Jeremy Daniel
If you are a fan of classic musicals, you are probably familiar with the film version of My Fair Lady, which starred Rex Harrison, reprising his Broadway role, and Audrey Hepburn, a controversial replacement for Broadway’s Eliza Doolittle, Julie Andrews who had no film experience at that point and the studio wanted someone with star power in the role (even though Hepburn’s singing voice had to be dubbed by Marni Nixon). While everyone though Andrews was ‘practically perfect’ as Eliza, she did get her film experience the same year, 1964, in Mary Poppins, winning the Oscar for Best Actress, while My Fair Lady won Best Picture and Best Actor. Hepburn was not nominated. The Broadway production ran for 2,717 performances, a record at the time and was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning six including Best Musical and Best Actor, while Andrews scored a nomination. The show has been revived several times over the years, most recently in 2018 from which this national tour was birthed. My Fair Lady was the musical adaptation of the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, which was subsequently made into a 1938 British film. When songwriters Lerner & Loewe were given the option to adapt the play into a musical, they actually turned it down because the story was lacking three things a successful musical needed: a love story, a subplot and an ensemble. They eventually returned to the project, deciding it didn’t really need those things. I’m not sure they were right.
My Fair Lady revolves are Professor Henry Higgins, a too-full-of-himself phonetician who believes he can coach a flower girls from the streets, Eliza Doolittle, to speak proper English rather than her natural Cockney accent and fool the highest of society into believing that she is one of them. Higgins actually resists the idea at first but Colonel Pickering, a linguist Higgins was about to travel to India to meet — and Pickering was in London to meet Higgins — makes a wager with Higgins that what he plans to do will be impossible. And impossible it seems as poor Eliza can barely pronounce her vowels but, by George, she gets it when she is able to pronounce ‘The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.’ An elated Higgins attempts to pass Eliza off as upper crust at his mother’s box at the Ascot Racecourse, and there she meets Freddy who becomes immediately smitten with her. Then it’s on the the Embassy Ball where he hopes to pass her off as a lady, but a rival of Higgins, Zoltan Karpathy, smells a rat and tries to find out just exactly who Miss Eliza Doolittle it. But Higgins’ relationship with Eliza sours when he and Pickering take all the credit for her success without so much as a ‘job well done’ to her, but the bigger problem now is that with Higgins’ little project over, what becomes of Eliza?
And there is a subplot involving Eliza’s ne’er-do-well father who finds out what Eliza is up to and shakes Higgins down for five shillings. She ain’t worth more than that, he reckons, basically selling his daughter to this man. And Higgins somehow does something that suddenly makes Mr. Doolittle wealthy and now he’s facing his worst fear — marriage.
My Fair Lady is regarded as a classic today, but I’m going to bet that’s solely because of many of the show’s more popular songs: ‘Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?’, ‘The Rain in Spain’, ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’, ‘On the Street Where You Live’, ‘Get Me to the Church On Time’, and ‘I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face’. Unfortunately, the story is definitely of its time and a bit cringey in the way Higgins and Pickering regard Eliza (although Pickering grows a bit more attached to her as the show moves forward). The biggest problem with the show is Higgins, one of the least sympathetic leading characters I’ve ever seen in a show — even his mother thinks he’s a bit of a twit and ends up on Eliza’s side — referring to himself as a ‘confirmed bachelor’ and even has an entire number about the joys of being a single man. And by the time he realizes he just might have some type of feelings for Eliza, it’s too late and the show … ends, leaving many in the audience wondering exactly what happened when Eliza walks off stage (my theory was that she just thought this overly and needlessly long show had to end). I suppose this bit is supposed to be some of Eliza’s female empowerment that wasn’t in the original version but it almost falls flat. Jonathan Grunert has a magnificent voice and carries off the songs with great aplomb but Higgins is a thankless role and no one in the audience really wants to root for him to win Eliza over.
Jeremy Daniel
Madeline Powell is a bit more modern than Elizas past, a woman who actually has a dream to open her own flower shop (poor thing can’t get hired at the local shop because of her accent), making her endearing even though for about the first third of the first act you can barely understand her screeching Cockney accent (and the sound at our opening night performance did her, nor anyone else, any favors — one actor’s mic wasn’t working in either of the show’s two acts!). But from the moment she nails ‘The Rain in Spain’ it’s smooth sailing and she even gets to inject some humor into the Ascot scene. Powell’s voice is beautiful and operatic, and she carries the show.
