MY FAIR LADY (2018) Previews- Page 29

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/12/18 at 10:53am

^Hmmm...I wonder.   I know I have an odd break in my voice (in between my head and chest voice) that makes some songs difficult for me.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 4/12/18 at 11:15am

Though I enjoyed Ambrose's complete performance enormously, I agree her voice can be something of a problem in certain songs. "Show Me" was rather a disaster the night I saw it (Friday before Easter)-- weak, hiccup-y and out of breath for the most part. Her low range definitely needed help, though she did nail the high final note with ease. All the notes were there for "I Could Have Danced All Night" but not the effortlessness I wished the song had possessed. "Without You" on the other hand was just dandy, feerless and carefree and cockney-tinged in the best ways-- just a pure delight. 

Updated On: 4/12/18 at 11:15 AM

[Musical Master]

Posted: 4/12/18 at 4:46pm

Only 7 days left until opening night. Yay!

[Musical Master]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 6:08pm

Double post because the preview video is out and I am extremely excited. If Michael Yeargan doesn't win the Best Set Design in a Musical Tony Award, I'm calling shenanigans!

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 6:18pm

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "disneybroadwayfan22 said: "I don’t like the costume of Eliza’s father. Is him looking like a sloppy drunkard the point?"

Are you familiar with the show?"

I am familiar with it, but I haven’t seen it before, so I don’t know all of the characters well.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 4/13/18 at 6:20pm

disneybroadwayfan22 said: "ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "disneybroadwayfan22 said: "I don’t like the costume of Eliza’s father. Is him looking like a sloppy drunkard the point?"

Are you familiar with the show?"

I am familiar with it, but I haven’t seen it before, so I don’t know all of the characters well."

Ah, that explains it. Alfred Doolittle is a sloppy drunkard and quite proud of it and his station in life....well...in the beginning of the show anyway.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 4/14/18 at 1:41am

henrikegerman said: "OlBlueEyes said: "henrikegerman said: "Olblueeyes, if you find Shaw's ending silly, we can agree to disagree. But curious - in addition to why you find Shaw's resolution silly, how you would prefer the play to end."

With ambiguity."

But isn’there ambiguity at the end of Pygmalion? Isn’t the audience left wondering if Eliza will stay resolutely done with Higgins or if Higgins is right to laugh at the prospect?

More has been written about the ending of this play than all that goes before.

I am referring specifically to the end that Shaw gave to his play:  the prose epilogue that he added to the play after being appalled by the way that the theatrical productions were handling the end. Shaw's epilogue, if it had been written to be acted, would have added an Act 6 and maybe an Act 7.

...What is Eliza fairly sure to do when she is placed between Freddy and Higgins? Will she look forward to a lifetime of fetching Higgins's slippers or to a lifetime of Freddy fetching hers? There can be no doubt about the answer. Unless Freddy is biologically repulsive to her, and Higgins biologically attractive to a degree that overwhelms all her other instincts, she will, if she marries either of them, marry Freddy.

And that is just what Eliza did.

Complications ensued; but they were economic, not romantic. Freddy had no money and no occupation.

How does Shaw resolve this problem of Freddy and Eliza having no means of support. Finally Colonel Pickering suggests that they open a flower shop. And even this does not go well.

So Shaw has Eliza marrying a silly young man whom she does not love and does not respect. If there is any bullying in this match, it will come from Eliza. And, having risen from the gutter to royalty, she is returned to a position one step above the one from which she started, selling flowers from a shop instead of from the street.

Yes, I agree that the ending of Pygmalion is ambiguous. Eliza has a lot thinking to do about her feelings for Freddy and Higgins. Is she feeling love for Higgins or merely affection? Should she settle for Freddy. As for Higgins, in what capacity does he want Eliza to return to his house? In her prior role as a guest or as a bride. Higgins has spent two hours telling us what little use he has for women. He can't do a 180 degree turn in a couple of days. And Eliza has other choices than Freddy and Higgins. Due to her friendship with Higgins' mother, and especially with Colonel Pickering, other doors may be opened to her. In Shaw's ending, Pickering provides considerable financial support to the struggling young couple.

The End.

