My Fair Lady blooms bright

Lincoln Center Theater

It was a warm sunny day last spring when I met my friend at the Park Avenue Armory to see Yerma. The first thing he said to me was ‘I saw My Fair Lady!’, to which I excitedly replied ‘How was it?!’

‘The Ascot costumes were beautiful.’

And that was the end of it.

My friend is eloquent as a born broadcaster.

I love My Fair Lady. I grew up with it. I used to check out the original Broadway cast album from the library and listen to it, at the same time checking out the Random House hardcover script book to read as I listened. The film was a huge part of my childhood. While other kids were listening to the soundtracks to Dumbo, Cinderella and Pinocchio I was on My Fair Lady, Funny Girl and High Society. Right after I moved to New York there was a revival of My Fair Lady starring Richard Chamberlain and Melissa Errico, which I insisted on seeing. I just have a thing for this piece, it’s special.

I did not see the current My Fair Lady until just recently, around its one year anniversary.

Though my friend’s opinions are valid and noteworthy to me, I did not make the decision to skip My Fair Lady because of those opinions, though many people share his opinions. I did not see My Fair Lady because the play opened and everyone in New York needed to see it. If tickets were available they had to be acquired at full price – and that’s a big ‘If’ and a big ‘Price’. I see a lot of theatre so I don’t pay full price for anything; that way I can see more theatre. I heard how expensive MFL was and I thought it was unconscionable. For a not for profit theatre to charge so much money for tickets is wrong, and no mistake. I understand the need to make money but there is ‘for profit’ and there is ‘non-profit’ and LCT is the latter – they have no business charging the kind of money I was seeing quoted online. So I didn’t see the play on sheer principle. I would wait until the play had been on for a while and get discounted tickets. Besides, I thought the casting was wrong. I like Lauren Ambrose but I didn’t get the Eliza Doolittle vibe from her. I was sure she would be good but I was also sure that I wouldn’t be quite apt to buy it. I was fine with the rest of the cast. I had enjoyed Harry Hadden-Paton on Downton Abbey but it wasn’t like Allen Leech was going to be playing Henry Higgins. I always enjoy the genius Norbert Leo Butz but it wasn’t like he was going to do anything as Alfie Doolittle that I haven’t seen him do before. Allan Corduner is so lovely but he’s a smart working actor and he stays with shows for a long time – I knew he would still be playing Colonel Pickering when I finally got around to seeing the play. The only problem was Diana Rigg. I have never seen her live and I would love to. But I had to make the hard choice and skip it, at least for that time being. My Fair Lady was placed, firmly, on the back burner.

I finally got around to seeing the Bartlett Sher-helmed My Fair Lady the other day. The time had come for me to make it a priority. I did that because Laura Benanti is currently playing Eliza Doolittle. I love Laura Benanti, and true love lasts a lifetime. She is one of the Broadway Idols of my heart. Still, she is booked in MFL into the summer. I could have waited. But no. I had to, HAD to see My Fair Lady when I did: one week before Danny Burstein left the show. Because doncha know, I see every play Danny Burstein does, if I can. There have been those days when I couldn’t control my destiny but this time I could and, doggone it, I was going to see Danny Burstein play Alfie P. Doolittle the week before he left the play.

First of all, it is a privilege to go to the theatre. I never take it lightly. It needs to be, and it should be, an event. A trip to the theatre should be an honored occasion in your life. By golly, by gosh, I was seeing Laura Benanti and Danny Burstein in My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center Theatre on a lovely spring night in New York City. I put on my best pair of dungarees and a bright pink gingham shirt with a pale blue cardigan and blue sunglasses, and set off for Lincoln Center, where the bright fuchsia neon sign blazing My Fair Lady greeted me in the twilight of the spring air. Once there I was treated to their huge displays filled with photos of the gorgeous set and the cast and that is when I was reminded that I was in for a real treat: the legendary Rosemary Harris is the current Mrs. Higgins. I have seen this artist every time she has played New York in the last 26 years and I have never been disappointed. This. Was going to be. A. Great. Night.

Kids, My Fair Lady is in great shape. Youse all know the story so there’s no need to rehash that for you. I can tell you in very direct verbiage that the play is really beautifully put together and their stage manager is keeping it tight. The cast is on top of their game, the orchestra is sounding seriously brilliant and it was a night out which I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to fans of the play. I would not recommend it to people who think it is dated, or who love Gigi more, or who don’t care for old fashioned musicals. Those members of the audience are walking in with an agenda and there is nothing happening at Lincoln Center that is going to change their minds. People who have no interest in this play will get no rate of return seeing this production. My Fair Lady is old fashioned and classic and absolutely nothing has been done to change it. That is to say, if there have been changes to make the play less misogynistic, more empowering to women, more modern, those changes do not stand out. I am aware that the revival of Flower Drum Song was altered to make the play less racist. I have read that the revival of Kiss Me Kate has been tweaked for the era of MeToo. I know that there is a wish to update all that which is out of date. It just doesn’t always work … or show. And that is the case with My Fair Lady.