John Adkison makes for a fine Pickering, although for a much as he likes Eliza, he loses a little of the audience’s good faith when he joins Higgins’ celebration of his success, virtually ignoring Eliza. The show is problematic when it comes to the sexism and misogyny and this turn in his character doesn’t help. I also found some of the Three’s Company-style humor alluding to Pickering’s sexuality a tad offensive, but that is not the actor’s fault. Adkison plays what is written and he does it with great skill, even managing to carry on as a major piece of the set malfunctioned in the middle of his line, forcing the show to pause temporarily (and that wasn’t the only set mishap of the night).
As for the ‘sub-plot’ characters, Michael Hegarty is the show’s comic relief or sorts, but his treatment of his own daughter is also a tad questionable. And then he gets the show’s most bizarre musical number, ‘Get Me to the Church on Time’, that features can-can girls and guys in drag celebrating his last night as a free man. I never knew that song was from this show until I saw a production a few years ago at a community theatre, and it still feels wildly out of place. But Hegarty earns his applause by the end of the number. Still, and no offence to Hegarty, Alfred Doolittle is an unnecessary character to the plot over all. As is Freddy, played with wide-eyed wonder by Nathan Haltiwanger, a man with an incredibly powerful voice. When he sang ‘On the Street Where You Live’ he transported me back to the sound of a 1930s-1940s movie musical star. Unfortunately, Freddy is just another blip in the story. We’re told to believe that he and Eliza have a romance going on, but we never see them together. He just hangs around outside Higgins’ abode and apparently writes her pages and pages of love letters every day. Like Alfred, Freddy is very tangential to the plot and by the end we have no idea if Eliza went to him or not. Haltiwanger gives a sweet performance, but with both the Freddy and Alfred sub-plots removed, the show could easily have run 30 minutes less. I am curious to know if Daniel James Canaday was channeling Kenneth Mars from Young Frankenstein and What’s Up, Doc? for his performance as Zoltan, because to me that is clearly what he was doing. If you know, you know. Everyone in the cast is outstanding, and that’s no lie.
As for the production, the stage is filled with wonderful set-pieces courtesy of Scenic Designer Michael Yeargan, with the centerpiece being the large, mobile, two-story Higgins study that moves up and down stage at the appropriate times (maybe, because it malfunctioned a couple of times during our performance). There is also some lovely lighting by Donald Holder, although there were often issues with the follow spotlight operators particularly during Eliza’s ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’ number where they could not seem to keep the spot on her face. Besides the Higgins study, the highlight of the show are the costumes, particularly Eliza’s Ascot gown with the giant hat and her yellow ball gown. Catherine Zuber’s designs are truly ‘loverly’. Bartlett Sher’s direction does have some nice moments, like the crowd watching the horse race, but there’s also a lot of needless ‘busy work’ as the ensemble players wheel streetlights and other objects back and forth across the stage. If the light is on the left, there’s no reason for someone to push it all the way to the wings on the right side of the stage. It was a bit too much. I really can’t say there was much that wowed me or really seemed memorable in Sher’s direction.
This is only the second time I’ve seen My Fair Lady on stage (and I’ve never seen the movie), and while there were things I did admire in both productions, including the incredible casts, I just don’t like the story and aside from the songs we all know from the show, the others are … forgettable, or maybe just overshadowed. So I am conflicted about recommending the show. If you are a fan of the show, the music or the movie, you will definitely want to see this tour. If you just want to go to the theatre to experience a classic musical, it might also be worth the trip because the prices are extremely reasonable. It’s worth it just for the cast alone. I don’t want to be a total hater. The story is terribly dated, but if you can overlook that and just go for the spectacle of it all, you should have an enjoyable time. I love musical theatre and it’s rare that I give a show anything less than our highest three-star rating but this was just not my ‘cuppa tea’.
My Fair Lady runs about 2 hours 55 minutes with one 15 minute intermission. Recommended for ages 8 and up.
My Fair Lady runs through January 15 at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre. Other cities on the schedule include Hershey PA, Waterbury CT, Portland OR, Miami FL, Washington DC, Boston MA, Roanoke VA, Orlando FL and more. Visit the official website for more information. Use our Ticketmaster link to purchase tickets.
My Fair Lady Tour Montage
The Lincoln Center Theater
Check our Ticketmaster link for ticket availability.
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