By
Alec Clayton
Published in The News Tribune, May 25, 2018
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| From left: Eliza Dolittle (Leischen Moore), Col. Pickering (Gary Chambers) and Henry Higgins (Jonathan Bill), photo by Kat Dollarhide |
For
a fun three hours of musical entertainment you can’t go wrong with a
well-staged production of Lerner and Lowe’s perennial favorite “My Fair Lady” –
even if you’ve seen it many times before. This one never gets old. And Tacoma
Musical Playhouse’s production is as good as any you’re likely to see from a regional
company.
The
story, adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” recounts what happens
when an arrogant, self-centered but brilliant professor of phonics bets he can
teach an uneducated woman who butchers the queen’s English to speak and act so
graciously as to be passed off as a high-class lady.
The
gentleman professor is Henry Higgins (played marvelously by Jonathan Bill, most
recently seen as Frank Abagnale Sr. in “Catch Me If You Can”). The “guttersnipe”
(Higgins’s descriptive term) is the poor cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Leischen Moore). The friend with whom Higgins makes the bet is
Col. Hugh Pickering (Gary Chambers). I can’t imagine better casting for these
three major characters. Bill plays Henry Higgins as snooty and full of himself,
but with a subtle undercoat of well-concealed humanity. Chambers, who has been
outlandishly good in many recent plays at Lakewood Playhouse, nicely underplays
Col. Pickering as one of the most down-to-earth characters in the play. And
Moore shimmers and captures the audience’s heart as the delightful Eliza. She
is funny and loveable, she sings wonderfully and handles the changes in accents
with ease – or seeming ease, as she probably worked like the devil to make it
look easy.
Outstanding in supporting roles are Andrew
Fry as Eliza’s drunken, scheming father, Alfred; Diane Bozzo as Henry’s mother;
Colin Briskey as the simpleton Freddy Eynsford-Hill, who falls helplessly in
love with Eliza; and Marion Reed as Henry’s house servant, Mrs. Pearce. Reed’s strong
voice stands out distinctly in ensemble songs.
As it happens in many musicals, there is
usually some star-quality ensemble actor who stands out in the big production
numbers. In TMP’s “Catch
Me If You Can” that stand-out ensemble actor was Cameron Waters, and here he is
again as an unnamed drunk cohort of Alfred Doolittle. I could hardly keep my
eyes off him, especially in the song and dance “With a Little Bit of Luck.”
Watch for him to start showing up in leading roles soon.
What makes “My Fair Lady” so enjoyable is first
that the story, while being a bit of fluff on the surface, skewers the
pretentions of the upper class and pokes at the lower classes in a delightful and
non-judgmental way; and second because it is filled with great music. How could
you not enjoy songs like “Wouldn’t it be Loverly,” “Get Me to the Church on
Time,” “I Could Have Danced All Night” and “On the Street Where You Live”?
John Chenault’s lighting, John Douglas
Rake’s direction and choreography, Jeffrey Stvrtecky’s music and Bruce Haasl’s
sets hardly need mentioning, as they are always terrific. To that list of worthies,
I should add Jocelyne Fowler for outstanding costume designs.
“My
Fair Lady” is a long show at three hours, but the time flew by for me.
WHEN:
7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through June 10
WHERE:
Musical Playhouse at The Narrows Theatre, 7116 Sixth Ave., Tacoma
TICKETS:
$22-$31
INFORMATION:
(253) 565-6867, http://www.tmp.org
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