: It’s one of the most visually stunning scenes in musical history: Professor Henry Higgins brings his protege, Eliza Doolittle, to the races at Ascot to see if she can conversationally pass muster among the British upper crust after his intensive elocution training.
Wednesday, November 03, 2021
New 'My Fair Lady' design emphasizes history, class divisions over fantasy
Datebook
: It’s one of the most visually stunning scenes in musical history: Professor Henry Higgins brings his protege, Eliza Doolittle, to the races at Ascot to see if she can conversationally pass muster among the British upper crust after his intensive elocution training.
: It’s one of the most visually stunning scenes in musical history: Professor Henry Higgins brings his protege, Eliza Doolittle, to the races at Ascot to see if she can conversationally pass muster among the British upper crust after his intensive elocution training.
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In my opinion, the article does justice to the process we call designing. Drawing from past renditions, director Bartlett Sher discusses the challenges the production team faced in incorporating past designs of the critically acclaimed productions of “My Fair Lady”. From the original (in 1956) featuring Julie Andrews to the play, it’s based on (“Pygmalion”), pieces from which to draw inspiration were more than present. Therefore, I think it is interesting to read about the ways in which the team considered the “enormous legacy” and still, in the critic's opinion, managed to bring relevance through social critique. Rather than seeing the piece through a lens of romance, Sher’s take focuses on the Edwardian era’s history of class division and burgeoning social movements. In other words, the story (in this case) is one of hardships and troubles in relation to social mobility rather than love. An idea all designers presented in unique, recycled ways.
This article was very interesting, especially because I have never even seen or read My Fair Lady. I love seeing designers who reinterpret concepts, dramatically manipulating the messages and introducing new themes. This costume designer perfectly exemplifies this by reinterpreting the message to address social class instead of leaning for the comfort of frivolity and femininity. They elevate it from a class romantic story to a commentary that interrogates controversial points of history. This is how we make theatre interesting. The same script can be the root and soul of a show, but change based on emphasized points in any aspect of the production process. That is the magical power of storytelling as a designer, dramaturg, director, or actor. This retelling and passing of the power between artists is what makes it all interesting. Theatre can very easily become boring and predictable, but the collaborations have the power to breathe new life into ancient works. We see it happen all the time with Shakespeare’s or classics such as My Fair Lady.
It’s fascinating to see modern productions of broadway’s classic golden age musicals as has been done so famously by the revival of Oklahoma. The original production of ‘My Fair Lady’ and many of the subsequent ones, including the film, have focused on the glamour and grandeur of the story, with extravagant costumes and enormous hats beside sprawling sets to tell the uplifting story of a girl rising in class. It is shockingly clear to me that it's time for a revival of My Fair Lady that focuses on the classism that is intrinsically a part of the script. I think historical accuracy and more honesty are fascinating ways to achieve these goals and I would be interested to see the directorial and dramaturgical work that has gone on behind the scenes here to achieve this take on the story. Twists on classic texts can be incredible pieces of art or tacky clip ons to something great, and I hope this one rocks the theater world.
It was great to learn about not only the set design and the costumes of “My Fair Lady” but also the interaction of each element. I don’t know a lot about the contents of the show, but from the explanation, it seems that the designers took care to think about the historical context of the show and previous productions of it. Costuming is the one thing that can show the status of a character, which is obviously a huge theme of this show. I can think of something like “Anastasia” where she begins in a worker’s outfit but by the end of the show her costume, a beautiful red ballgown, shows that she has become a princess, as another example of this assent into refinement. Also, I can absolutely see the nods to the original and the iconic movie look, which I am familiar with, in the first picture featured in the article. It's just interesting to think about how much clothes can see about a person or character and this article definitely highlighted this
The article provides interesting and thought-provoking insights to the designs of ‘My Fair Lady’. I like how the article mentions the scenic and costume designs, particularly on how the two elements merge and combine. This is insightful and provides a good reminder for me as a designer that different areas of designs often will come in together, and the message delivered by the designers must come through. Seeing Beaton pay tribute to Audrey Hepburn’s classic role is also inspiring because I think there’s a line of distinction between tribute/homage and copying. Oftentimes, I think most people (including designers, audiences and myself) find the line blurry and hard to catch. It leads me to thinking how to take inspiration, whether from separate elements or from pieces that have already been made, and transform it into something completely new. If I’m paying a tribute, how do I do it subtly so that I’m not just producing the same thing, yet at the same time resembles the original piece enough that my audience sees the tribute?
I appreciate when new adaptations of older material take the production in a new and different direction, there’s nothing more pointless than a reboot with no originality or personal stamp from the creators. Eliza’s dress is recognizable as it uses similar tones to the original film version, and especially the hat shape signals to the audience who the character is, while still having a unique design. In particular I love the dotted lace and flowery lace on the bodice & sleeves. The details about the differences between the sets depicting Cockney London and the Higgins household highlights how every design element can help convey the story and convincingly immerse the audience and performers into different environments. Eliza’s costume with the blue shawl and plaid skirt shows how important pattern and texture are in costume design for theatrical productions; when bright lights can wash out solid fabrics and make them look flat and cheap, using a knitted shawl combined with different patterns in the skirt makes the costume more visually interesting and gives the character more personality.
One of the quotes that stuck out from the article was the one about the three of them working in a wheel, taking out one spoke would have broken it. I love the idea of that as a collaboration, where everyone feels indispensable to the final goal, for me the epitome of the design process. I appreciate the attention to the detail of what was going through their heads as they were designing, the design process to me is always very interesting and I very often come out of shows wondering what the design team was thinking when they set out, I can get the core of the idea often, our it will impact me in some new way, which is always a good thing and how theatre and art usually works, but I’d always love to get the chance to see the meetings notes or talk to the designer to get into their headspace.
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