Anyone who posts on chat boards like this knows that when it comes to first rate revivals of plays/musicals, Bartlett Sher is the master of the moment. So I decided to buy a premium ticket to his revival of Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady now playing at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont. For those on the fence...It was worth every cent. For me, mostly because I had never seen a professional production on stage. But also because this creative team guarantees the show will be at the very least, a class A staging even if you disagree with some decisions.
Walking into the theater alone made me gasp at the gorgeous full stage mural of London 1912 that acts as the show curtain. Bravo Michael Yeargan. Donald holder’s 24 hours of light effect on the mural alone during the overture could garner him the Tony Award. Ted Sperling leads an orchestra that is beautiful and classy throughout….another reason to see this (hearing the golden age of Broadway at its best sounding)
Once the show started, I was dazzled in some ways and puzzled by others. Yeargan’s set in most of the street scenes and the ballroom scene feels boxy, unit set like, less town square and more printed and attached to wooden framing. Of course his 365 degree take on Professor Higgins handsome home that spins you into the bathroom, the atrium, the foray, and his parlor is one of the most effective uses of a turn table I’ve seen in years. The entire set moves in and out seamlessly by a combination of tacks and actors. It has it’s own rhythm that keeps the storytelling happening even in the transitions…no doubt part of Sher’s magic. Catherin Zuber’s aristocratic period costumes cement her place as the goddess of good taste. Eliza’s gold ball gown and ruby red puffy cover up bring new meaning to the word elegant. Every look is a KNOCKOUT.
Lauren Ambrose is a fine choice for Eliza. Pretty voice, a bit on the softer side, but she is in full control of her instrument here. Her work on the cockney dialect is good, sometimes funny (hard to make that funny in 201, and of course you actually see this uncultured girl of meager beginnings become a woman of great sophistication. She is an excellent actor. But I often didn’t connect with her on a musical theater performance level. It felt to me sometimes that the scenes and the songs were coming from two different people instead of effortlessly taking flight from a character actually going through something. The songs seemed to have a performed like a concert singer quality. Her final moments are exquisite.
Harry Hadden-Paton brings more sex appeal and sympathy to Prof. Higgins then I’ve seen before. He does a fantastic job cutting through the material as to not look like just a male chauvinist of the era. His is a driven Higgins that has devoted his life to his work and Eliza has turned his world upside down. I’ve grown accustomed to her face is as heartfelt and real as it could be. A man in a certain kind of love. His final moments are also exquisite.
Norbert Leo Butz is a bit too vaudevillian as Eliza’s father. Not all his fault, it’s in the writing. And you can tell L&L developed him as a bit of a comic relief….I mean how else do you pull off get me to the church on time, lol. Unfortunately for me, he didn’t feel like a believable character. I would have liked to see him a bit more pathetic and flawed, so you understand where Eliza comes from a bit more. Having to go back to that life after all she’s gained would be a crime indeed. You miss that a bit here. Eliza and her father’s relationship could have been deepened with the help of Sher more. It’s a heartbreaking relationship. It feels a bit glossed over here for comedy sake.
Diana Rigg is perfectly cast as Mrs. Higgins although a bit stiff. Allan Corduner as Colonel Pickering is a skilled actor and also perfect for the role, but i feel like the difference between the two men was not big enough. If Eliza knows he’s a real gentleman at the core i didn’t get that totally. Jordan Donica is a perfectly handsome and appealing Freddy in wonderful voice. I didn’t love the staging of the song by Sher, though, not using Mrs. Pearce when he could have.
The choreography by Christopher Gattelli seemed uninspired to me. And that is something I don’t think I’ve ever said in connection to Gattelli’s work. Not that the show is dance heavy but the spark or joy of movement wasn’t always present in the work here. The ballroom scene felt more awkward then glamorous…then again, maybe that is what they were going for. Eliza’s experience. Very strange indeed.
Sher does a terrific job of making the show feel fresh, like a new experience even if you’ve seen several productions. He absolutely deepens the material but not to the level of his South Pacific, The King and I work. And I’m not sure it can all be pinned on him here. This is a tough show to deepen. Never before have I sat in a show where I was so aware about the difference between one written in the golden age of musicals and one written now. Dialect and gender humor play so differently in 2018. Bart handles it with more of a naturalistic approach not worried about big laughs, but instead the ones that come from a real life situations. But the classification MUSICAL COMEDY has never been more evident. Again, how do you deepen a tragic character like Alfred Doolittle when He sings Get Me To The Church On Time….it was written just to make people smile. On today’s scene, the relationship would be written much differently. And Prof. Higgins isn’t much easier to get inside. You could feel the audience energy change to the slightly negative when he sang his feelings about women. People used to really laugh at that, women included. But Sher works just enough of the human condition into Harry’s Henry to make it work.
Of course, those in the know know that Eliza does leave Henry in Shaw’s original text and that the MUSICAL COMEDY stylings of the day persuaded L&L to push the romance instead having her stay at the end. But I have got to say that in 2018 i agree whole heartedly with Sher’s decision to have her leave him in the end. The material plays just different enough to make it poignant and almost essential that she now owns the confidence to believe she doesn’t need a man to succeed. Both actors are unforgettable in those final moments. You leave the theater wondering what happened to Miss Doolittle the very next day…a marvelous way to walk up the aisle on your way home.
joined:7/18/11
joined:
7/18/11
Posted: 3/28/18 at 9:30pm