By Joe Marcellus
I’ll spare you the line about how good it is to be back to see live theatre. Suffice it to say, if you wish to hear the beautiful overture of My Fair Lady played by a spare-no-expense full orchestra at the Dolby Theatre, then you’d best arrive well before curtain to allow them to check your vaccination status. Not everyone in the audience got the memo and we had late comers trickling in well into the action of the show. Indeed, waiting in line to walk through metal detectors I forgot that I was seeing a play and instead felt that I might be boarding an airplane soon, which would take us to the destination at which the performance would be shown. All that aside, the production was fabulous and the evening, to borrow a word from Ms. Doolitle, “loverly.”
I’ll spare you the line about how good it is to be back to see live theatre. Suffice it to say, if you wish to hear the beautiful overture of My Fair Lady played by a spare-no-expense full orchestra at the Dolby Theatre, then you’d best arrive well before curtain to allow them to check your vaccination status. Not everyone in the audience got the memo and we had late comers trickling in well into the action of the show. Indeed, waiting in line to walk through metal detectors I forgot that I was seeing a play and instead felt that I might be boarding an airplane soon, which would take us to the destination at which the performance would be shown. All that aside, the production was fabulous and the evening, to borrow a word from Ms. Doolitle, “loverly.”
The Lincoln Center never disappoints in its revivals of classics. The commitment to the full orchestra harkens to the so-called “Golden Age” of the Musical Theatre, when such a thing was not only appreciated, but necessary. The production is a time-capsule to be sure, and it glistens and soars with confidence and joy. Shereen Ahmed, as the down on her luck cockney flower girl Eliza who dreams of chocolate and refined living, has a stunning voice and strikes the delicate balance between clowning and humanity that allows us to laugh with Eliza early on and feel galvanized behind her eventual success. I felt goosebumps in “I could Have Danced All Night” which was for me the vocal triumph of the evening. Adam Grupper as Mr. Doolitle, the do-as-you-please hustler turned philosopher turned fiscally stable family man (against his will), is hysterical and the beautifully staged “Get Me to the Church on Time” is as romptastic as romps can really get. Laird Mackintosh as Henry Higgins holds his own, although I would say that-perhaps not the fault of Mackintosh, who has a lovely voice and good comic timing, but rather the staging-this particular Higgins is a bit too physical. Mr. Higgins gets his power from words. He is, after all, an accomplished linguist. He values language above all else. A tad jarring then, to see him galavanting about the stage and needlessly throwing himself on furniture.
I would certainly recommend seeing this production, which is entertaining and worth seeing. The production did, however, raise a question for me. Certainly Bartlett Sher knows what he’s doing when it comes to the classics, and this is no exception. He has given the material tweaks-most notably the ending (which I won’t spoil), which alleviates some of the discomfort of the show’s sexism. These adjustments have received critical acclaim but to my way of thinking, they shroud an uncomfortable truth rather than explore it. My Fair Lady as written is sexist and of a sexist time. So then, when we revive material of this nature, is the most intelligent choice to impose our own politics on the piece, erasing or obscuring the bits that make it inconvenient, as if to suggest that Lerner and Loewe were secretly on our side, concealing trap doors to a more enlightened show that they knew would be uncovered at some later date? Consider The Merchant of Venice, one of Shakespeare‘s most popular plays and constantly lauded and performed with what I think is the deeply misguided belief that Mr. Shakespeare was ahead of his time. What everyone seems to forget is that The Merchant of Venice is a comedy, Shylock a clown. I would argue that the original audience of the work was so deeply imbued with the belief that Jewish people were intrinsically wicked that it was indeed laughable to suggest that they were just like Christians due to their ability to bleed, etc etc. These pieces can be so cruel to groups of people that we are still struggling to defend today, but carry within them authentic moments of beauty and artistic triumph. The short answer to this question is to say that art is complex-horrible people can create beautiful things, and magnificent works can be laden down and sullied by the unpleasant realities of their context. I wonder, though, if the solution is to gaslight modern audiences into believing that these creators were above their times, or to more seriously consider what pieces we revive and ask ourselves which should be left to study rather than mount as we move towards a more enlightened phase of artistic creation. I think it would be more compelling to watch this particular work in all its audacity and let the people decide for themselves.
My Fair Lady runs in Hollywood at the Dolby Theatre from October 7 – 31, 2021. The North American tour is directed by Tony and Drama Desk award winner Bartlett Sher. The tour will also play in Costa Mesa at Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts from January 11 – 23, 2021. Tickets start at $30, and are available for purchase online at www.BroadwayInHollywood.com or www.Ticketmaster.com.
