My Fair Lady is one of my favorite classic musicals that isn’t Rodgers and Hammerstein. I loved getting the chance to see the revival at Lincoln Center with Laura Benanti as Eliza Doolittle. I was so excited to see that it was going to be a part of our season this year for Broadway Dallas because of how rare I feel it is to get a classic Golden Age musical that is still the same to its core, unlike the revamped version of Oklahoma!
If you haven’t heard of My Fair Lady before, it’s a musical based on the classic play, Pygmalion. It opened on Broadway with Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison as the leading pair and was eventually made into a movie musical staring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. This musical has many tunes that are well known, such as “I Could’ve Danced All Night”, “The Rain in Spain” and “On the Street Where You Live”.
Eliza Doolittle is a woman who is making her living selling flowers on the street when she meets Henry Higgins, a Phoenician professor. She decides to start taking lessons from him to improve her dialect, while he decides to use her as a challenge to transform and pass as a lady. Throughout the many challenges and struggles they encounter with the other, they begin to grow a fondness towards each other.
The set is the exact replica from the Broadway revival with some minor adjustments made for touring as every stage they visit is a little different in their set up. My favorite set is when they’re outside on the streets of London because of the cobblestone look given on the stage along with the gorgeous houses on the street where Henry lives. I also love the floor to window ceiling they have in his study that looks out to a garden. The sets very much transform you to an early 1900s London society.
The costumes were to die for. My favorite part of these classic musicals, like My Fair Lady, and Hello Dolly is the costumes, especially the gowns. Most people love Eliza’s formal gown when she goes to ball, but I love her outfit when she goes to the Ascot Racecourse and at the end of the show. I will say though, that Eliza’s formal gown is normally a silver/white/neutral color, I was pleasantly shocked to see Madeline Powell (Eliza) in a yellow ball gown.
I admit that I spent probably too much time comparing this cast to the cast I saw in NYC in 2019 and that isn’t fair to compare them to a Lauran Benanti, a Danny Burnstein, or even a Henry Hadden-Paton. It was honestly so refreshing to see a cast singing classical Broadway musical and they did a fantastic job with their execution. I really judge an actor as Henry Higgins based on the song “I’m Just an Ordinary Man” because it is his big Act 1 number and it is a complex number. Jonathan Grunert did a fantastic job with this and keeping the audience entertained with the comedy of the number.
If you want to see a Golden Age Musical that is still in it’s original bones and production, I highly suggest trying to catch this production on tour that currently has stops scheduled through May of 2023. See if it’s coming to a city near you here.
melissaleighblog.com 