One
of the pleasures of seeing a classic Lerner and Loewe musical such as My Fair Lady is in seeing how it can be
restaged, or even reimagined, some 60 years after it opened on Broadway. In
this Great Lakes Theater production, directed by Victoria Bussert, very few
liberties are taken with the material. And that’s a good thing, since the
material is so damn good all by itself.
Of
course, back in the day other Broadway teams took a run at musicalizing George
Bernard Shaw’s story of Pygmalion—including
Rogers and Hammerstein. Richard and Oscar worked on it for more than a year
before giving up, What threw them was the lack of a strong romantic through
line, since the stern taskmaster, phonetician Henry Higgins, and the poor
flower girl Eliza Doolittle never seem to really hit it off.
In
this production, Eliza is played by Jillian Kates, and she handles her chores
with professional aplomb, even though the “r” sound is barely noticeable in her
tender rendition of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly.” Still, she is a properly rough
and tumble gal as the early Eliza, joking and dancing with the other denizens
of the gutter. And she shows some real spirit in “Just You Wait,” her rant
against the dominating presence of ‘enry ‘iggins. When Eliza is transformed as
a proper lady, Kates shows off her powerful singing voice in the amusingly
repetitive “I Could Have Danced All Night.” But once this Eliza gets her rap
together, her character becomes a bit too flat, the spirit refined out of her.
As
Higgins, Tom Ford brings a tense, rapid-fire, no-nonsense approach to a role
that was made famous by Cyril Richard’s talk-singing profundity and slow burn.
Ford’s take is quite amusing throughout, especially in “I’m An Ordinary Man,”
but it sacrifices something in the connection that is supposed to grow between
Higgins and Eliza. Since Ford’s machine-gun nastiness seems reflexive rather
than inspired by the specific presence of the Cockney lass, it makes his
eventual softening towards her less personal, and thus less meaningful, than it
might otherwise be.
There
are particular delights in the smaller roles. M.A. Taylor has never been better
than he is as Eliza’s scoundrel father Alfred P. Doolittle. His takes on “With
a Little Bit of Luck” and “Get Me to the Church on Time,” augmented by
energetic dance numbers choreographed by Gregory Daniels, are little gems. And
Colton Ryan as Freddy loads plenty of yearning into “On the Street Where You
Live,” making his reprise laugh-out-loud funny. And Laura Perrotta manages to cadge
some laughs from the rather drab role of Mrs. Higgins, Henry’s mom.
The
scenic design by Jeff Herrmann is to drool for, with simple rotating panels
indicating the locations and a virtually monochromatic color scheme of whites
and off-whites giving the production a lush feel. The orchestra under the
direction of Joel Mercier is spot on.
My Fair Lady is a treasure and this
production does it full justice.
My
Fair Lady
Through
October 29 at the Great Lakes Theater, Hanna Theatre, 2067 E. 14th St.,
216-241-6000.
No comments:
Post a Comment