"

 

[SmoothLover]

Posted: 4/14/18 at 2:37am

poisonivy2 said: "I saw this in early previews and now and the show seemed much funnier and faster last night. I think the seriousness people were talking about in early previews was a matter of timing and actors forgetting their lines/stage directions. Norbert Leo Butz made the most improvement -- he clearly has watched some Stanley Holloway because he's acting it with way more humor and joie de vivre now. They also obviously sent him to dance class because his dancing was much improved.

A few sore spots still stick out:

1) Lauren Ambrose's posture when she sings. She still hunches her shoulders and bends her knees and for songs in the second act that show Eliza's newfound confidence this posture sort of takes away from that. Her timing and delivery of lines is much improved.

2) Jordan Donica - still very wooden as Freddy, and misses the humor due to poor timing, occasionally going up in lines,and awkward line readings. Harry Hadden-Patton's Higgins is rather charming, he's pretty hot, and he and Ambrose have great chemistry.If we're to agree that Eliza is better off with Freddy IMO they need a more appealing Freddy.

3) I expected more from Diana Rigg. I know it's a small part but ... just expected more. She looks like she's phoning it in."

 

I think Rigg is still worried about getting to her place before the scene starts. She has to travel by foot to Anatevka and back to get there.

I also feel like this is a musical you are better off getting seats closer to the stage. It plays better given the acting style.

 

.

 

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/15/18 at 11:08pm

demerit: the Queen of Transylvania's entrance down the stairs is a wtf moment.

Everything else is terrific.
Ambrose is not at all hesitant with cues, and if her posture in earlier previews was in any way strange, I saw no signs of it yesterday. She's heartbreaking and very funny. She sings beautifully, but I agree it's her high notes that are the most thrilling.  I wouldn't say her other first act numbers seem to reveal too much effort on her part, I'd say that hers is an Eliza that is truly finding her voice and her bearings, the character's arc charted with progressive confidence and presence, but that everything she does brings the audience to her.  Her Luverly is charming, endearing and warm but still shows us a woman not yet fully formed.  I Could Have Danced All Night is her most impressive number.  And it's stunning.  Harry's is definitely I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face.  His Henry is petulant, elegant and rye.  If not the grandly vivid and vocally distinct Higgins of Harrison, his choices are clean, strong and appealing (one example, his gleefully mocking Zoltan's accent in You Did It is great silly fun).   And I've Grown Accustomed is brilliant..  He and Ambrose are wonderful together and their Act II scenes are cracklingly good.  .  
Sher, who has a very clear vision for the libretto, has directed to emphasize both the lavish and the intimate (arguably his signature style).  And it works wonderfully.
I found the ending perfectly in keeping with the rest of the performance and not at all jarring or strange (of course I knew it was coming).  Two elderly women, clearly no strangers to MFL, sitting behind me, loved the ending.  "So much better," one of them said.  
Butz and Donica are fabulous. Butz nailed his visit to Wimpole Street scene.  Donica's On The Street Where You Lived was gorgeous.  And I almost wanted him to be wearing the same costume when in Act II we still find him there - but that's not Sher's style here, and I get it. 
Rigg had the audience eating out of her hands.  I can only gather that if, as some have reported, she was failing to make much of a grand impression earlier, she's upped her game considerably.
 

Updated On: 4/16/18 at 11:08 PM

[StageStruckLad]

Posted: 4/16/18 at 7:49am

Ben Brantley and Jesse Green were both at the Friday performance. I wonder if they flip a coin to decide who is going to review the show.

 

I thought Lauren gave a star-making performance and that the whole production was phenomenal, with a slight quibble about the new ending. I didn't hate it, but it's clearly not what Lerner intended. That said, it's nothing like the wholesale changes (mutilations?) that O'Brien made to Carousel.

[Daddy Warbucks]

Posted: 4/16/18 at 9:13am

Why Sher doesn’t have Eliza run off with Colonel Pickering in the end is beyond me. This would have solved everyone’s issues with the ending.  Pickering is nice to her, wealthy and experienced in years. The perfect mate.  

Yours truly,
Daddy Warbucks

Updated On: 4/16/18 at 09:13 AM

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 4/16/18 at 10:27am

^ Obviously because Pickering is far too busy setting up house with his buddy Bootsy from the Home Office!

Updated On: 4/16/18 at 10:27 AM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/16/18 at 11:50am

Someone in a Tree2 said: "^ Obviously because Pickering is far too busy setting up house with his buddy Bootsy from the Home Office!"

