Musical ‘My Fair Lady’ brings a lovely accent to Marcus Center
Based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play “Pygmalion,” the musical “My Fair Lady” has been an audience favorite since its 1956 Broadway premiere. It has been revived on Broadway four times and twice in London, and has toured repeatedly over the years.
Lincoln Center Theater’s new production came to the Marcus Performing Arts Center Tuesday evening as part of the MPAC’s Broadway series.
Set in 1912 London, the Lincoln Center production is visually lovely, from beautifully sculpted Edwardian-era gowns and hats, to rich and varied color palettes, and some elegant use of lighting.
The show’s visual highlights include the Ascot scene, which opens with a slow, striking parade of company members seen as black silhouettes against a glowing backdrop before lighting reveals the soft pastels of the scene’s costumes, as well as the rich, saturated colors of the ball scene’s lavish costumes and striking backdrop.
This production relies on its ensemble members for a good deal of its color and fun, both of which they deliver nicely, including in a rambunctious, gymnastic, playfully bawdy, and completely delightful take on “Get Me to the Church on Time.”
Ensemble members move between upper and lower class characters throughout the show, handling the accent shifts beautifully.
The heart of the show lies in the relationship between Eliza Doolittle, a young woman who sells flowers on the streets of London and speaks with a blazing Cockney accent, and the upper-class Professor Henry Higgins, who declares that he will use his study of English dialects to transform Eliza into a proper, British lady.
Madeline Powell’s Eliza delivers a dynamic character, displaying both the grit and spine of someone born into a life of poverty and struggle, but whose spirit and dreams have not yet been broken.
Jonathan Grunert’s rigid, obsessive, and emotionally clueless Henry Higgins is a wonderful contrast to the fiery Eliza. He channels bits of actor Jim Parsons’ iconic Sheldon Cooper character, to give Higgins a modernday reference.
The show was accompanied by a lackluster blend of synthesized and acoustic instruments that further suffered from balance issues, particularly early in the show, and pitch issues that persisted throughout the evening.
The balance and sound quality of the actors’ amplification, when they spoke and when they sang, was an issue early on, but evened out over the course of the first act.