This production of MFL is glorious. The sets by Michael Yeargan are so lovely, so colorful, so detail oriented, so complete that they make you wish you could be up on them, relaxing and eating chocolates. In fact, sometimes that can be a bit of a problem because of the literal way the set design has been approached — the wagons some of the sets are on take forever to travel the length of the stage and land in place. It’s a major clock eater and it can, effectively, stop the action of the play. If you have the right attitude, though, you don’t mind it because you know that when the wagon stops and the set is fully in Donald Holder’s lights it will be pretty. I happen to like pretty. That is probably why I was so enthralled by Catherine Zuber’s costumes, save for one, particularly the breathtaking Ascot costumes, over which I exclaimed in full voice, during the play, ‘WOW’. Creatively speaking, the designers have placed these characters in sumptuous splendor, even when they are just languishing in the poverty of Covent Garden’s street vendors and the grit of the seedy bars that Alfie Doolittle frequents. Everywhere you look there is something pretty for your eyes, and that is welcome when you are paying Broadway prices: you really know where your money went.

Lerner and Loewe’s script and score are spectacularly intact and represented by this skilled company of triple threats to whom the 57-year-old piece has been entrusted. The vocal work of the acting company, whether voices raised in choral or solo performance, is a pleasure to listen to. The dance skill of the corps de ballet is apparent, whether we are watching a can can, a waltz or a tango – all of them guided expertly by choreographer Christopher Gattelli. I’m not kidding when I say this is as traditional and old fashioned a My Fair Lady as you are likely to get.

Oh, that isn’t what you wanted? Well, I hear it isn’t what they planned either.

I had heard about the revolutionary new ending to the play. Traditionalists have been eating themselves up about it since the first preview, chatterati have been up in arms, filled with umbrage for the temerity it took to change My Fair Lady. I won’t spoil it for you by telling you what it is. I will confine myself to saying that this revolutionary new ending, based on a concept for making Eliza a strong woman in this time of empowering women is neither revolutionary nor new. It lacks teeth, it has no power, it has no oomph. It is a joke without a punchline. The only thing this minor change in the play presentation achieves is to leave the audience asking themselves ‘what just happened, and what does it mean?’ for exactly 30 seconds, which is enough time to get your audience bearings once more, just in time for the curtain call. Then, on the walk home, people get to ask their date what THEY thought it meant. Trust me when I tell you, the last sixty seconds of My Fair Lady deserve no more of your attention than the time it takes to watch them, and then begin to applaud the cast, a cast which deserves your applause. So rather than focus on the ending of the play and those sixty seconds, let’s focus on what’s important.

Lincoln Center Theater

Laura Benanti is, indeed, everything one might suspect she is going to be as Eliza Doolittle. She is beautiful, playing the role with all of the strength one hopes Eliza will have and then will develop as the story progresses. She has the vulnerability the character needs to have to garner our sympathy and she has something I knew she would have that other Eliza’s might not be able to find in the character: humor. This is Laura Benanti, kids, you have to know there will be untapped wells of Funny that bubble to the surface for Eliza, where they hadn’t before. Laughter was popping up in different pockets around the auditorium as particular things that Eliza said or did touched the individual funny bones of a man sitting here, a woman watching there, a couple laughing together up top. Some actors create characters onstage that everyone in the audience can relate to. This actor is creating moments where her character will be relatable to each individual, giving them all one special moment that they, alone, shared with Eliza Doolittle. Each facet of the titular character in this production shines like a diamond – a diamond with the singing voice of a crystal bell.

True to form, Allan Corduner plays Pickering with charm, a wistful heart, and a twinkly eye, while Linda Mugleston brings the audience a brand new Mrs. Pearce, a woman with a voice and a vision for how this household should be run, a vision she executes with an easy but firm hand. Christian Dante White gives us an adroitly clueless, albeit charming Freddy Eynsford-Hill, and a glorious, gorgeous, rafter filling ‘On The Street Where You Live’. Clarke Thorell is the new Zoltan Karpathy and while I was sad to see this wonderful actor so underused, I was happy to see this wonderful actor has a job because an actor with a job is a beautiful thing.

The most beautiful thing I saw on the stage at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, though, is Miss Rosemary Harris.

Lincoln Center Theater

Miss Harris is one of the great actresses to ever set foot on a stage. She has attained legendary status by continuing to come back to Broadway, by refusing to retire, by acting in films, on television, and on any stage where she can make an entrance and deliver any line at all in that unmistakable, trademark voice, the low timbre reaching out into the dark to the very last seat in the very last row at the tippy top of the theatre. Few actors today have the training and ability to just say one world in almost a whisper and, still, every ear in the house will hear it. Miss Harris is one of those actors. Mrs. Higgins is not a big role but it is big enough for all of the audience to get a feel for what a special thing is happening when this extraordinary woman, this magnificent artist is given a playground and a willing, and extremely lucky, audience. We as New York theatre-goers need to turn up when she acts, sit back, watch and learn. This is a good thing and a great thing, Rosemary Harris on stage.

