Bartlett Sher's production of MY FAIR LADY will play London Coliseum beginning May 7, 2022- Page 4

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 6/2/22 at 10:38am

Any indication that they plan on filming this?

[binau]

Posted: 6/18/22 at 9:27am

Vanessa apparently is still out of the show. 

[ATerrifyingAndImposingFigure]

Posted: 6/18/22 at 11:12am

Anyone who’s seen, how does Harry’s chemistry with Okereke compare with his work opposite Ambrose and Benanti?

[broadwayboy223]

Posted: 6/18/22 at 2:59pm

I would LOVE for this to get filmed 

[52889j]

Posted: 6/18/22 at 3:20pm

ATerrifyingAndImposingFigure said: "Anyone who’s seen, how does Harry’s chemistry with Okereke compare with his work opposite Ambrose and Benanti?"

I saw it from the front of the Upper Circle, so while I couldn't necessarily see the nuances of their facial expressions, I'd say his chemistry with Okereke is more or less equal to what it was with Ambrose and Benanti. Okereke is younger than either American and she reads it. Higgins and especially Pickering seemed to offer a little bit more tenderness to Okereke's Eliza, accordingly.

I saw all three and Okereke is my favorite by quite a bit. Her genuine British dialects really elevate the show as a whole. Only wish I could've seen her do it in the intimacy of the Beaumont.

Updated On: 6/18/22 at 03:20 PM

[SuttonPeron]

Posted: 6/18/22 at 4:08pm

Okereke was wonderful. So much genuineness in all of her performance. Her chemistry with Hadden-Paton was spot-on.

However, my big issue with this production is in the sound. The only musicians I could listen clearly at the Coliseum were the brass and percussion sections of the orchestra. I could almost never hear the strings. I noticed the same issue, though not as bad, in the 2018 cast recording, which makes me think this was intentional. Did the same issue happen at the Beaumont, or was the orchestra properly amplified there?

Updated On: 6/18/22 at 04:08 PM

[binau]

Posted: 7/5/22 at 8:50am

Vanessa might have dropped out of the production. For those of us that saw in the role, I wonder if we just saw her final stage performance. 

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 7/5/22 at 9:06am

SuttonPeron said: "Okereke was wonderful. So much genuineness in all of her performance. Her chemistry with Hadden-Paton was spot-on.

However, my big issue with this production is in the sound. The only musicians I could listen clearly at the Coliseum were the brass and percussion sections of the orchestra. I could almost never hear the strings. I noticed the same issue, though not as bad, in the 2018 cast recording, which makes me think this was intentional. Did the same issue happen at the Beaumont, or was the orchestra properly amplified there?"

The orchestrations at the Beaumont were definitely CLEAR, but I wouldn't say they were LOUD. Bartlett Sher has never been a director who likes to amplify sound design in general. All of his musical productions I have seen tend to have big orchestras, but they never sound extremely powerful if that makes sense?

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 7/5/22 at 9:31am

binau said: "Vanessa might have dropped out of the production. For those of us that saw in the role, I wonder if we just saw her final stage performance."

This is so sad. I wonder if they may be hoping she is able to return to at least a handful of performances to film it, but either way this is so heartbreaking.

Imagine if they were able to get Julie Andrew’s back on stage in this.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 7/5/22 at 9:54am

binau said: "Vanessa might have dropped out of the production. For those of us that saw in the role, I wonder if we just saw her final stage performance."

Has there been any official word from the production now that she's been out more than a month? She's still on the website.

Is there any validity to this getting filmed or are people just being wishful? Remember, KING & I and ANYTHING GOES were produced by Howard Panter & Rosemary Squire, who own Trafalgar Releasing. They have no association with MY FAIR LADY. And I doubt Andrews, who has no doubt had countless offers to play Mrs. Higgins (including in the production she directed), would ever consider doing this.

[binau]

Posted: 8/5/22 at 5:02am

So finally after months the production confirms Vanessa left the production after contracting COVID. Glad that she seems ok, but disappointing if audiences bought tickets to see her and needless to say in typical west end style it was handled terribly in terms of communication, exchanges and refunds. I wish someone would intervene - these producers need to stop advertising names if they won’t hold themselves financially accountable for not delivering on this. Not Vanessa’s problem to be clear as she is a human and can only perform if healthy - just the producers who took this risk but let audiences pay for it. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 12/29/22 at 7:33pm

Just stumbled upon the touring cast: it will star Michael Xavier (Joe in the Glenn Close SUNSET on Bway) as Higgins, Charlotte Kennedy as Eliza, with Lesley Garrett CBE as Mrs. Pearce. Of note, the principal cast is all white, whereas it was quite diverse when it played the Palladium.

https://myfairladymusical.co.uk/uk-tour/uk-tour-cast-and-creative/

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 12/29/22 at 11:14pm

Lauren was simply fabulous in this and so was the guy from Downton Abbey!

