MY FAIR LADY Revival Back On For Next Spring?- Page 6

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 9:16am

icecreambenjamin said: "I really think that Laura Benanti looks about 24.  She could really play anyone between the ages of 24 and 45."

 

Not like any 24 year olds I know.

 

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 9:28am

icecreambenjamin said: "I really think that Laura Benanti looks about 24.  She could really play anyone between the ages of 24 and 45."

 

This is not meant as a negative, but I don't think Laura Benanti looked 24 even when she was 24. She has always read older to me. 

[CindersGolightly]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 9:34am

She actually thinks the same. She has this ongoing joke where she'll look at her headshot from the beginning of her career and call herself fifty five, or the like. I still don't see her age being an issue, though. It's never explicitly stated or even implied, really, that she's super young. If she was greying or looked incredibly aged, then it would be an issue, but I can't see why she couldn't play Eliza. Playing the Devils Advocate though, Osnes would be a great and thrilling choice as well. There are many actresses in New York who could hypothetically do this.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 10:18am

CindersGolightly said: "It's never explicitly stated or even implied, really, that she's super young."

 

Except when Pickering tells Scotland Yard she is "about 21"

[CindersGolightly]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 11:17am

Ah, right! But that could be easily changed if Benanti ends up securing the role. Or, they could play it for laughs.

[sing_dance_love]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 11:17am

OlBlueEyes-

I can only answer your question with my personal opinion, but I find that, onstage, Osnes just has a "quality". What I appreciate most about her performances is her innate earnestness. She is just believable regardless of contrived situation or hokey dialogue. I think her soprano is lovely, light, and shimmering but agree it doesn't have the depth and versatility of the many brilliant vocalists you mentioned. What she does also have though is a clear, pure belt, and is an excellent (and more importantly, expressive) dancer. Couple all of this together and I find that, often, you can't take your eyes off her. 

 

Very excited about the prospect of a first-class MFL revival and thank any of the wonderful actresses discussed could be great. I do think Ms. Benanti's comedic and dramatic versatility matched with that stunner of a voice just smacks of perfect casting. Exciting regardless!

[madbrian]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 11:19am

What about Katie Rose Clarke as Eliza?  I don't think a big name is required for the role.

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 11:34am

I mean financially it may not be worth it or if she'd even consider it, but Andrews as Mrs. Higgins would be a nice piece of casting.

[Valentina3]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 11:35am

Well, if we are all dream-casting, after Laura Benanti, my vote would be for Adrienne Warren.

[theatregeek6]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 12:03pm

We have (and I applaud) racially diverse casts, gender bending casts, but someone we are stuck on someone looking too old?  Really?  Suspend belief for a Mama Rose in her 70's who is a woman of color, but not someone who may be 10 years too 'old'?

 

Ageist much?

[Kad]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 12:06pm

While I don't think it's crazy for a woman in her late-thirties (or, god forbid, older!) to play Eliza, I don't think a "name" is needed for a revival of My Fair Lady, especially if a well-known actor is secured for Higgins.

(and for the record, if Andrew Rannells and Gavin Creel can play the 19-year-old Elder Price in Mormon without people huffing at it, Benanti can play the early-twenties Eliza).

[CindersGolightly]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 12:07pm

Kad said: "(and for the record, if Andrew Rannells and Gavin Creel can play the 19-year-old Elder Price in Mormon without people huffing at it, Benanti can play the early-twenties Eliza)."

That's where the misogyny and double standards come in!

[_IrisTInkerbell]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 12:56pm

I don't think age is an issue at all. Especially on the stage it seems so much less important than on film, and casting people often seem to pay very little attention to it. I mean, both Kristin and Idina were already in their 30s when they did Wicked, and those characters are 18-ish, at least in Act 1. And that's just one example, Kad mentioned another, and I'm sure there are countless more.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 1:25pm

sing_dance_love said: "OlBlueEyes-

I can only answer your question with my personal opinion, but I find that, onstage, Osnes just has a "quality". What I appreciate most about her performances is her innate earnestness. She is just believable regardless of contrived situation or hokey dialogue. I think her soprano is lovely, light, and shimmering but agree it doesn't have the depth and versatility of the many brilliant vocalists you mentioned. What she does also have though is a clear, pure belt, and is an excellent (and more importantly, expressive) dancer. Couple all of this together and I find that, often, you can't take your eyes off her. 
"

Thanks, s_d_l. I had forgotten that she received an Astaire nomination for "Anything Goes." I didn't see her in Encores' Pipe Dream, but I downloaded the live sound recording and again she impressed me as very versatile. 

Maybe I answered my own question about how the people in power see her or should see her. She played Nellie for the last eight months of South Pacific, through the winter and the summer, and that show ran out for over 1000 performances. Someone must have liked her.

 

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 1:51pm

The Australian revival of My Fair Lady is supposed to open at the Sydney Opera House on August 30th. That production is going the way of the established British star, Alex Jennings, a three time Olivier winner, as Higgins and relatively unknown Australian born Anna O'Rourke as Liza. 

Anna is thirty years old and seems most like Kelli O'Hara in being a hard-working actress, moving from show to next show. She has been touring the UK as Sarah in Guys and Dolls and will head back to Sydney for this MFL kick-off.

