MY FAIR LADY coming back to Broadway in 2014?- Page 7

[AnythingGoes23]

Posted: 3/9/13 at 8:50am

Angela Lansbury for Mrs Higgins...

Great to see this coming back.

I can't see them casting a black Eliza Doolittle, you can change the historical context and placement of the era and book iris set it, so it just wouldn't work. Some things just can't happen, it would be like casting a white male as Porgy

[madbrian]

Posted: 3/9/13 at 9:44am

Since Mrs. Higgins is a non-singing role, I'd love to see Maggie Smith in that role.

Regarding race, while it is not a theme within the show and I have no problem with a black cockney flower seller, I'd find it hard to believe that Zoltan Karpathy would mistake a black girl for Hungarian nobility.

[vf]

Posted: 3/9/13 at 10:33pm

Kelli O'Hara for Eliza! She can sure sing it. Hopefully the link is to a portion of a youtube, if it's the whole thing Kelli O'Hara starts singing "I Could Have Danced All Night" at 7:20. This music must be challenging, there are a number of youtubes of this song sung by opera singers. Hope Clive Davis hasn't got any ideas about sweetening or lip-syncing or whatever pop singers do on recordings and in live performances now. Only real singers should do this. Even Julie Andrews said she had problems with it, I think I read, but it probably wasn't miked when she did it. But still, eight shows a week of Eliza could be tough, I guess.

Kelli O'Hara is only 36, Audrey Hepburn was 34 when she made the movie and this isn't a movie with close-ups, I don't think her age should eliminate her.
Kelli O'Hara singing

[CalebMeyer]

Posted: 3/10/13 at 12:16am

I would LOVE to see Audra in this. True, she's too old, but she's so charming and honest onstage, I don't think I'd have any trouble believing her as Eliza. And as far as race goes, I really don't think it would matter. It would be a wonderful opportunity to hire a lot of people of different races to fill out the show. Race would become a non issue in the world of the play. And let's be honest, Broadway could use some diversity.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/10/13 at 11:28am

I don't hate Hathaway. In fact I'm finding the backlash more telling of who we are as a pop culture and of the dangers of overexposure than of anything about Hathaway. But I agree that while Hathaway might be very good in Pygmalion, one doesn't need an actress who sings well or even very well in this role, one needs a brilliant actress who is also a brilliant singer. And Hathaway isn't that. Few are.

Charlotte Rampling would be the perfect Mrs. Higgins.

I would love to see Audra play a great many great roles in musical theater not thought of as black women, but I don't think My Fair Lady, being a play foremost about demographic distinctions and how they corrupt and limit us can work with a black actress playing the role and no one ever commenting that she is black. It just doesn't make sense.

On a somewhat (but not completely) related note, It's very odd that no one ever calls attention to the fact that Cora and Mrs. Levingson, the characters though not the actresses playing them, are Jewish, on the equally socially stratifying Downton. Not that they are Jewish - in fact Lady Carnarvon, on whom Cora is based, was an illegitimate (sorry, I hate that word just as much as anyone) Rothschild. But the fact that no one every refers to the fact.

[MCfan2]

Posted: 3/10/13 at 7:17pm

Maggie Smith would be amazing. Nice idea, madbrian!