The most beloved musical of all time, Lerner & Loewe's MY FAIR LADY returns to Broadway in a lavish new production from Lincoln Center Theater, the theater that brought you the Tony-winning revivals of South Pacific and The King and I.
Directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher, the stellar cast - led by Lauren Ambrose, Harry Hadden-Paton, Norbert Leo Butz, Diana Rigg, Allan Corduner, Jordan Donica, Linda Mugleston and Manu Narayan - tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a "proper lady." But who is really being transformed?
The classic score features "I Could Have Danced All Night," "The Rain in Spain," "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" and "On the Street Where You Live." The original 1956 production won six Tony Awards including Best Musical, and was hailed by The New York Times as "one of the best musicals of the century."
Higgins is as always a comically insufferable narcissist but Hadden-Paton (who played Bertie Pelham on Downton Abbey) gives him a shot of sex appeal, which helps. Norbert Leo Butz, as Eliza's foolish father, gives a showstopping performance. But this revival really seems to draw its energy from the women - from Ambrose's damaged and determined Eliza, as well as Diana Rigg (Diana Rigg!) as the dry, wise, seen-it-all queen of common sense, Mrs. Higgins. Their spirit, and their refusal to allow the ridiculous impulses of men go unchecked, points to the irony in the title: Sure she's fair, but she does not belong to you.
Anticipation for the latest revival of 'My Fair Lady' was high - the Lerner and Loewe classic, from 1956, had been absent from Broadway for nearly 25 years - but not entirely positive. After all, the story of a Cockney flower girl being bullied into learning upper-class speech by an abrasive male professor could feel out of touch, to put it mildly, in our modern climate. Happily, this Lincoln Center Theater production starring Lauren Ambrose and Harry Hadden-Paton is everything it needs to be, and quite a bit more.
Videos