My Fair Lady

by David Anthony Fox

Attention Shavians who complain that My Fair Lady simultaneously trivializes and over inflates the master's Pygmalion: It's time to change your tune. McCarter Theatre is presenting a chamber version of the beloved musical (it uses just 10 actors and two pianos) that allows us to have our Lerner and Loewe Ö and our Shaw too, in all his curmudgeonly philosophical glory. The show is utterly enchanting, and often revelatory. Don't miss it!

My Fair Lady has always been known for its opulence: The sumptuous original costumes of Cecil Beaton, the showstopping orchestrations of Robert Russell Bennett and Philip Lang, and the romantic subtext that librettist Alan Jay Lerner brought in to soften the teacher-student relationship of Higgins, an authority on proper British speech, and Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower girl who comes to him for lessons.

The only trouble was that a significant amount of Shaw's point -- ironically indicting an untenable class system -- sank beneath the lushness.

Till now. This My Fair Lady, smartly directed by Gary Griffin, is handsome yet austere. The very fine reduction of the score (Trude Rittman, who provided the original dance arrangements for the show, is credited, but music director Tom Murray had a major hand in making it all come together so superbly) allows us to hear the songs as if for the first time, and in this leaner context, we draw surprising parallels (to Weill and Brecht, among others).

Best of all, the small ensemble makes it possible to see the work again drawing-room sized -- and with the lighter musical textures, it's faster and more acerbic. Once again, the play is the thing.

And here is a cast that can make it all work. Simply as actors, Kate Fry (Eliza) and Michael Cumpsty (Higgins) would do credit to any Pygmalion, let alone My Fair Lady. (In fact, in my own experience I would have to reach back 30 years -- to Diana Rigg and Alec McCowen in a London production of the play -- to find a comparable sense of nuance and emotional connection.) Nor do they shirk the musical values. Fry honors every aspect of the wide-ranging score, and in Cumpsty, we have a Higgins who actually sings every note! (There are melodies here I doubt the audience has heard before.) A sterling supporting cast -- including veterans Jane Connell (Mrs. Higgins), Simon Jones (Pickering), Michael McCarty (Alfred Doolittle) and Patricia Kilgarriff (Mrs. Pearce) -- are very nearly their equals.

So hats off to Griffin, Murray and company for making the grand old girl new again. This is one Fair Lady indeed.

MY FAIR LADY

Through June 27, McCarter Theatre, 91 University Place, Princeton, N.J., 609-258-2787

-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there