MY FAIR LADY (2018) Previews — Page 30

The can-can drag queens felt borderline offensive. Just a little over the whole thing that men in dresses are funny.

I just assumed that King and I would be broadcast live during the last week of its run. The broadcast of South Pacific had gone so well, with all of the original cast except for Mathew Morrison. Alan Alda had been the perfect host.

With the little bit more that I know now about the economics of Broadway musicals, my guess is just that with the large cast and large orchestra, coupled with a disappointing box office compared to South Pacific, the show was just burning through too much money to permit it to run as long as planned. The closing was abruptly announced.

Hopefully MFL will do better at the box office and contingency plans will be in effect for the live broadcast if the production falters earlier than expected.

Perhaps they will broadcast the London production. I wonder if Ruthie Ann will still join the cast. It would probably be the best thing to raise her spirits. She was already loved by audiences before the tragedy. You can imagine the warmth with which she would be received now.

OlBlueEyes said: "I just assumed that King and I would be broadcast live during the last week of its run. The broadcast of South Pacific had gone so well, with all of the original cast except for Mathew Morrison. Alan Alda had been the perfect host.

With the little bit more that I know now about the economics of Broadway musicals, my guess is just that with the large cast and large orchestra, coupled with a disappointing box office compared to South Pacific, the show was just burning through too much money to permit it to run as long as planned. The closing was abruptly announced.

Hopefully MFL will do better at the box office and contingency plans will be in effect for the live broadcast if the production falters earlier than expected.

Perhaps they will broadcast the London production. I wonder if Ruthie Ann will still join the cast. It would probably be the best thing to raise her spirits. She was already loved by audiences before the tragedy. You can imagine the warmth with which she would be received now."

TKAI was a wonderful production but I thought the casting of Ken Watanabe was problematic. His lack of command of the english language was an issue and there just wasn't much spark between him and Kelli O'Hara. I saw a later cast with Marin Mazzie and Daniel Dae Kim and that performance did have the wit and spark that O'Hara/Watanabe lacked, but alas Kim has TV committments and Mazzie I believe had some health issues. A shame.

I really did love Ken Watanabe in the role and his intensity...even if he was not 100 percent in command of the English language.

Watanabe's star power lit up the stage. I thought he had major chemistry with O"Hara.
But like many others I had great difficulty understanding his English. "A Puzzlement" was incomprehensible. I have no idea how anyone who had never heard the song before could have possibly had any clue what the hell he was going on about.

Cast recording available on Amazon for pre-order!!! June 8th !!!

TKAI was a wonderful production but I thought the casting of Ken Watanabe was problematic. His lack of command of the english language was an issue and there just wasn't much spark between him and Kelli O'Hara. I saw a later cast with Marin Mazzie and Daniel Dae Kim and that performance did have the wit and spark that O'Hara/Watanabe lacked, but alas Kim has TV committments and Mazzie I believe had some health issues. A shame.

PoisonIvy, Marin has the worst health issue, ovarian cancer, which took my lovely sister at age 41. This cancer is still one of the most lethal. She showed great strength in returning to the stage after her first round of grueling and no doubt scary procedures. I loved the album of duets that Marin did with her husband Jason, and I think that her vocals in the last Kiss Me, Kate, especially "Wunderbar" and "So In Love," will be hard for Kelli O'Hara to match.

The Watanabe affair was very mysterious. The first time I saw the production, I didn't think that I had had much trouble understanding him. This board split in two on that issue. Obviously the people who said that they had had great trouble understanding him were not lying. The second time I saw him, after he had made his return, I did notice at first that his speech was a little garbled, but I soon adjusted to it.

Kelli O'Hara is an intelligent woman, and Ken appears to be her King of choice. He is of course recreating his role in London. Be interesting to see how London reacts to him.

Caught this tonight. I’ve been such a huge fan of Bart Sher’s trascendant productions at the Vivian Beaumont. Piazza, South Pacific and King and I are some of my favorite theatrical memories.

This one, unfortunately, felt totally flat and was a pretty big disappointment. Despite a GORGEOUS set and wonderful costumes, and a few very good performances (chiefly from Higgins, Mrs Higgins, and Pickering) and the astounding orchestra, I left the theatre thinking what a missed opportunity this was.

I knew I wasn’t going to get a stellar, award winning vocal performance from Lauren Ambrose, but I didn’t expect her to be so severely behind the beat in practically all of her songs. She did, however, have some very effective moments, specifically the hilarious gavotte scene, as well as her confrontation with Higgins at the end of Act II.

*shrug* oh well. Can’t all be perfect.

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broadwayboy223 said: "Is it just me or does it seem like with each user review Lauren's singing seems to be getting less and less good notices? Maybe her voice isnt holding up idk. As an audience member (and singer) it makes me uncomfortable when an actor is struggling with the singing. It can take me out of the moment "

I saw the show today, and I thought her singing was excellent, and much better than I expected. I heard no hint of struggle in her voice.

Caught this tonight, as well, and wasn't going to say anything, figuring I was the outlier, but my exact thought walking in my front door, was "what a missed opportunity."

The whole show is flat and desperately needs a shot of adrenaline. I felt like I was watching My Fair Lady on quaaludes. The book scenes, for some reason I can't discern, were well done and so much better than the musical numbers (save the fabulous orchestra).

The sets are both glorious and cheap. 27A is gorgeous. Most everything else looks like sets we had in high school. Costumes were lovely. Ensemble was fine.

Lauren Ambrose has a mostly lovely voice. Mostly.

Harry Hadden-Paton had excellent book scenes, but anything musical fell flat. Jordan Donica as Freddy was abysmal. On The Street Where You Live was just terrible. Oddly, I liked Norbert quite a bit, even if I HATED Get Me To The Church On Time with the inane can-can, men in drag and the audience clapping along like trained seals. It was fun to see Diana Rigg & I liked Linda Mugleston's take on Mrs. Pearce.

The ending was fine, but the staging of the ending is a metaphor for the whole production. It doesn't know what it wants to be, so it tries to cover all the bases. It doesn't make sense and didn't work, for me.

Looked at my watch frequently and by 10:15, I couldn't wait for it to be over. I felt the three hours, but I didn't hate it, by any stretch. I admired it, but I didn't like it enough to want to see it again (and that makes me sad because I love MFL).

^There may be some less than enthusiastic responses on here, but so far it's seems that it's only in the minority. Whereas those who have seen it have been either extremely positive or flat out RAVES. I'm also excited for tomorrow night's reviews, and I'll bet that they are going to be both positive and raves that's comparable to the reviews that Once on this Island had.

GeorgeandDot said: "The can-can drag queens felt borderline offensive. Just a little over the whole thing that men in dresses are funny."





As a can-canning drag queen myself, I felt represented. LOL