The Barn Theatre recently opened its production of Lerner and Loewe’s musical My Fair Lady. WMUK’s Gordon Bolar has this review.
My Fair Lady has a rich history, drawing from ancient myth and George Bernard Shaw. His play “Pygmalion” pits ideas, some unconventional for the early twentieth century, against one another to provide a new perspective on relations between men and women.
Since the 1950’s and 60’s, the now familiar music, and lyrics from both the stage and film versions, are embedded in popular culture. The show’s songs include hummable tunes of warm sentiment, uproarious jigs full of comic excess, and speak-singing rational debates on class structure, social order, and love.
To succeed, My Fair Lady must present a variety of musical styles, encompass a range of emotions, and evoke ideas created by Lerner and Loewe, and predecessor Shaw.
Last Thursday evening, Director Mychelle Hopkins’ “My Fair Lady” did all of that and more, in a wildly successful, winning, and perhaps most importantly, thought-provoking production on the Barn stage.
After the show’s inviting overture, Eric Parker, as phonetician Henry Higgins, effectively establishes a note of rationality with the opening number “Why Can’t the English.” As he analyzes the dialects in Covent garden, the annoying diphthong infused cockney intonations of Eliza Doolittle, a coal-smudged, flower girl at the edge of a street gutter, capture his attention.
After conversing with new friend, Colonel Pickering, wonderfully rendered by Richard Marlatt, Higgins proposes a thesis that is the basis of a wager between the two men: if Higgins can improve the speech of this young “guttersnipe,” as he calls Eliza, he can elevate her social status.
The beauty of Parker’s performance is that he creates a fully dimensional character who is more than a mouthpiece for the show’s ideas on social engineering. Parker inhabits the cold, unfeeling Higgins, through his posture, manners, and the predilections of an aging, confirmed bachelor with a preference for examining life rather than an emotional attachment with it.
Parker leaves room for his character’s growth through self-debate in numbers such as “I’m an Ordinary Man” and in his stated discomfort with the very nature of women.
Hannah Eakin (EIGH-kin), as Eliza, artfully establishes her character’s initial status and dreams with the plaintive “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” a modest list of wants that at first seems out of her reach.
Eliza quickly realizes Higgins might be her ticket to a better life. Her earthy, gritty, ham-handed proposal for his assistance with diction reveals her aspirations if not her potential for high society. Thus begins one of the most remarkable character transformations in musical theatre.
Her frustrations with Higgins’ methodology and condescending, unfeeling treatment of her soon boil over as Eakin delivers a visceral, rebellious, and appropriately animated “Just You Wait.”
Eakin rises to the challenge of creating her character’s slow, steady arc though laborious failed attempts at standard British dialect. Her stirring soprano launches Eliza’s initial breakthrough with “The Rain in Spain.” Her soaring nightcap to this minor victory, “I Could Have Danced All Night,” highlights Eliza’s excitement regarding her newly found trajectory, her growing interest in Higgins, and catapults the show itself to stratospheric heights and audience approval.
After Eliza passes muster with the Ascot society, aided by Eakin’s hilarious over-precise pronunciations, Higgins deems her ready for the final test: The Transylvanian Embassy Ball. Despite withstanding close scrutiny and winning approval from the intrusive Zoltan Karpathy, in a delicious cameo from Charlie King, Eliza’s true transformation is yet to be completed.
In Act II, Eakin’s character stands motionless during the noisy celebration of what is deemed by Pickering to be Higgins’ triumphal evening, in the number “You Did It.” It soon becomes apparent to Pickering, however, that while Eliza has succeeded in changing her speech and social manners, Eakin’s demeanor indicates there are some important emotional boxes left unchecked.
True to character, Higgins is the last to notice problems related to Eliza’s inner development. A pair of his slippers, hurled by Eliza, miss their mark and their intended message.
Eakin and Parker are masters at holding moments of silence, and stillness onstage. This is crucial to supporting the unspoken feelings in the face-off negotiation between Eliza and Higgins near the end of the show. One question at the heart of this play hangs over this intense debate that is devoid of words like “love” or “marriage”: what should be acceptable terms for a relationship between a man and a woman, when that relationship seems to be more than a friendship?
I’ve seen the film and other stage productions of My Fair Lady. But I’ve never noticed this important question or the related ideas raised and highlighted by a director (Mychelle Hopkins) in such a thought-provoking manner. I have a hunch that George Bernard Shaw would be pleased.
This production also features welcome and raucous comic relief from John Jay Espino as Eliza’s degenerate father, Alfred P. Doolittle. “With a Little Bit of Luck” and “Get Me to the Church on Time” admirably showcase the singing and dancing talents of a superb supporting chorus, and the ingenuity of choreographer Erin Ellis.
Despite the three-hour run of My Fair Lady, the evening passes quickly. This memorable Barn Theatre production sounds all the necessary musical notes, delivers superb characters who pose weighty questions, and holds its audience to the very end.