The most beloved musical of all time, Lerner & Loewe's MY FAIR LADY returns to Broadway in a lavish new production from Lincoln Center Theater, the theater that brought you the Tony-winning revivals of South Pacific and The King and I.
Directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher, the stellar cast - led by Lauren Ambrose, Harry Hadden-Paton, Norbert Leo Butz, Diana Rigg, Allan Corduner, Jordan Donica, Linda Mugleston and Manu Narayan - tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a "proper lady." But who is really being transformed?
The classic score features "I Could Have Danced All Night," "The Rain in Spain," "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" and "On the Street Where You Live." The original 1956 production won six Tony Awards including Best Musical, and was hailed by The New York Times as "one of the best musicals of the century."
But what's especially lovely (or should that be 'loverly'?) is watching the tempestuous pair gradually fall in love. Ambrose brings a beautiful voice and a winning combination of humor, pluck and fragility to the role. Hadden-Paton mitigates some of Higgins's fury by yelling at Eliza in a tone that's more playful than patriarchal. Although the character is still a bundle of rage at times, it's clear his feelings for Eliza run deep.
The production is colossal: Michael Yeargen's set includes several superfluous rooms in professor Higgins' house, the fast-tracked arrival of which makes full use of one of the deepest stages in the nation, plus several exteriors, including a grand vista of Covent Garden that looks precisely like the part of the old market where tourists and performers now gather. But it's also an uneasy combination of romantic realism, symbolism and miniaturization.
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