![]() ![]() She is determined, willful, and self-possessed from the start. This Eliza, Madeline Powell, only two years out of college and making her National Tour debut, shows this pride and independence well. She must retain her pride and triumph to the end.” There was enough pressure even at first to have the story end “happily” that Shaw wrote a postscript essay, “‘What Happened Afterwards,” to the 1916 version of the script, and in 1920 he wrote a note to the leading actress, insisting, “When Eliza emancipates herself - when Galatea comes to life - she must not relapse. In Shaw’s original conception, he was adamant that they should not. The intersection of new and old brings us back to our second question - whether Eliza and Higgins should end up together. The iconic image of Doolittle being borne off to his wedding like a flower-bedecked, dearly-departed stiff gains extra punch from pall-bearers dressed in corsets and boxer shorts. Christopher Gattelli’s saucy choreography makes the number fly by too fast. ![]() The dance-hall booze-up gets wilder as Doolittle’s stag night goes on, culminating in a chorus line of cross-dressed can-can “girls” (who do impressive splits!) and a drag queen and king as bride and groom. Doolittle, proves this is definitely not your grandparents’ My Fair Lady. Pickering’s phone conversation with “Boozy,” his “old school chum,” has never conveyed quite this much meaning before.Īnd the showstopper of the night, “I’m Getting Married in the Morning,” led by the excellent Michael Hegarty as Alfred P. Both Zoltan Karparthy (Daniel James Canaday), in an utterly delightful corkscrew mustache that bounces when he talks (wig and hair Design by Tom Watson) and Colonel Pickering (John Adkinson) come across as gloriously gay. First, Suffragettes march through the ensemble in “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” reminding us that this is precisely the time when women were agitating for rights, freedom, and a voice.īut then the fun really begins. The staging, too, hints at a new interpretation from the start. First of all, the casting is suitably diverse, and although the principals are all white, Eliza’s two understudies are women of color. ![]() Her masterful handling of her train in the dance sequences broadcasts her new confidence.Īll of this feeds the audience’s hunger for a rich and nostalgic My Fair Lady, but Sher’s updated revival brings us squarely into the present. ![]() In the ballroom scene, the silhouettes are the same, but the colors are gorgeous jewel tones, against which Eliza’s golden-apricot ensemble plays beautifully. Eliza’s outfit alone stands out with its black bodice (but would have been more effective without its froofy lace embellishment). In the Ascot scene, which begins in breathtaking silhouette, the dresses glow softly in a muted dove-gray, differentiated only in their shapes, and there are some touches of visual humor involving hobble skirts and trains. Set in 1912, right on the cusp between Art Nouveau and Art Deco, they look like Erté fashion prints come to swirling life. Jonathan Grunert as Professor Henry Higgins, Madeline Powell as Eliza Doolittle, and John Adkison as Colonel Pickering in the National Tour of ‘My Fair Lady.’ Photo by Jeremy Daniel.Ĭatherine Zuber’s costumes eminently deserve their 2018 Tony win. Also, some numbers that can come across as shrill, such as “The Servants Chorus” (aka “Poor Professor Higgins”), have a satisfying lower register here. Music Director/Conductor David Andrews Rogers makes the 10-piece orchestra sound larger playing the lush score but does not overwhelm the singers, thanks to Marc Salzberg and Beth Lake’s sound design. Some reinterpretations cause more problems than they solve. And in one of Director Bartlett Sher’s few bewildering choices, a policeman having a tryst outside the window totally upstages the principals during the “cup of tea” scene, merely to get around the fact that there is no bird in Eliza’s birdcage for Higgins to feed cake to. The library set boasts an impressive double-height arched window with a tree and playing space behind, although Donald Holder’s lighting, otherwise excellent, could better indicate what seemed to be its main purpose: to differentiate between day and night. One graceful touch involves three streetlights of different heights, which periodically pause in a line center stage before being pushed to their new positions. The scene changes are accomplished smoothly by the costumed characters, usually silhouetted against a color-washed cyclorama. Michael Yeargan’s set, which alternates between mobile but intricately painted and illuminated flats and a slide-out, two-story, wood-paneled library, is both flexible and sumptuous. Paul’s dome on the scrim, we know that production values will be high. From the moment the audience enters the theater and sees the impressive watercolor of London’s iconic St. ![]()
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