onstagepittsburgh.com: I had the pleasure of seeing the opening night performance of The Lincoln Center’s Production of Lerner & Lowe’s My Fair Lady at the Benedum Center on Tuesday night. The revival of this iconic musical was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and 5 Drama Desk Awards, including Best Musical Revival. This production succeeds by recognizing what was so beloved about the original and expanding upon it by providing more depth, agency, and control to its characters.
4 comments:
I am seeing My Fair Lady at the Benedum Theater on Sunday night and this article gives me high hopes. I am most excited to see the set, which is given high marks near the beginning of the article. The author of this article goes into great detail about her favorite aspects of each performer’s portrayal of their character. I am extremely excited to see Eliza and how Anette Barrios-Torres puts her spin on a very difficult and nuanced role. The costume design is intriguing and I am interested in seeing how the designers make the characters stand out from the ensemble, which the author of the article says Catharine Zuber did beautifully. Overall, seeing this show on Sunday night will be a great way to end my weekend and I am excited to see this well-known, difficult, and complex show be put on at the Benedum, especially with this production being a tour.
When I was younger, I did not see anything wrong at all with my fair lady. I thought it was great, that a guy that was well off was helping a young woman out to have a better place in society, and sure, there might be something in it for him but what's the problem? As I have gotten older it's harder not to have some reservations, the idea that there was only one way to shape this woman into someone “fit enough” to be in society is outdated. That's why I need the new ending they gave to the show. That is also why I was glad to hear that the actor playing the professor changed his role, when you watch the original, the movie is charming and has a great score, but you also wonder, why does she like this guy so much? Basically in the last couple of years, it's been harder for me to appreciate My Fair Lady, deep-rooted rooter misogyny and classism get in the way. And while I don't think the new ending is a perfect fix I think it allows me to keep a lovely golden age musical in my life with an acknowledgment of its imperfections.
I have always struggled with revivals and the idea of them. I think they either go one of two directions, one they are the exact same show, which most of the time I think is boring and only should be done with shows that have a new found popularity within a new generation. Or two they completely reinvent the show doing something new and different with it. Sometimes I really enjoy this. An example I really enjoyed was the revival of the company done a couple years ago. The gender swap made the show feel new and fresh. I don’t know much about my fair lady but I really liked the comment about giving the main character more freedom and a larger voice which made the story feel more complete and modern. I wish I would have seen this while it was here but overall I have really really good things about it and the photos look stunning.
I am so excited to see this show tomorrow. I have never seen My Fair Lady before, but I have read the book it is based on — Pygmalion. I personally enjoyed the story when I read it, and it is one of my favorite books. It is, in a way, a tribute to what can be achieved with knowledge and first impressions. It is said to not judge a book by its cover but so often people do, and Pigmalión is a perfect example of this. So often people decide their thoughts on a person before they ever have a chance to get to know them. Pigmalión proves that with a little effort and education one can completely change someone's first impression of you. After Finally seeing the show, I am left a little disappointed. The accents were very lacking, and the technical aspects left me wanting more. It was still a decent show, but I definitely would have liked a little more from Broadway.
Post a Comment