big black man scary" because him being black had nothing to do with it. Had he been paired with Denee Benton, I would've felt the same way. I have no doubt that he's a sweetheart in real life, but Freddy is a bit of a stalker and having a large man with a deep voice and a serious demeanor, made his character scary.

It's amazing that any sort of criticism of any of the actors in this, frankly, misfire of a production is met with personal attacks of some sort and an immediate attempt to discredit the opinion, is ridiculous."

GeorgeandDot, I often disagree with your opinions on here, but I understand what you're saying, and there's nothing racist about it. It's clear that you're talking about his "vibe," not his skin color, and, once you remove that from the equation, "imposing" and "scary"   are just words to describe ANY man, not JUST one of color. Sorry that you have to be at the receiving end of nonsensical drama over absolutely nothing.

[BenElliott]

Posted: 5/17/19 at 4:34pm

I'll timidly agree with you GeorgeandDot. Donica's performance didn't work for me either. He has a very deep and kind of harsh singing voice. I love classical voices, but I found his voice to sound like a Disney villan and his acting stiff. I kind of see why you would find him scary and I agree with your thought that he seemed like Javier had been cast as Freddie.

I was talking to a friend of mine about Sher's approach to these classic works. He really comes at them with somewhat of a cynical, contemporary, dark, and most importantly, hyperrealistic point of view. I think this worked beautifully for his productions of South Pacific and The King and I and somewhat for his Fiddler. There was a realistic, new, fresh, and darker look at them and they turned out gorgeously. Unfortunately, I think My Fair Lady is a gender politics musical comedy and it didn't quite work with a darker interpretation. I loved the ending, but there was something missing, energetically about the piece, no matter who the Eliza was. It seemed like the musical comedy part was missing. Maybe not every musical lends itself to a hyperrealistic interpretation.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 5/17/19 at 4:40pm

I saw both Jordan Donica and Christian Dante White as Freddy.  Both very different interpretations.  I preferred Christian (both his vocals and acting).  He seemed very smitten with Eliza. Jordan has a beautiful voice, but I'm not sure what he felt about Eliza.

The production felt tighter and there were more laughs when I saw it with Laura than with Lauren.  The only time I saw Lauren was in the second week of previews, so I can only imagine they were all still getting their footing.

Updated On: 5/17/19 at 04:40 PM

[Moderator]

Posted: 5/17/19 at 5:16pm

We just wanted to jump into the middle of this discussion to remind everyone that while you are welcome to discuss performances, and to even engage about other posters' opinions and statements, when the line is crossed to insulting/attacking others, that is when we will have to remove posts that violate our rules. 

For the most part, while this thread has been contentious at times, most posters have made obvious efforts to keep the disagreements and critiques about the performances and others' opinions, we have had to prune and delete a few posts that were too personal. 

So, if you think a statement is "racist" and you want to explain why, we will allow some leeway with that. However, if you call someone a "racist," then that would be going too far. If you can keep the conversation about the performances, and even about how we talk about performances, we see great value in that, but if it ventures too far afield from there, we will have to think about locking the thread. 

Thanks as always for the discussions, and if you have questions, feel free to PM us, or email at moderator[at]broadwayworld[dot]com. 

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 5/17/19 at 6:19pm

BenElliott said: "I'll timidly agree with you GeorgeandDot. Donica's performance didn't work for me either. He has a very deep and kind of harsh singing voice. I love classical voices, but I found his voice to sound like a Disney villan and his acting stiff. I kind of see why you would find him scary and I agree with your thought that he seemed like Javier had been cast as Freddie.

I was talking to a friend of mine about Sher's approach to these classic works. He really comes at them with somewhat of a cynical, contemporary, dark, and most importantly, hyperrealistic point of view. I think this worked beautifully for his productions of South Pacific and The King and I and somewhat for his Fiddler. There was a realistic, new, fresh, and darker look at them and they turned out gorgeously. Unfortunately, I think My Fair Lady is a gender politics musical comedy and it didn't quite work with a darker interpretation. I loved the ending, but there was something missing, energetically about the piece, no matter who the Eliza was. It seemed like the musical comedy part was missing. Maybe not every musical lends itself to a hyperrealistic interpretation."

I think in general Sher is uncomfortable with the kind of humor of MFL. For better or worse Sher productions are very "woke" and some musicals just are not "woke." For all the talk about how "reimagined" Daniel Fish's Oklahoma! is he kind of leaves the dated, un-woke Ado Annie/Will Parker/Ali Hakim storyline as is, realizing that you can't re-imagine something that's meant to be dated. Sher's treatment of the Alfred P. Doolitle music hall scenes were always a disaster -- he can't really accept those numbers as is. Nor is he comfortable with the misogyny of Henry Higgins. 

[SmoothLover]

Posted: 5/17/19 at 6:54pm

I think one of Sher's strengths is making the material relatable to todays audiences. I think it is the job of any director to do so because if an audience cannot invest in what they are seeing then the material fails. This does not necessarily have to be done by giving the material a modern sensibility. How many shows have we all sat through that we walked out thinking that we could have cared less. Sometimes an audience can connect through themes that were intended by the playwright. The fact that the revival has maintained discussion ever since its previews over a year ago on these boards it quite a compliment.

We all respond to plays and performances not only by how good or bad they are but through our own experiences.

Donica worked for me because he did not play the mama's boy or the silliness that I have seen other actors fall in to. I  have always found the character to be underwritten. I appreciated his masculinity and found him sincere, Every choice he made was motivated and he played the scenes and not to the audience. Now I watched the performance as a gay man so maybe a female or a straight man might have responded to him differently. But to each his own. That is the great thing about art. There are no right or wrong responses.

[CT2NYC]

Posted: 5/28/19 at 8:05am

FYI, according to the Telecharge website, Harry Hadden-Paton is now scheduled for the final performance on 7/7.

Updated On: 5/28/19 at 08:05 AM

[Skip23]

Posted: 5/28/19 at 8:25am

I havent read this whole thread, but does anyone know if Clark Thorell is scheduled to go on again?