My Fair Lady (2008.05.08)
The Cameron Mackintosh/National Theatre production of My Fair Lady has arrived in Toronto and it's something that has something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue I guess.
I should note that I'd NOT seen any part of My Fair Lady as a cinema OR stage production ever. I plan on picking up the movie with Audrey Hepburn as Eliza sometime during the summer. I've heard the song I Could Have Danced All Night as sung by Dame Julie Andrews in the 1956 Original Broadway Cast recording when I watched Broadway: The American Musical on PBS. The coffee table book that was released to go with the DVD's also provides some production stills (Eliza at the balcony) but other than having read Shaw's Pygmalion and knowing the general story... I'd not heard the other songs etc.
I had a chance to pick up tickets for the opening night performance, and ended up sitting up in the 'balcony' which is the upper section of dress circle structure. For the first act, I was facing the stage, while the second act saw me shift to closer seats but on the loge/side... however, the staging is fairly concentrated to the middle so it doesn't really mean that there's anything obstructed/missing by sitting to the sides.
I noted in prior conversation that some of the ensemble scenes were too 'spectacle' based for me - a strange melange of Stomp (complete with garbage tin lids), acoustics that meant that the orchestra/sound overwhelmed the singing vocals, and a strange situation where the scenes didn't advance the storyline. Even as I liked Tim Jerome as Alfred (Alfie) P. Doolittle, the two songs (With a Little Bit of Luck in act 1), and then (Get Me to the Church on Time in act 2) left me wondering what I was missing and why I wasn't feeling like I should have been clapping wildly for the finale.
Certainly, this current production brings together the classic songs of Lerner and Loewe with a new staging by Trevor Nunn and choreography by Matthew Bourne that reminds me that this adaptation of Shaw's work means that you cannot easily discern where the new material from Lerner begins and Shaw ends.
Although the role of Professor Higgins might have been written with Rex Harrison in mind, and his... lack of singing ability, Christopher Cazenove does a creditable job of stepping away from the shadow of Harrison and (to my ears) and singing the role as well as he's acted them. Part of the reason why I'd wanted to see the production of My Fair Lady was to see Marni Nixon on stage. As one of the foremost voices that was heard in so many movie musicals of the 1960's (and she was the voice of Eliza in the My Fair Lady film), it was a pleasure to see her back with My Fair Lady after forty years - this time as Mrs. Higgins, who unfortunately, does not have a song.
I should note that I'd NOT seen any part of My Fair Lady as a cinema OR stage production ever. I plan on picking up the movie with Audrey Hepburn as Eliza sometime during the summer. I've heard the song I Could Have Danced All Night as sung by Dame Julie Andrews in the 1956 Original Broadway Cast recording when I watched Broadway: The American Musical on PBS. The coffee table book that was released to go with the DVD's also provides some production stills (Eliza at the balcony) but other than having read Shaw's Pygmalion and knowing the general story... I'd not heard the other songs etc.
I had a chance to pick up tickets for the opening night performance, and ended up sitting up in the 'balcony' which is the upper section of dress circle structure. For the first act, I was facing the stage, while the second act saw me shift to closer seats but on the loge/side... however, the staging is fairly concentrated to the middle so it doesn't really mean that there's anything obstructed/missing by sitting to the sides.
I noted in prior conversation that some of the ensemble scenes were too 'spectacle' based for me - a strange melange of Stomp (complete with garbage tin lids), acoustics that meant that the orchestra/sound overwhelmed the singing vocals, and a strange situation where the scenes didn't advance the storyline. Even as I liked Tim Jerome as Alfred (Alfie) P. Doolittle, the two songs (With a Little Bit of Luck in act 1), and then (Get Me to the Church on Time in act 2) left me wondering what I was missing and why I wasn't feeling like I should have been clapping wildly for the finale.
Certainly, this current production brings together the classic songs of Lerner and Loewe with a new staging by Trevor Nunn and choreography by Matthew Bourne that reminds me that this adaptation of Shaw's work means that you cannot easily discern where the new material from Lerner begins and Shaw ends.
Although the role of Professor Higgins might have been written with Rex Harrison in mind, and his... lack of singing ability, Christopher Cazenove does a creditable job of stepping away from the shadow of Harrison and (to my ears) and singing the role as well as he's acted them. Part of the reason why I'd wanted to see the production of My Fair Lady was to see Marni Nixon on stage. As one of the foremost voices that was heard in so many movie musicals of the 1960's (and she was the voice of Eliza in the My Fair Lady film), it was a pleasure to see her back with My Fair Lady after forty years - this time as Mrs. Higgins, who unfortunately, does not have a song.