MY FAIR LADY (2018) Previews- Page 32

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 6/15/18 at 3:00pm

greenifyme2 said: "I stopped reading this thread after I was attacked for saying I didn’t like it... popped back in here and wow."

That's because Rippedman's criticisms and others are stemming from the production choices and acting choices (or perceived limitations while others see them as strengths) while you attacked the actual score and book. You didn't even understand that Higgins' songs were written that way purposefully which made people question your understanding, taste, and possibly age. Not to mention mentioning some anonymous unprofessional usher who you thought would give credence to your opinion, who I hope was reprimanded for his behavior.

I don't agree with some of what RippedMan says and I do think there is another reflection of some anti-Ambrose sentiments that started since her casting was announced, but I DO understand where they come from and I respect his opinion because he has a different idea of how My Fair Lady should be produced and what Eliza should sound like.

Updated On: 6/15/18 at 03:00 PM

[Dolly80]

Posted: 6/16/18 at 9:36am

It’s a shame that Sam rose does so much face pulling when she is ‘common’ Eliza. She spends too much time with her mouth open and not doing much else. However she sings it beautifully and looks ravishing in those glorious costumes. I think if the whole production was better then she would have won a Tony. But as it is, it’s a perfectly serviceable , not very exciting production .

Butz is fine - nothing more.

Donica sings beautifully but he should play the role as a bit more of an upper class twit to begin with.

And that ending- interesting that many people left saying what a downer it was. I kind of agree.

[Dancingthrulife2]

Posted: 6/16/18 at 11:15am

Interesting to see one's highlight can be another's downer. It seems that some people go to revivals to seek reaffirmation or just "relive" what they once experienced. Although I'm not saying that it is wrong to do so, I wonder if some people would've enjoyed productions like this better if they came in with the mindset of seeing an original work.

Updated On: 6/16/18 at 11:15 AM

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 6/16/18 at 11:54am

Dancingthrulife2 said: "Interesting to see one's highlight can be another's downer. It seems that some people go to revivals to seek reaffirmation or just "relive" what they once experienced. Although I'm not saying that it is wrong to do so, I wonder if some people would've enjoyed productions like this better if they come in with the mindset of seeing an original work."

I agree. Reading most of the critiques makes me think it’s just an essay detailing how they would direct My Fair Lady. Ambrose went on record saying Eliza tends to be played sassy or whatever and she wanted to do another spin. That spin matched well with Sher. In one interview she said she regrets one acting choice she made during rehearsals that carried over to the show and that was the hunched posture she gave Eliza while she’s still cockney. She said her back is feeling it now.

[greenifyme2]

Posted: 6/16/18 at 3:26pm

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "greenifyme2 said: "I stopped reading this thread after I was attacked for saying I didn’t like it... popped back in here and wow."

That's because Rippedman's criticisms and others are stemming from the production choices and acting choices (or perceived limitations while others see them as strengths) while you attacked the actual score and book. You didn't even understand that Higgins' songs were written that way purposefully which made people question your understanding, taste, and possibly age. Not to mention mentioning some anonymous unprofessional usher who you thought would give credence to your opinion,who I hope was reprimanded for his behavior.

I don't agree with some of what RippedMan says and I do think there is another reflection of some anti-Ambrose sentiments that started since her casting was announced, but I DO understand where they come from and I respect his opinion because he has a different idea of how My Fair Lady should be produced and what Eliza should sound like."

You're correct, I thought it was a choice but I did not understand it was intentionally written that way. I can't force myself to like something, but perhaps if it was a different production, an overall first impression of the material would have been better received. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/16/18 at 6:20pm

I just wish there had been some lighter moments, I wonder if Sher really knows how to direct comedy? I've only really seen him do serious shows. I thought the Ascot scene should be hilarious, but i felt more muted. 

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 6/16/18 at 6:39pm

RippedMan said: "I just wish there had been some lighter moments, I wonder if Sher really knows how to direct comedy? I've only really seen him do serious shows. I thought the Ascot scene should be hilarious, but i felt more muted."

I honestly wonder if he knows how to direct comedy. His productions really do take on a different, muted tone. Even his most celebrated productions have done that. I stated earlier in how he sacrifices the comedic timing and landing of the lines and instead goes for emotional weight and used my experience watching The King and I and comparing his directing of Ken Watanabe (and plus Watanabe's command of English which I'm one of those who felt he was like 90-95% perfectly decipherable). Watanabe missed a lot of the comedic timing to really make his King funny that I've seen in some videos on YouTube, but what I got instead was a man with such magnetism and command that I really did believe he was a King. I wonder if Rodgers/Hammerstein shows lends itself better for Sher's treatment than My Fair Lady. R/H's shows have such lofty ambitions to hit people emotionally while Lerner/Loewe's treatment of My Fair Lady really does seem to turn more on the lines.

