Kelli O'Hara as Eliza Doolittle

Well, no offense to her, as I'm a major fan, but that was 10 years ago. And I think Sher, for whatever reason, went the route he wanted. Obviously if he had wanted her, it would have worked out. But it didn't and she did opera at the MET.

I saw Kelli doing the concert Carousel with the New York Philharmonic, and I bought the DVD when they finally got around to releasing it years later.

Sitting there on the bench as Julie, I had a hard time visualizing her as retiring and vulnerable.

She's a talented actress, though, and I don't want to sell her short. Carousel was a one night stand. Given a couple of weeks, she might have transformed herself into retiring and vulnerable.

Some felt that her appearance in Cosi Fan Tutte might have been a marketing gimmick to bring in more people, but she got very good reviews that emphasized her talent as a comedian.

Sally Durant Plummer said: "Welp, it would have been a performance and production of a lifetime. O’Hara or Benanti would have killed this part. Still, the production looks beautiful and will probably win Tonys."

They were considering both for this production but told them they were too old.

Bartlett Sher has said in interviews, which seems reinforced by what the actors have said in various interviews, that a lot of the inspiration came from the 1938 film, including the lack of a huge age gap between Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller. Sher said he did not want a huge age gap between Higgins and Eliza for this production. So were the ages of O'Hara and Benanti really a reason or just something fans were assuming during the huge "Who will play Eliza?" thread? It seemed like people assumed they were too old and then they heard they weren't cast so accepted that as a reason and then it was announced Ambrose was hired who is two years older than Benanti and two years younger than O'Hara. Anyway, Ambrose does seem to read a little younger than 40 or at least she looks like she's of similar age to Hadden-Paton.

I'm Kelli's biggest fan - she is my favorite performer in musical theatre - but I'm so glad this production went with Lauren Ambrose for something new and absolutely exquisite.

I really didn't buy Ambrose in the part at all. She's a wonderful actress and has a great voice, but she just wasn't Eliza. I really felt like she was working really hard to make herself fit the role. I was skeptical about O'Hara fitting the part, especially as the Cockney Eliza, but after seeing Sher's production, I'm positive she would've fit that production like a glove and wouldn't have struggled through the show as much as Ambrose. Benanti also would have been perfect and, frankly, probably should have been handed the role. She's just so perfect for it that I find it ridiculous that Laura Benanti will probably never play the role of Eliza Dolittle on Broadway. I have heard that he told both of them that they were too old for the part and were both too funny. I suppose Sher didn't realize he was directing a musical comedy and not Hedda Gabler. I thought Eliza was going to shoot herself at the end in this production. It's beautifully designed, but dull as hell, which makes Alfred Dolittle's scenes ridiculously jarring. I'm shocked by the positive response, especially considering that the audience I saw it with was verbally dissatisfied at intermission and the applause was light and the laughter nonexistent. There was also no standing ovation. I love the ending, but not much in between.

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "I think I need to admit that O'Hara is one of those performers I personally underestimate despite her pedigree and resume. I remember her totally blowing me away inThe King and Iwhen I saw it some weeks after the Tonys and there's really no reason for me to think she couldn't do the same inMy Fair Ladywith enough rehearsal time and performances under her belt."

The New York critics, led by Ben, have been in love with Kelly from the beginning. It will be interesting to get the London reaction.

My introduction to Kelli was South Pacific. When I first saw it I was just overwhelmed by the grandeur of the production. In the opening scene with Nellie and Emile we hear "Cockeyed Optimist," "Twin Soliloquies" and "Some Enchanted Evening."

It wasn't until the second time I watched the recording of the "Live From Lincoln Center" broadcast that I paid close attention to the actors and the dialog and I thought to myself that Kelli O'Hara is a very good actress.

To give another anecdote to contrast with GeorgeandDot's report, the audience I saw it with were shocked by Ambrose and couldn't stop talking about how amazing she was. It was more of a slow burn but once she hit "I Could Have Danced all Night", everybody was enraptured. After the show, the audience, for the most part, seemed in love with it. Ambrose, especially, was particularly singled out from what I heard from other people talking that night.

I first fell in love with Miss O'Hara from the recording of The Bridges of Madison County. I'm a fan of the score and of Brown's work, but his material for O'Hara and her duets with Pasquale really blows most of his work post-Parade out of the water (part of the reason I was disappointed by his perfectly good Honeymoon In Vegas). I have always been a fan of the Light In the Piazza cast recording, but I was more enamored with Victoria Clark than the girl playing Clara - and even though I loved the revival recording of South Pacific, I wasn't in the know on O'Hara's riveting performance. Unfortunately, Bridges closed far before my first New York trip in November of 2014. By the time I relocated here in the summer of 2015, it was time to see The King and I, by that time having earned O'Hara her first (in my opinion, should have been second due to Bridges) Tony Award. And although I was expecting her clarion voice and gorgeous rendering of the score, I was taken aback at just how good of an actress she is. She managed to erase any trace of Kerr, especially during the whipping scene post-"Shall We Dance?". She owned that role and anyone across the pond should leap at the chance to see her performance.

What I'm trying to say is, I think people who haven't seen O'Hara in person or are a fan of BIG, histrionic, performances with ACTING (all in caps) - and I say that as an ardent fan of Patti LuPone, who does all those things to perfection - tend to write O'Hara off as a perfectly lovely soprano, or use the words "subtle", "nuance", "sincere", and "boring" interchangeably. I will say this over and over: Kelli O'Hara may be the most gifted actress who currently graces the stage of Broadway musicals regularly. And when she doesn't get the credit she deserves, it irks me (probably much more than it irks her).

So listening to the My Fair Lady cast recording, I just can't get over how lackluster Ambrose sounds. No one will ever be Julie Andrews, but O'Hara or Benanti (whom I also adore, but won't go on at length about so as not to derail this thread any further) would have made this a recording I would revisit again and again. As of now, it's a lovely supplement to a collection, but with the Broadway, London, and film recordings, who needs a lackluster Eliza (the production on the album is impeccable, by the way - my personal faults are all in Ambrose's rendition of the score). Perhaps my opinion will change upon seeing Ambrose in September (second row, thanks Linktix!), but for me it really just feels like a missed opportunity.

Updated On: 6/2/18 at 04:28 PM

A missed opportunity is exactly how I would describe this production. Ambrose, frankly, is not good in this part and I can't wrap my head around why she was cast. I must admit, I find casting to be Sher's weak spot. I didn't love Morrison in South Pacific and I didn't love several cast members in The King and I and I found Ambrose's casting in Funny Girl laughably atrocious. I also didn't love Donica who frequently scraps just under the note in Street. I sat in that theatre thinking "wow I know there are better people for these parts."

Ambrose sounds like Kiri Te Kanawa on the recording and not in a good way. I found her voice very lackluster in the theatre. She's very quiet, she often makes very strange shapes with her body while singing, and her voice is emotionless much of the time and unbalanced. I've really loved her in other works, but this just did not suit her.

Updated On: 6/2/18 at 04:40 PM