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 12/30/22 at 5:23am

Broadway kills me in that it does not record and save its greatest achievements for a release to the world even if it’s many years after the show had its run. This My Fair Lady production is about the only show I can remember where I enjoyed the second act dialogue more than the music, and there was nothing wrong with the music either.

So what if Bernard Shaw considered Stalin a friend, and was a houseguest of Hitler. He knew his craft, how to write engaging dialogue, and that is why his plays are still studied and performed 100 years later.

On an expensive whim, I grabbed a prime ticket the night before Lauren’s last performance. I thought I would impress the woman next to me by telling her that this was the fourth time I had seen Lauren. She came back, and  remarked that it was her 11th. I didn’t quite know what to make of this. 

It was not until the curtain call that she could not hold it in any longer. She admitted to being Lauren’s mother. We chatted a bit, and then she was off with the family. The next day I read Lauren‘s exit interview with the New York Times, in which she revealed that during her run her father had been dying in a hospital in Connecticut. Adding to the pressure of running back-and-forth between her children in Connecticut and the theater, she also regularly visited her father. Her father died while she still had about three weeks left to perform. That must’ve been a tough time. 

But I thought of her mother and the complex emotions she must have been feeling on that last day. Grief for her husband and pride in her daughter. That’s life.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 12/30/22 at 8:54am

Lauren Ambrose was an absolute revelation as Eliza Dolittle. It's one of those performances I rank up there with Sutton is Anything Goes, Bette in Dolly, and Lea in Funny Girl. She was so good.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 12/30/22 at 12:46pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Just stumbled upon the touring cast: it will star Michael Xavier (Joe in the Glenn Close SUNSET on Bway) as Higgins, Charlotte Kennedy as Eliza, with Lesley Garrett CBE as Mrs. Pearce. Of note, the principal cast is all white, whereas it was quite diverse when it played the Palladium.

https://myfairladymusical.co.uk/uk-tour/uk-tour-cast-and-creative/"

This tour has been out since august, I believe. I also noticed the lack of diversity.

[Dancingthrulife2]

Posted: 12/30/22 at 1:37pm

Ambrose’s Eliza was a revelation. She made me tear up during Wouldn’t It Be Loverly with her grounded and dignified humanity, something that I had never expected to experience prior to this production. What she brought to the role made my four visits to the production some of my most treasured theatergoing experiences.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 12/31/22 at 12:14am

Barlett was pleased with her as well:

The casting of Ambrose, a 40-year-old mother of two, as the twentysomething Eliza bewildered some theater folk, but Sher says that “to get someone who can do all of this, it’s always a surprise. And every single time I’ve ever worked with her, she came in and gave the best audition I’ve ever seen, until the next time she came in for something else.”

But I won't even be able to see the pale reproduction of the show. Lauren won the Outer Critics Circle Award.

[LarryD2]

Posted: 1/2/23 at 12:22pm

I believe that Sher has said that Ambrose was his first choice to play Nellie in the SOUTH PACIFIC revival, too.

[Bill Snibson]

Posted: 1/2/23 at 1:09pm

I know her performance was polarizing but I thought she was perfection as Eliza. She is a very underrated next level actress. I can't wait for her next big break out role. I think she's just amazing!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/2/23 at 1:20pm

I’m just sad we never got her “Funny Girl”.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/2/23 at 1:32pm

Jordan Catalano said: "I’m just sad we never got her “Funny Girl”."

This is one that I’m ok with not getting. Sher has never been a master of comedy, and I don’t know that we need a Fanny who is so obviously a Shiksa.

Would it have been somewhat better than the current revival? Almost definitely. Could she have been wonderful in the role? Yeah! But would it have been received on the level of Sher’s other work? Probably not. 

[Bill Snibson]

Posted: 1/2/23 at 1:55pm

Agreed That role doesn't quite suit her. She would've made it work but not exactly her wheelhouse or what we, as an audience, would've wanted.