I wondered this and I'm one of those who really did love this revival of My Fair Lady and it revealed things to me about this piece and about Eliza that I did not see before and am grateful to see and I do think Ambrose is my favorite rendition of Eliza even if she has that look of concentration when she's singing due to her sensitivity and want to portray Eliza in a manner so unlike most twenty something year-olds that I've seen play the part and I thought her book scenes with Harry Hadden-Paton were the best I've seen those scenes played. I also much preferred what Jordan Donica did with Freddy than just short-changing him as the simpering fool. Donica did an interview recently and was asked if he had any advice for for any actor playing Freddy and Donica said don't shortchange him or assume he has no depth. He said even Shaw wrote some things in his notes and play to show Freddy is more than what people think he is. That's the direction he went and I do prefer that.

Maybe the next revival will make more people happy if they can balance all the great things this revival showcased while still making the comedic lines work.

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 6/16/18 at 11:43pm

RippedMan said: "I just wish there had been some lighter moments, I wonder if Sher really knows how to direct comedy? I've only really seen him do serious shows. I thought the Ascot scene should be hilarious, but i felt more muted."

I enjoyed the ascot scene but that may be because I tend to hone in on a few members of the ensemble and the ones I was focused on totally got the humor. I feel like "Get Me to the Church on Time" is the other big comedic moment but it feels like it's coming from another show, down the unexplained can-can dancers and the gender swapping. I think there are a lot of hilarious songs in the show but they didn't work for me in this production. None of Higgins songs worked for me because I thought the actor was just silly or camp instead of intimidating and genuinely misogynistic. And a lot of Eliza's early numbers didn't work. "Just You Wait" and "Show Me" can be fantastic and funny. But that wasn't the choice made here.

I said this on another thread but I wasn't majorly upset at the ending for changing things. I just thought that the change was a total cop out and I didn't think they deserved a cookie for it. My overall feeling was that I wish this production had the courage to say what it wanted to say and/or commit to communicating it more effectively.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 1:17am

I think I'd be curious to see someone else play these parts in this revival and see what I think. I love "Just You Wait" but her "ho ho hos" were so quiet and it didn't feel like a big moment because of her voice. Maybe she just doesn't have a belt? Which you need in musical theater. I wanted that song to come over more, and it didn't. Same with "Show Me," which I love. 

Donica I didn't care for. I wanted a more booming voice for Freddy. I love his song and I just wanted to be bowled over by it, but felt like any number of men could sing that song. I just didn't get why HE was the one playing the part, you know? Like why him? Why now? He just didn't do anything for me and I didn't see any spark. Nor did I think he liked women, but maybe that's rude to say. 

[Dancingthrulife2]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 1:18am

VintageSnarker said: "I thought the actor was just silly or camp instead of intimidating and genuinely misogynistic.”

That's probably because the Higgins that you are familiar with and think the character should be like is the Rex Harrison incarnation not really what the text lets on. I always get the impression from reading both Shaw's pygmalion and the libretto of My Fair Lady that Higgins is a man child. Children have more clear-cut moral principles than adults and tend to stick with them better. Higgins clearly states why he behaves the way he does in the text, and although it comes across as misogynistic, he does have unwavering principles that does not change with people nor occasions until Eliza.

To bring up another point, the Pygmalion in My Fair Lady is actually Eliza, not Higgins if you think about it. The clay didn't choose to become a lady, and the transformation is enabled by Pygmalion. Eliza, however, knows what she wants, and she's the one goes to Higgins's house and asks for lessons. In other words, Eliza is the enabler of her own journey. Her transformation might be catalyzed by Higgins, but she is the one that started the process. My Fair Lady is also about Higgins's transformation. While Eliza becomes "proper and prim" through the journey, Higgins starts to feel tenderness as he grows "accustomed to her face." The transformation was enabled by Eliza. It is only through her that Higgins sort of "grows up." 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 1:32am

I just always want their scene with "Without You" to be better and more explosive and more of a pay-off, but it isn't. 

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 1:34am

I was totally convinced by Jordan Donica. I'm becoming a bit less convinced by these critiques the more I read them and the more they are being posted honestly. They're all saying the same thing and I think the issue really isn't this production but people's dream casting or dream production they imagined themselves producing not coming to fruition. I think the typical sound and playing that some "purists" want would have been a really boring production honestly.

Updated On: 6/17/18 at 01:34 AM

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 2:37am

I've been there three times now and all three times at some point I thought that Lauren's voice wasn't sufficiently loud. Today I heard two separate groups near me make the same complaint. But we were all sitting just a few rows in front of the orchestra and that may have been a factor.

Otherwise I find Lauren to be just very endearing. She's never going to sing "Show Me" like Julie Andrews. One of my favorite songs and one of Andrew's also, I think. She sang it often in concert and on TV specials, way back in the days when the television networks used to turn over a whole hour of prime time to  a Sinatra, Andrews, Mitzi Gaynor and many more. Julie Andrews even had a weekly show of her own that was canceled after one season, to my disgust.

