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.
