MY FAIR LADY (2018) Previews — Page 25

I have A LOT of thoughts about this production.

First of all, for the most part it is a gorgeously designed production. I didn't love the pub/bar building. It was just really ugly and some of Eliza's costumes could have been prettier. Higgin's study is stunning and the ball scene and the Ascot are as well. The costumes for Ascot are gorgeous, especially Rigg's. The orchestra plays this magnificent score beautifully, also.

Here are the problems however, the cast is just fine, and at times regional theatre quality. The audience barely laughed the entire evening and I'm pretty sure Ambrose was cast because she's friends with the director. She's just boring. Her singing isn't great, at all and she isn't good with the humor. I didn't buy her performance for a second. Harry Hadden-Patton is good and VERY good from time to time. He waaaay oversings the score, which is absurd because he doesn't really have much of a singing voice to oversing with. Butz is very good, but Sher has overstaged Get Me to the Church and it feels REALLY out of place, especially the bizarre drag queens in the can-can costumes. Diana Rigg is lovely but doesn't get much material unfortunately. The actor that plays Freddy is also fine. He also misses the humor and goes flat and thin on the top notes in Street. The production is beautiful and I like this ending. The cast just doesn't have much stage presence and was very low energy.

I know this reads as a scathing review, but I actually did enjoy the production and I would recommend it. It just could have been a lot better if it had been cast with musical theatre performers who could actually fill the theatre. I don't see this beating Once on this Island for the Tony this year.

Updated On: 4/1/18 at 12:36 AM

My thoughts about the production would be much more along the lines of Somewhere in a Tree. My greatest trepidation was Ambrose. No musical theater experience on the same plane as this. Forty years old. Apparently a directorial favorite. But she was fine. On a couple of occasions I thought I noticed that her voice was not filling the theater, which I would have thought as impossible in the Age of Amplification, but since I was sitting in the first row with the orchestra pit right in front of me, I thought that I might not be in the ideal listening position.

Whether Ambrose was better than just fine, I'll reserve judgment until I've seen the show after its opening. 

Hadden-Patton will receive his Tony nomination. Never thought of Rex Harrison while Harry was in the spotlight. I thought that the confrontational scenes between Eliza and Henry after the ball were splendidly acted and affecting.

The weakest link to me was also Butz. Several times I thought that Jiggs had wandered over from Carousel to play the role. The biggest problem with Butz, though, was that he could not fill the large shoes of Stanley Holloway.

Personally I still consider the ending ambiguous, as neither had future plans and Henry, still a young man, could have changed after his first experience with love. And Henry's mother and Eliza were great friends. I do hope that Henry will change for the sake of his mother. Mrs. Peel. What an effect she had on college age boys oh so many years ago.

One question that will be asked is if this third part of Sher's trilogy of classic musicals will receive the same acclaim as the first two. I think that this will depend greatly on how Ambrose is received by the critics. What this production lacks is Kelli O'Hara, an almost untouchable favorite of critics and audiences. It was last February that she said, when asked directly if Eliza would be her next role, that she answered almost wistfully that, although she loved the role and the score and musical, she was afraid that "that ship had sailed,"  Her great friend and colleague Bartlett gives the role to another 40 year old.

Not surprisingly, Ms. O'Hara received uniformly excellent reviews for her true opera debut in Cossi Fan Tutte. From OperaWire:

Now let’s talk about Kelli O’Hara. Before I mentioned that this had all the makings of a publicity stunt for the company.... 

But O’Hara is who she is because of the stuff she did last night – proving that she is a true artist. If I hadn’t known who she was and had just gone into the opera for the first time in my life, I would have thought she was a really great opera singer.

GeorgeandDot said: "I have A LOT of thoughts about this production.

First of all, for the most part it is a gorgeously designed production. I didn't love the pub/bar building. It was just really ugly and some of Eliza's costumes could have been prettier. Higgin's study is stunning and the ball scene and the Ascot are as well. The costumes for Ascot are gorgeous, especially Rigg's. The orchestra plays this magnificent score beautifully, also.

Here are the problems however, the cast is just fine, and at times regional theatre quality. The audience barely laughed the entire evening and I'm pretty sure Ambrose was cast because she's friends with the director. She's just boring. Her singing isn't great, at all and she isn't good with the humor. I didn't buy her performance for a second. Harry Hadden-Patton is good and VERY good from time to time. He waaaay oversings the score, which is absurd because he doesn't really have much of a singing voice to oversing with. Butz is very good, but Sher has overstaged Get Me to the Church and it feels REALLY out of place, especially the bizarre drag queens in the can-can costumes. Diana Rigg is lovely but doesn't get much material unfortunately. The actor that plays Freddy is also fine. He also misses the humor and goes flat and thin on the top notes in Street. The production is beautiful and I like this ending. The cast just doesn't have much stage presence and was very low energy.

I know this reads as a scathing review, but I actually did enjoy the production and I would recommend it. It just could have been a lot better if it had been cast with musical theatre performers whocould actually fill the theatre. I don't see this beating Once on this Island for the Tony this year."

