Through Sat 10/29
Oh yes, it’s still quite “loverly” in My Fair Lady land — that enchanted place — thanks to the gorgeously musical and cleverly scenic Great Lakes Theater company version now playing at PlayhouseSquare’s Hanna Theatre. Director Victoria Bussert creates a magical experience aided by an extraordinary cast, a striking set and of course, the fabulous musical legacy created by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe when they adapted G. B. Shaw’s Pygmalion.
Set in Edwardian London, it’s the story of the arrogant Professor Henry Higgins (Tom Ford) and his attempts to turn the feisty Covent Garden flower seller Eliza Doolittle (Jillian Kates) into a lady. It’s not because he’s such a nice guy, helping the poor girl climb up the social ladder, no. It’s because Higgins bets Colonel Pickering (a kindly Aled Davies) that in only six months he can teach Eliza how to speak and act as if she were a member of the upper class. Eliza hears this and insists that Higgins teach her.
It isn’t easy. The musical notes their struggles and ultimately their success — which comes at a price neither one expected. But we don’t care because it’s a delightful comic satire touched with memorable numbers such as “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” sung by Eliza and a very mellow quartet of her comrades on the street (Pedar Benson Bate, Peter Gosik, Juan Rivera Lebron and Matthew Lynn).
Ford’s clever Higgins generates both admiration (Higgins really does know what he’s talking about) and a bit of sympathy (he’s pretty clueless about how he’s perceived). The lovely and lyric Kates plays the often unrestrained Eliza simultaneously for laughs and for pathos. It’s a neat trick and Kates makes it look effortless.
When the servants, led by Mrs. Pearce (an authoritatively sweet Jodi Dominick), sing as they bustle about their work, it becomes clear that their “Poor Professor Higgins” doesn’t have a chance against Eliza. Neither does poor Freddy Eynsford-Hill (Colton Ryan), an upper-class lad who falls for Eliza. Fresh-faced and handsome, Ryan sweetly warbles “On the Street Where You Live” outside Eliza’s door like a truly lovesick lad.
M. A. Taylor makes us laugh as he romps around the stage as Eliza’s dustman father Alfred P. Doolittle. Doolittle claims he’s one of the “undeserving poor” and proud of it. Taylor’s snappy and hilarious “Get Me to the Church on Time” reminds us that maybe it’s really better that we will never win the lottery (or in his case, be paid for speeches on moral philosophy). Lynn Robert Berg turns into the obnoxious Zoltan Karpathy, archenemy of Higgins, with appropriately slimy gestures and a gliding stride. An elegant Laura Perrotta earns our sympathy as Higgins’ long-suffering mother.
Other cast members include Laura Welsh Berg, Cassandra Bissell, Adrian Grace Bumpas, Jonathan Christopher MacMillan, Christine Weber and Emily Sofia Wronski as dancing, singing servants, busy concertgoers, and ballroom dancers — all moving in apparently effortless synch, thanks to choreographer Gregory Daniels. Music director Joel Mercier makes beautiful music with a small band of musicians offstage.
Some of the magic mentioned earlier depends on a subliminal signal created by scenic designer Jeff Herrmann’s striking set and Charlotte M. Yetman’s costume choices. Color signals social class: everything and everyone connected to the upper class (rooms, servant’s clothes) are in neutral tones of gray, brown, white. Eliza and her circle “pop” with color. Eliza’s gorgeously red dress in the last scene probably needs its own credit. We can’t help but see that Higgins’ atmosphere is dry as dust compared to Eliza’s.
BOTTOM LINE: This lively, beautiful production reminds us why and how My Fair Lady remains fabulous and beloved no matter how many times we see it.
For tickets call Great Lakes Theater at (216) 241-6000 or go to greatlakestheater.
[Written by Laura Kennelly]
[Photos by Roger Mastroianni]
Cleveland, OH 44115