My Fair Lady
I'm on the fence. I am a rotten fence-sitter and I have wooden bars forever imprinted on my bum because of that.
Because, see here: I don't quite know how much I liked yesterday's performance!
Have an excerpt from Stuart Maconie's "Pies and Prejudice - In Search of the North" about Cockneys:
Nothing about the Cockney proletariat sets our teeth on edge more than their 'cheeriness'. A few years back, I went to see My Fair Lady starring Martine McCutcheon at the National Theatre. Pretty good it was too. But halfway through, something really quite dreadful happened. The scene changed from Park lane to what was unmistakable some theatre director's notion of a 'cheery' down-at-heel street scene in Lambeth or the Isle of Dogs. Slatternly women in shawls shrieked horribly as 'cheery' costermongers pinched them on the bum. Scamps and scallywags ran about nicking apples from barrows; chestnuts were sold and the contents of chamber pots flung about. Fear and apprehension begin to grip me as it does when you hear the whine of the dentist's drill or the opening music to Last of the Summer Wine. But in this case, it was the fast-approaching whine and clatter of Dennis Waterman and a troop of choreographed 'geezers'. The clatter was the sound of the dustbin lids they had attached to their feet as they stomped and hoofed around. The whine was the awful version - Im not sure there is a good one - of 'Get me to the Church on Time'. When Dennis and co. got to the bit behind about 'having a whopper' and actually hooked their thumbs behind their lapels, that inexplicable Cockney gesture of, well, 'cheeriness', I could feel the blood drain from my face.
That's where all of the crowd scenes lived. The choreography lifted straight from the Chimney Sweep scene in Mary Poppins, everyone loud and brash and annoying.
Another problem was the cast. Thorsten Tierney just couldn't find the balance between sung and spoken - maybe it's cause contrary to Rex Harrison, he can actually sing and he just didn't seem to know what to do with his voice (it was heavily based on the film production, right down to the set and costume design). That the sound mix fucked up his mic several times didn't help at all. He finally hit his stride with "I've grown accustomed to her face", only that song got truncated so heavily that there wasn't much left. Same with "A Hymn to Him". No Pickering! HOW can you do Hymn to Him without Pickering? It's just not done! One verse adressed to Mrs. Pearse and that was it!
At least not in my book. It doesn't matter what version of My Fair Lady I see, in the end I always have a crush on Pickering, and by god, Bernhard Dübe was wonderful and charming and warm and delicious and all things good. All the more shame that he disappeared after his phonecall to Scotland Yard, never to be seen again. Booo!
Kira Primke as Eliza was pretty good, but she was a Mezzo and Without You just didn't have that high ringing clarity that it needs to really shine. "Guest Star" (and therefore top-billed) Gunther Emmerlich, well... I never liked his voice, and he annoys me on the telly, but you have to hand it to the man, he has the stage presence and the routine. That doesn't change the fact that his growly basso is far from being suited to be Alfred P. Doolittle. It just didn't work for me at all, because it took all the levity out of his songs and gave the character way too much misplaced gravitas.
On the whole, I did enjoy the evening, but that was mostly because I love this musical and I know it so well and am always happy to see a new version of it. Still, the dialogues at the beginning dragged and they'd have been better off shortening those instead of snipping bits of the best songs for Higgins. (re-listening to the OBC, I think they shortened 'You did it' as well)
But I have to say, Bernhard Dübe was so amazing, so energetic, so cheery and cheeky and full of life that it more than made up for the shortfalls of the rest of the production.
Because, see here: I don't quite know how much I liked yesterday's performance!
Have an excerpt from Stuart Maconie's "Pies and Prejudice - In Search of the North" about Cockneys:
Nothing about the Cockney proletariat sets our teeth on edge more than their 'cheeriness'. A few years back, I went to see My Fair Lady starring Martine McCutcheon at the National Theatre. Pretty good it was too. But halfway through, something really quite dreadful happened. The scene changed from Park lane to what was unmistakable some theatre director's notion of a 'cheery' down-at-heel street scene in Lambeth or the Isle of Dogs. Slatternly women in shawls shrieked horribly as 'cheery' costermongers pinched them on the bum. Scamps and scallywags ran about nicking apples from barrows; chestnuts were sold and the contents of chamber pots flung about. Fear and apprehension begin to grip me as it does when you hear the whine of the dentist's drill or the opening music to Last of the Summer Wine. But in this case, it was the fast-approaching whine and clatter of Dennis Waterman and a troop of choreographed 'geezers'. The clatter was the sound of the dustbin lids they had attached to their feet as they stomped and hoofed around. The whine was the awful version - Im not sure there is a good one - of 'Get me to the Church on Time'. When Dennis and co. got to the bit behind about 'having a whopper' and actually hooked their thumbs behind their lapels, that inexplicable Cockney gesture of, well, 'cheeriness', I could feel the blood drain from my face.
That's where all of the crowd scenes lived. The choreography lifted straight from the Chimney Sweep scene in Mary Poppins, everyone loud and brash and annoying.
Another problem was the cast. Thorsten Tierney just couldn't find the balance between sung and spoken - maybe it's cause contrary to Rex Harrison, he can actually sing and he just didn't seem to know what to do with his voice (it was heavily based on the film production, right down to the set and costume design). That the sound mix fucked up his mic several times didn't help at all. He finally hit his stride with "I've grown accustomed to her face", only that song got truncated so heavily that there wasn't much left. Same with "A Hymn to Him". No Pickering! HOW can you do Hymn to Him without Pickering? It's just not done! One verse adressed to Mrs. Pearse and that was it!
At least not in my book. It doesn't matter what version of My Fair Lady I see, in the end I always have a crush on Pickering, and by god, Bernhard Dübe was wonderful and charming and warm and delicious and all things good. All the more shame that he disappeared after his phonecall to Scotland Yard, never to be seen again. Booo!
Kira Primke as Eliza was pretty good, but she was a Mezzo and Without You just didn't have that high ringing clarity that it needs to really shine. "Guest Star" (and therefore top-billed) Gunther Emmerlich, well... I never liked his voice, and he annoys me on the telly, but you have to hand it to the man, he has the stage presence and the routine. That doesn't change the fact that his growly basso is far from being suited to be Alfred P. Doolittle. It just didn't work for me at all, because it took all the levity out of his songs and gave the character way too much misplaced gravitas.
On the whole, I did enjoy the evening, but that was mostly because I love this musical and I know it so well and am always happy to see a new version of it. Still, the dialogues at the beginning dragged and they'd have been better off shortening those instead of snipping bits of the best songs for Higgins. (re-listening to the OBC, I think they shortened 'You did it' as well)
But I have to say, Bernhard Dübe was so amazing, so energetic, so cheery and cheeky and full of life that it more than made up for the shortfalls of the rest of the production.