... Are you schizophrenic or were you arguing with me over a production you hadn’t seen until last night? You’re echoing a lot of the things I was saying- low energy, “church on time” out of place, Harry not having much of a singing voice, weak cast, voices not filling the theater ... what gives?

Updated On: 4/1/18 at 09:57 AM

Dancingthrulife2 said: "I don't think Sher intended for this production to be a "funny" production. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, this production feels closer to Pygmalion than the touring production of MFL that I saw years ago. Shaw's words are there, and Sher really lets them shine. Some humor aside, they are not supposed to be laughter inducing; they are powerful and insightful dissection of the British class system, gender, "middle class morality," the human condition and so much more and still are relevant today. If a production really digs into these aspects, they are not supposed to garner a ton of laughter but actually make you go like "huh" and think. This is also why I feel in this production, some songs just feel unnecessary because they don't add on to the insights Shaw provided nor fits the tone. Seeing the show again, I now appreciate Sher's take on Take Me to the Church On Time more; the over-the-top-nessserves as a satire of the lower class morality, which more aligns with the contemporary understanding of freedom than its middle class counterpart. I still feels out of people in some ways, but Sher did the best he could with the material imho."

I think there is plenty of humor in Pygmalion too. Watch the delightful film with Wendy Hiller and Leslie Howard. And when I saw the show, many jokes landed and there were plenty of laughs. But the issue was timing. The cast at that point did not seem comfortable enough with all the dialogue to time them for laughs. I am going back in about 10 days so I will see if the timing has improved.

I think Sher is going for a thoughtful comedy, which is what MFL always was. If that is not reading across the auditorium it's a failure of the direction/cast.

Do people who wanted a part and didn't get it ever post nasty things on these chat forums about the actor who got the part?? 

I apologize if it appeared I was specifically referring to you. I wasn't. I have noticed  such a wide range of comments about her singing in particular since the previews started that I wondered whether or not some of it was sour grapes.  I thought your comment was well informed. 

 

GeorgeandDot said: "I have A LOT of thoughts about this production.

First of all, for the most part it is a gorgeously designed production. I didn't love the pub/bar building. It was just really ugly and some of Eliza's costumes could have been prettier. Higgin's study is stunning and the ball scene and the Ascot are as well. The costumes for Ascot are gorgeous, especially Rigg's. The orchestra plays this magnificent score beautifully, also.

Here are the problems however, the cast is just fine, and at times regional theatre quality. The audience barely laughed the entire evening and I'm pretty sure Ambrose was cast because she's friends with the director. She's just boring. Her singing isn't great, at all and she isn't good with the humor. I didn't buy her performance for a second. Harry Hadden-Patton is good and VERY good from time to time. He waaaay oversings the score, which is absurd because he doesn't really have much of a singing voice to oversing with. Butz is very good, but Sher has overstaged Get Me to the Church and it feels REALLY out of place, especially the bizarre drag queens in the can-can costumes. Diana Rigg is lovely but doesn't get much material unfortunately. The actor that plays Freddy is also fine. He also misses the humor and goes flat and thin on the top notes in Street. The production is beautiful and I like this ending. The cast just doesn't have much stage presence and was very low energy.

I know this reads as a scathing review, but I actually did enjoy the production and I would recommend it. It just could have been a lot better if it had been cast with musical theatre performers whocould actually fill the theatre. I don't see this beating Once on this Island for the Tony this year."

Jordan Donica sings that music exquisitely and pitch perfect eight shows per week. I’m here and I hear it. Sorry, flat and thin is a gross exaggeration. 

Gee, do ya  think so, enjoyable2?

GeorgeandDot said: " I found that his singing seems "angry" for some reason. There's something about his voice that comes off as a bit angry or ferocious. He was good, but I would have preferred a lighter voice that could soar a bit more.."

I bet this is the reason why I found his character so unlikeable. His singing came across as angry and rude the entire time, not just “pretentious” as I (presume) it should come across. When he had his songs, I kept thinking “this ass, mouthing off again” about Higgins. I wonder if this was a choice by Sher as well, to further justify the ending change (which I loved). 

raddersons said: "GeorgeandDot said: "I found that his singing seems "angry" for some reason. There's something about his voice that comes off as a bit angry or ferocious. He was good, but I would have preferred a lighter voice that could soar a bit more.."

I betthis is the reason why I found his character so unlikeable. His singing came across as angry and rude the entire time, not just “pretentious” as I (presume) it should come across.When he had his songs, I kept thinking “this ass, mouthing off again” about Higgins. Iwonder if this was a choice by Sher as well, to further justify the ending change (which I loved)."

He's not nor supposed to be pretentious by any means. Not in Pygmalion nor MFL, which borrows chunks of Shaw's words without making any significant change. He truly despises the idea of the undeserving poor and middle class morality. 

Dodge3 said: "Freddy was disturbingly flat on his high notes the night I saw it too - third preview."

I have to agree.  He was all over the vocal map last Saturday evening (March 24). I'll be kind and call it "uneven."  And he was still the best male soloist in the cast, Hmmm....