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My Fair Lady
Paper Mill Playhouse, NJ - June 2002
Reviewed by John Kenrick
There are moments during Paper Mill's lavish new production of
My Fair Lady when I was reminded what it feels like to be in the presence
of the greatest musical ever written.
That's right – the greatest. No other
show offers such a ravishing abundance of wit, melody, and sheer theatrical
genius. When you place this material in the hands of a gifted cast and
imaginative designers, magic happens. George Bernard Shaw's comic play
Pygmalion, an offbeat tale of a phonetics professor who turns a cockney
flower girl into a well-spoken lady, has plenty of socially relevant humor but
very little emotion. It took Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe to
unleash the heart and soul of these characters. From its legendary first night
in 1957, My Fair Lady has been winning the hearts of audiences all over
the world. In any language or location, this is a bona fide masterpiece.
But it's a funny thing with masterpieces – every contemporary director
seems determined to "improve" them. The uncut
My Fair Lady runs three hours and ten minutes, and the good folks at
Paper Mill have succumbed to the ill-advised but popular notion that shorter is
better. In cutting twenty minutes from this production, they have cost the show
two scenes, one full song ("A Hymn to Him"), most of the overture, and
much of its structural integrity. They have also hacked the final
scene off of Act One and turned it into the opening of Act Two.
The results are still entertaining, but I do wish Paper Mill's management had
warned us they were re-thinking and abridging the show. If it was so important
to get the curtain down before 11PM, they should have left
My Fair Lady to others and revived something shorter. Paper Mill's 1993
production made some adjustments but left "Hymn to Him" intact. This
time around, audiences get some wonderful performances, ravishing costumes and
at least one gorgeous set, but they only get most of
My Fair Lady, not all of it.
Why did Tams-Witmark agree to so many needless cuts and alterations? Have
they no respect for this show? If anyone in the Lerner and Loewe estates still
cares, wake up! Your licensing agent is clearly NOT protecting your legacy. I'm
not suggesting that
My Fair Lady is a sacred scripture. As the current London revival proves,
a fresh approach and a bit of judicious editing can work wonders, but how
much of MFL can you slice away and still claim that you are doing the show the
authors meant for us to see?
The usually dependable designer Michael Anania's sets are a uneven
hodgepodge. His conception of Higgins' study is a sumptuous explosion of
Edwardian elegance – enough pale wood, Tiffany glass, and plush brown leather
to warm the heart of Whistler himself. But in order to pull off this eye-filler,
he has seriously skimped elsewhere. The ballroom looks like a chintzy
afterthought (three drop mirrors and two standing candelabras?), and the opening
at Covent Garden is downright wrong. The script specifically calls for the columns
of St. Paul's Chapel, but this production goes moves our perspective over to the
front of the Opera House – a convenient excuse to showcase some eye-popping
gowns, but yet another revision that My Fair Lady did not need. One might
not mind if the opera house set was not so unattractive.
On a happier note, Gregory A. Poplyk's costumes are the first I have
seen that come anywhere near the visual wallop of Cecil Beaton's classic
originals. His designs for the hilarious "Ascot Gavotte" sequence are a
visual triumph. Eliza's all-important ball gown is an Edwardian fantasia of
white satin and draped rhinestones, and I found myself wondering how I could
get my hands on Higgins' handsome wardrobe.
At intermission, more than a few audience members were wondering how they
could get their hands on Paper Mill's Henry Higgins, the handsome Paul
Shoeffler. (Tough luck kids – he's married!) He clearly has a blast, his
mellifluous voice taking us on a merry roller coaster ride through every speech
and patter song. (Well, every song except the missing "Hymn to Him" .
. . but I digress.) He also has a flawless accent, and displays a gift for
mimicry that fits the character perfectly. Glory Crampton makes
Eliza's tricky transformation believable, and her soaring soprano made "I
Could Have Danced All Night" a showstopper. It is absurd that writers and
producers on the other side of the Hudson have still not come up with a star role for
this gifted performer.
Ed Dixon gives a joyous, full-bodied performance as Doolittle, so damn
funny and original that the upcoming Broadway revival would do well to keep him
in mind. The same holds for the incomparable George S. Irving, who is
easily the best Colonel Pickering I have ever seen. It is a perfect joy to see
and hear this Tony-winning Broadway veteran as he makes every comic moment
count. (Well, every moment except the missing telephone scene in Act Two . . .
but I digress yet again.) Phyllis Sommerville makes a winning Mrs.
Higgins, and Max Von Essen handles Freddy Eynsford-Hill with appropriate
naïve charm.
This production marks the end of Robert Johanson's 21-year tenure as
Paper Mill's artistic director. His passion for musical theater has helped make
this company one of the leading regional theaters in the country. While I
strongly disapprove of the liberties he took with
My Fair Lady, I certainly applaud the creativity he brought to it – as
he did to so many productions over the years. Certain details stand out here,
like the appearance of Oscar Wilde and "Bosie" in the ensemble scenes,
or the clever re-thinking of the play's final moments. (I won't ruin it for you,
but "them slippers" help to make this an ending that is more likely to
satisfy 21st Century audiences.) Johanson's staging borrows a a few visual gags
from the film – and almost falls apart during the Act Two garden scene, but I
suspect that will improve during the course of the run.
Even in abridged form,
My Fair Lady offers more theatrical glory than anything Broadway has seen
this season. It's always a joy to meet up with Henry, Eliza and the gang. I just
hope the planned Broadway revival lets us see and hear them unexpurgated. That
would be truly "loverly."
(Just for the record, the glorious original orchestrations for My Fair
Lady – which inexplicably get no credit in
the Paper Mill program – are by Robert Russell Bennett and Philip J. Lang,
with dance arrangements by Trude Rittman.)
This production ran thru July 21, 2002
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