Speaking of which, Corduner's take when Haddon-Paton sang "Would you complain if I took out another fellow?" was brilliantly funny.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 4/16/18 at 1:04pm

In Shaw's prose Epilogue to Pygmalion, written in response to the romantic endings that theatrical productions were giving to the play, he makes it clear that Eliza, although walking away from Higgins with respect to any marriage possibilities, will nevertheless retain him as a close friend.

Eliza's instinct tells her not to marry Higgins. It does not tell her to give him up. It is not in the slightest doubt as to his remaining one of the strongest personal interests in her life. 

I think that Sher's ending captures this well.

[MCfan2]

Posted: 4/16/18 at 4:40pm

Warbucks2 said: "Why Sher doesn’t have Eliza run off with Colonel Pickering in the end is beyond me. This would have solved everyone’s issues with the ending. Pickering isnice to her, wealthy and experienced in years. The perfect mate.

Yours truly,
Daddy Warbucks"

But Higgins is nearer her age than what Pickering is! 

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 4/16/18 at 11:42pm

henrikegerman - He and Ambrose are wonderful together and their Act II scenes are cracklingly good. 

Saw this about 10 days before you, but I was also very impressed by the Act II confrontations between Eliza and Higgins.

Mostly agree with your review. Butz' two production numbers seemed a little low energy compared to Holloway that I grew up with, but it seems like they've gotten juiced since then.

 

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 4/17/18 at 5:40pm

Could someone comment on Gattelli's choreography, please?

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 4/17/18 at 5:52pm

Wilmingtom said: "Could someone comment on Gattelli's choreography, please?"

It's excellent, but not a big part of the show. The only big choreography production numbers are the Embassy Waltz and then "Get Me to the Church on Time." The former is gorgeous, if rather short; the latter is a big, smash Broadway scene. Otherwise, much of the movement on stage is based in Sher's direction.   

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 4/17/18 at 5:54pm

His choreography is wonderful. Loverly is fun and the Embassy Ball is beautiful. There just isn't much choreography in the show. I did think the choreo in Get Me to the Church was a little messy though, but they've probably tightened it up a bit.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 4/17/18 at 5:57pm

GeorgeandDot said: "I did think the choreo in Get Me to the Church was a little messy though, but they've probably tightened it up a bit."

I saw the show again this weekend after seeing it earlier in previews, and the whole production is tighter for sure. But I do think that this "Church" is intended to be a bit messy. It is, after all, drunk Alfred and his drunk friends getting together for one last drunk time

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 4/17/18 at 6:27pm

Watching the first look montage a few times after it was released makes me really want this show to be filmed for PBS. I can't stop looking at Ambrose's face in that video. She simply glows and I caught a lot of little things and expressions she does that really works for the screen. I wonder if her performance will be one of those that is can be appreciated on screen which to me is rare for a filmed stage performance. What are the chances of PBS filming this?

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/17/18 at 6:46pm

Gah! SO excited to see this tonight with my son who's never seen any iteration nor been at the Beaumont.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 4/17/18 at 7:04pm

dramamama611 said: "Gah! SO excited to see this tonight with my son who's never seen any iteration nor been at the Beaumont. "

Already can’t wait to read your thoughts, dramamama!

[Musical Master]

Posted: 4/17/18 at 7:14pm

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "Watching the first look montage a few times after it was released makes me really want this show to be filmed for PBS. I can't stop looking at Ambrose's face in that video. She simply glows and I caught a lot of little things and expressions she does that really works for the screen. I wonder if her performance willbe one of those that is can be appreciated on screen which to me is rare for a filmed stage performance. What are the chances of PBS filming this?"

I'm hoping very hard that they do film this production. It was a terrible shame that Live from Lincoln Center didn't film The King and I, that revival was glorious. Maybe PBS can make up for that tragic mistake by filming My Fair Lady.

 

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 4/17/18 at 7:48pm

Regarding the choreography-- well there's a lot of it that is basically unnecessary-- all the skipping around during "A Little Bit of Luck" and its reprise, and especially the endless waltzing at the Ballroom long before they get to the new dialogue (cribbed from the movie), just because it's pretty, I guess.

The real sin in the choreography for me comes in Act II when "Get Me to the Church On Time" jams in a French can-can followed by a jaw-droppingly bad drag routine that I swear has Lerner and Loewe turning over in their graves. 

That aside, I love this production.