My Fair Lady Tour- Page 3

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 7/10/22 at 10:58pm

The fact that someone wrote she exits through a wall just proves that the ending doesn’t work on tour. 
 

and def curious how this plays Non-Eq. Without the house revolve it’s a pretty lame production. 

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 7/10/22 at 11:08pm

SouthernCakes said: "The fact that someone wrote she exits through a wall just proves that the ending doesn’t work on tour.


and def curious how this plays Non-Eq. Without the house revolve it’s a pretty lame production."

Im totally in the dark about what theyre doing on tour, but I thought the ending of the Broadway revival I saw (with Ambrose, who was wonderful) packed a magnificent punch, and in that one moment made a complete and winning case for how theater is alive, and can bend but not break, when stage directions are tweaked as times change.

Disappointed that they'd do anything differently now; her walking out on Higgins, essentially considering and rejecting the life he was offering her, was pitch perfect.

[MCfan2]

Posted: 7/10/22 at 11:38pm

dan94 said: "I saw the tour a couple weeks ago. The cast was good. The production fine. I just don't think the show has aged well at all.

I enjoyed the movie a lot as a kid. Watching the tour I was aghast at how mean everyone was to Eliza. It never seems like she's fully mentally aware of what she's going through. I was watching a child on stage being turned into a dress up doll for Higgins. This is an interesting dynamic, but you're left at the end of the show with Higgins singing a love song, which is confusing and not precipitated. It didn't seem to me like Lerner and Loewe were telling the same story as Shaw.

 

If I may -- I don't see it that way at all. Eliza has agency and a voice and intelligence and a fierce will of her own. When people push her, she pushes back. She knows what she wants and she goes for it. 

We all view plays and movies in our own way. I get that. But I just had to say that it's so alien to me to ever think of Eliza as a child or a doll or someone mentally unaware of anything, when she's one of the fictional characters who taught me something about how to be strong.

[dan94]

Posted: 7/11/22 at 12:20am

I think "never seeming fully aware" was poor wording on my part. She becomes more aware and independent as the show progresses. She goes to walk out at the beginning and Doolittle talks her into staying by offering chocolates. The chocolates become a gag repeated a couple of times, and that part does seem childlike to me.

More it's in Act Two where Eliza asks "where am I to go? What's to become of me?" that signifies neither she nor Higgins et al considered repercussions of their actions/making these changes. There is some naivety that she has to confront.

Higgins should have known better in the beginning though, and I think the Mrs Pearce makes some comments along these lines in those early scenes. idk, I felt like she was taken advantage of and then made the best out of the situation as she gained independence, if that makes sense.

[MCfan2]

Posted: 7/11/22 at 12:30am

You raise some good points. I think what happens is that she starts out with a stated goal -- she wants to learn to talk well so she can work in a florist's shop -- and then the goal shifts on her, leaving her unsure of what she can do and what she wants to do. So much changes for her over the course of the show, and she learns so much about herself and others and her society, that she doesn't know if the old goal still is or should be her goal. But she has a toughness and a self-reliance that lead me to think she will figure it out. 

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 10/14/22 at 7:52am

The non-equity tour kicked off last night in Paducah, Kentucky. I am very curious to hear about the changes made to the set design.