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 3:01am

Dancingthrulife2 said: "VintageSnarker said: "I thought the actor was just silly or camp instead of intimidating and genuinely misogynistic.”

That's probably because the Higgins that you are familiar with and think the character should be likeis the Rex Harrison incarnation notreally what the text lets on.

Yeah... nope. I've also read Pygmalion. I didn't think he needed to be Rex Harrison but I didn't find any authenticity in his acting choices during the songs. The only comedy came from him acting silly and over the top and not from the lyrical content. On the other hand, I thought the book scenes at the end of the show were wonderful. I didn't have a problem with a different interpretation of Higgins or Eliza. I just thought that during the songs, their vision was not communicated effectively and with Ambrose in particular it felt like she was hampered by the technical demands of singing the part.

I always want to love a show. I spent months lowering my expectations for MFL so I could just accept whatever this production was going to be. In general, I had a good time. But it doesn't mean I lost the ability to think critically about the choices they made and how successful they were.

[musikman]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 8:31am

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "I was totally convinced by Jordan Donica. I'm becoming a bit less convinced by these critiques the more I read them and the more they are being posted honestly. They're all saying the same thing and I think the issue really isn't this production but people's dream casting or dream production they imagined themselves producingnot coming to fruition. I think the typical sound and playing that some "purists" want would have been a really boring production honestly."

Again, with all due respect to Mr. Donica, but my dream casting for Freddy included someone who could sing on key when he sang above middle C.  That’s really it. My criticisms of this production (which felt like a long slog to me) seem to echo what others have been feeling here.  Something was off about this production.  Additionally, Bart Sher did direct a very clever, silly, and funny Barber of Seville at the Met so I trust he can do comedy. 

[RJ14]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 8:54am

i saw this production few weeks ago.

I don't mean to be offensive but Lauren Ambrose plays Eliza like a person with disability. Her facial expressions and movements are just too much for me. Maybe she plays for the last row of the balcony but it's just too overly and weirdly done. 

Harry Hadden-Paton is the highlight of the production. 

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 10:16am

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "I was totally convinced by Jordan Donica. I'm becoming a bit less convinced by these critiques the more I read them and the more they are being posted honestly. They're all saying the same thing and I think the issue really isn't this production but people's dream casting or dream production they imagined themselves producingnot coming to fruition. I think the typical sound and playing that some "purists" want would have been a really boring production honestly."

The two times I saw Donica he went up on lines and missed cues during the Ascot scene which lessened the humor of that scene. He was also rather dull and a stiff.

I thought it was just him but then I saw that video circulating of the Hamilton LA tour where he was Lafayette/Jefferson and he was lively and funny. So I think he really wasn't directed to play Freddy very well. Or maybe Sher's vision of Freddy is just as a rather stiff and humorless young man.

[dmwnc1959]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 11:08am

musikman said: "Again, with all due respect to Mr. Donica, but my dream casting for Freddy included someone who could sing on key when he sang above middle C. That’s really it. My criticisms of this production (which felt like a long slog to me) seem to echo what others have been feeling here. Something was off about this production. Additionally, Bart Sher did direct a very clever, silly,and funny Barber of Seville at the Met so I trust he can do comedy."

 

I’m still 33 days away from seeing the show, but I’ve been listening to the Cast Recording daily since it was released on May 8th. I’ll admit that I don’t know the difference between a Middle C and a Soprano, but what I do know is that “On the Street Where You Live” sounds gorgeous and soaring. It’s my favorite song on the album. Maybe it’ll sound different in the Live production. But I love his voice. Hopefully the show won’t put me to sleep. 

 

[broadwayboy223]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 5:37pm

So because some people have a different opinion about this revival that means that they just don't like Lauren Ambrose? People can have different opinions. Just like how half of everyone loves this revival why can't the other half hate it?  I haven't had a chance to see this production chance yet, but I'm just trying to point out its ridiculous to think people are hating it because they are bitter about Ambrose. 

[GeorgeandDot]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 5:45pm

This was a pretty disappointing production for me and I agree with all of the criticism on here, except for the bit about Ambrose acting to the last row of the theatre. I actually found that she was so "nuanced" that her performance didn't reach past the first few roles. If you want to see nuanced performances that fill a theatre, watch The Band's Visit.

Also, yes, Donica cannot sing the top notes in Street. He lingers just beneath them and goes very flat. I believe he does to some extent on the album too.

I enjoyed the political twist on the show, but I missed the humor. This showed me that Sher cannot direct comedy. I can't wait for another revival in a few years. Too bad it won't have these costumes which I thought were truly divine.

[VintageSnarker]

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

I thought Donica was great when I saw him. Maybe I happened to be there on a good day. My only issue with the character was the way he was following Eliza about when she returned to Covent Garden. I'm not sure what they were going for there, especially since he disappears after that so we get no resolution on his character.