This 60th anniversary production is only selling tickets through October, calling itself a "strictly limited presentation." If that is the case it will surely transfer or tour. (Make that probably transfer or tour since I'm not a member of the intelligentsia.) If there is a Broadway revival this year (60th Anniversary), it will surely be compared to the Aussie production, which of course is being directed by Dame Julie Andrews.

http://myfairladymusical.com.au/news/

Updated On: 7/25/16 at 01:51 PM

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 2:02pm

Is the Chicago Lyric opera production a wholly different production? Is it based on any previous incarnations?

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 2:09pm

I have no idea if she could possibly sing it, probably not in her range, but Scher fave Lauren Ambrose otherwise strikes me as a very cool choice for Eliza - in Pygmalion anyway.  

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 3:53pm

Call_me_jorge said: "Is the Chicago Lyric opera production a wholly different production? Is it based on any previous incarnations?"

Lyric stages the American debut of a grand production from Théâtre du Châtelet and director Robert Carsen, featuring sets by Tim Hatley and costumes by Anthony Powell. “If there is a theater outside the English-speaking world where productions of American musical comedies equal or surpass those of Broadway, the Théâtre du Châtelet is it,” raves The New York Times. - See more at: https://www.lyricopera.org/concertstickets/calendar/2016-2017/productions/lyricopera/my-fair-lady#sthash.t0rzlkHQ.dpuf

https://www.lyricopera.org/concertstickets/calendar/2016-2017/productions/lyricopera/my-fair-lady

Seems to be a transfer of a French production.

I haven't found what the intentions are for the Australian production after it's done Australia, but with two major world productions of the musical already in place, with one directed by Dame Andrews herself, I'm inclined to think that Broadway will pass on a new revival this year.

 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 4:05pm

The lyric also put up the Théâtre du Châtelet's production of the King and I just this past year.

[OlBlueEyes]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 6:40pm

Call_me_jorge said: "The lyric also put up the Théâtre du Châtelet's production of the King and I just this past year."

That would have been interesting to see.

Some Chicagoans are unhappy that the Lyric Opera has been resorting to musicals to garner enough income to be able to keep the "high-brow" entertainment financed.

OK, back to potential Lincoln Center Elizas. I guess Sutton Foster would be a non-starter.

 

[CindersGolightly]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 7:52pm

Sutton will presumably be busy, if "Sweet Charity" transfers - and it will. Plus, she doesn't really have the correct voice for it. 

[buhbuhbilly]

Posted: 7/25/16 at 7:56pm

just gonna leave Jessie Mueller as an option here.... because .. well duh

[_IrisTInkerbell]

Posted: 7/26/16 at 4:58am

I'm still rooting for Laura Benanti all the way, but I was listening to Daddy Long Legs again last night and was thinking that Megan McGinnis could be a fabulous Eliza! She has a superb soprano voice and I think you could act the part as well. There's a fierceness under her sweetness that would suit Eliza.

[StephieElise]

Posted: 7/26/16 at 5:39am

OlBlueEyes said: "The Australian revival of My Fair Lady is supposed to open at the Sydney Opera House on August 30th. That production is going the way of the established British star, Alex Jennings, a three time Olivier winner, as Higgins and relatively unknown Australian born Anna O'Rourke as Liza. 

Anna is thirty years old and seems most like Kelli O'Hara in being a hard-working actress, moving from show to next show. She has been touring the UK as Sarah in Guys and Dolls and will head back to Sydney for this MFL kick-off.

This 60th anniversary production is only selling tickets through October, calling itself a "strictly limited presentation." If that is the case it will surely transfer or tour. (Make that probably transfer or tour since I'm not a member of the intelligentsia.) If there is a Broadway revival this year (60th Anniversary), it will surely be compared to the Aussie production, which of course is being directed by Dame Julie Andrews.

http://myfairladymusical.com.au/news/"

 

I would have said that Alex Jennings is an unknown to Australian audiences whereas Anna O'Byrne is rather a darling of the theatre community (of course, we had Love Never Dies in Melbourne for a lot longer than Sydney and also got to see her as a rather spray-tanned Maria in The Production Company's West Side Story so that may be affecting my opinion!). If the show comes to Melbourne I would be seeing it for her. It doesn't hurt that she is an absolute sweetheart!

They also have names in Eliza's father (played by Reg Livermore, who is very well known, particularly to the older audience) and Freddie (played by Mark Vincent who is one of the few successes of Australia's Got Talent and has an album out with Marina Prior so would be getting exposure with the target audience). 

I also don't recall any Australian production NOT being called 'strictly limited', so that really doesn't mean much. However, if it does decently it will at least do a season in Melbourne, provided the Regent is free (no other theatres are) and likely other cities. The only major musicals of recent years that I can think of that didn't were Once (due to theatre availability), Forum (due to Geoffrey Rush availability) and Addams Family (which flopped). All our shows have to tour/transfer (there's really no difference here!) to be successful.

[MISH2]

Posted: 7/26/16 at 10:03am

What about Emma Stone?  She was great in Cabaret, and with some vocal coaching she might pull it off. 

More importantly, she and Colin Firth had a similar pairing in Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight. Colin was oozing Henry Higgins in that film!

As a previous poster mentioned, I too have a half dozen friends who will travel to see him.  They all did when Colin did a Times Talk some years ago.  

i