It is also a good and great thing that I prioritized seeing this play when I did because it was just days later that Danny Burstein left the play. The current Alfie P. Doolittle is Broadway veteran Alexander Gemignani and I am convinced he is as good as the original Alfie, Mr. Butz. The Alfie I got to see, though, was Danny Burstein and that is my karmic justice for being a good theatre-goer. Danny Burstein has an uncanny knack for taking a musical theatre character and bringing him down to earth. There is a certain amount of presentation required when doing musical comedy, if only to get the intention to the last row of the theatre, and an actor has to go big or go home. There can be a degree of winking at the audience for these performers, especially one portraying a larger than life personality like Alfie Doolittle, but not for Danny Burstein. He manages to make Alfie as big as he needs to be to work the room, all the while keeping him as small as he needs to be to remind you of Drunk Uncle Nate on Thanksgiving Day. Is it live or is it Memorex? Is it a character or is it someone from your own life? It’s kind of miraculous what Mr. Burstein does onstage, in My Fair Lady or in anything, by being able to balance the broad with the natural. It is a perfect example of Excess Within Control and it’s a master class for anyone who aspires to this kind of work. That’s why it is essential that I see every Danny Burstein performance. Moulin Rouge, get ready for me because here I come.

It is impossible to talk about My Fair Lady without talking about Henry Higgins. I grew up with Rex Harrison on the cast album, the movie soundtrack and on VHS. As an adult I got to know Leslie Howard in the film Pygmalion. My only other Henry Higgins was Richard Chamberlain in the 1993 revival. All three of these noted actors were wonderful in the role, creating their own version of the confirmed old bachelor. I’d love to know how Harry Hadden-Paton is in the role; if anyone knows, please write and tell me. Because I saw the play on a Wednesday night, not knowing that this is Mr. Hadden-Paton’s night off and that the role is played on those nights by Michael Halling. And frankly my dears, I didn’t give a damn.

Michael Halling has done six Broadway shows, almost all of them as a standby or understudy. It is time for Mr. Halling to originate a role on Broadway and have a standby of his own. His work in My Fair Lady was charming, enchanting, not words one would associate with the curmudgeonly Henry Higgins. Maybe it is because he is younger than the men one usually finds playing Higgins. Perhaps it is because he is frightfully handsome, and winsome usually wins. Could be it is because he sings the songs, something that can tend to be rare for this play in which the leading man sort of speaks his songs. Whatever the case may be, Mr. Halling’s chemistry on stage is not just with Miss Benanti, it is with everyone with whom he shares the stage. Even when cross, fussy and cranky Mr. Halling’s characterization of Higgins allows the audience a little glimpse into the man he is playing, a man with layers that match the facets of the lady opposite him. Henry Higgins is an extremely difficult part to play, and in the hands of lesser skilled actors an audience might be looking at a one-dimensional cardboard cutout. Not so with this actor who works hard but appears to be hardly working, who sings out but isn’t played out. I’m a gay man who goes to the theater to watch his divas but this time I was looking for the next time the divo would make an entrance. Michael Halling was the pleasant surprise of the evening, and while I was really looking forward to seeing Bertie Pelham from my favorite TV show Downton Abbey, I wasn’t, not for one moment, disappointed.

Well, maybe I was disappointed in one tiny thing. Not the acting, not the classic piece of theatre, certainly not with the thrill of hearing that LCT orchestra play that score, starting with the tear-inducing ‘Overture’ and ending with the cheerful curtain call music. No, what disappointed me, what has left me in a quizzical state, asking myself the same question over and over was Eliza Doolittle’s outfit for the Embassy Ball. Why are they always such a letdown? I’ve seen photos of other Eliza Doolittles. I’ve seen two of them live. The Embassy Ball outfits are never even as nice as Eliza’s Ascot outfit. Is it because the Audrey Hepburn look is so iconic that everyone who plays this scene since looks like a housewife on her way to the grocery store? The film representation of this scene is arguably one of the most famous in cinematic history; do designers simply choke when the time comes to give an actress a stunning look for their big scene? Is it just too big a challenge? Because I did not see one piece of clothing, jewelry or hairstyle on Laura Benanti, one of the most beautiful women you will ever see up close, that made her look like the most beautiful Hungarian Princess at the ball. It made my heart sad and it turned my smile upside down. Everything from the shoes, to the cut of the dress, to the over application of jewelry, to the by-rote hairstyle looked clumsy to me. It was like seeing Into the Woods and when the Witch transforms having her stand there in a floral print dress by JC Penney.

But let’s be honest here, if that’s the only thing that bothered me in this production of My Fair Lady, I had best shove a bunch of marbles in my mouth and start reciting some verse; because, as classic musical theatre goes, as current theatrical entertainment goes, it will be rather difficult to find something as lush, as genteel, as elegant, as lovely as this play, a play I think everyone should see at least once in their lives. My Fair Lady is a classic. The classics exist for a reason. They are the history of the great art form that draws people into darkened rooms at exorbitant prices, where they will give up an evening of Reality Television and texting. They need to be worth the sacrifice. And My Fair Lady is worth the sacrifice.

Laura Benanti is booked through July 7, 2019.

My Fair Lady runs about 2 Hours 55 Minutes with one intermission.