My Fair Lady comes to Port Colborne
Port Colborne Operatic Society is bringing Alan Jay Lerner’s Broadway hit My Fair Lady to life.
Iraina Neufeld is in the director’s chair at Lakeshore Catholic High School in Port Colborne, where the society outs on its plays.
She says she is working to stay as true as possible to the original script. Accents included.
“You have to (keep them) because it’s about the accent,” she says. “There’s really no way around it.”
The play follows main character Eliza Doolittle, played by Emma Bonin, as she is taken under the tutelage of Henry Higgens, played by Barry Snider, who aims prove he can rid her of her cockney accent and teach her how to speak like an elegant lady.
Bonin says at first it was difficult to switch back and forth between two types of British accents, but at a rehearsal on Feb. 1, just two weeks before opening night, she was feeling confident.
She describes the production as “a classic with a kick.”
Co-star John Dickhout, who plays Col. Pickering, says it’s a fun production.
“I hope they (the audience) ap- preciate the story, but I think they should expect a few laughs,” he says.
Snider says Neufeld has found a way to bring out the laughs in a pleasantly subtle way.
The one word Neufeld uses to describe My Fair Lady is “rich” — for the text, the characters and the music.
In particular, she likes how it doesn’t follow the a formula the way musicals usually do. Many musicals, she says, involve a love story, which this one does not. She says George Bernard Shaw, who wrote the original play called Pygmalian, off which My Fair Lady is based, argued against those who said Doolittle and Higgens have a romance. Even if one were to see it as a romance, however, Neufeld says it’s not the usual kind because they fight the entire play.
Most musicals also begin and end with a big number, whereas this one begins and ends with a solo.
“It’s atypical in so many ways,” she says.
She credits the cast, musicians and everyone involved in the stage production with how well it’s coming together.
Jeff Ballin, marketing and publicity director for the operatic society, says Mary Poppins was a huge success last year and the group hopes for a repeat success with My Fair Lady.
Opening night is Feb. 18, when the audience will also have the opportunity to meet the cast.
For other show times and ticket information, visit portcolborneoperaticsociety.com or call 905-8347572.