My Fair Lady

A

Bartlett Sher and Lincoln Center Theater have done it again. With their wonderful revivals of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific and The King and I, they had set the bar for musical revivals very high. Nevertheless, they have managed to outdo themselves with this spectacular production of Lerner and Loewe’s much-loved musical based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. In the roles created by Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, Sher boldly cast two actors whose names are not instantly recognizable and who had not previously been seen in musicals, Harry Hadden-Paton ("Downton Abbey," "The Crown") as Professor Henry Higgins and Lauren Ambrose (Awake and Sing!; "Six Feet Under") as Eliza Doolittle. Sher’s gamble has paid off handsomely. In addition to her considerable acting chops, Ms. Ambrose turns out to have a lovely voice. Mr. Hadden-Patton is a fine actor who negotiates the transition between speaking and singing with great skill. As Eliza’s father Alfred P. Doolittle, the ever-enjoyable Norbert Leo Butz (Catch Me If You Can, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) threatens to steal the show. Allan Corduner (Titanic, "Topsy-Turvy"), a stalwart of the London theater scene, is excellent as Colonel Pickering. Theater icon Diana Rigg (Medea, The Misanthrope) lends dignity and warmth to the role of Mrs. Higgins. Jordan Donica (The Phantom of the Opera) makes a handsome, vocally adept Freddy Eynsford-Hill, a role I find underwritten. Linda Mugleston (Beautiful, On the 20th Century) is properly unflappable as Higgins’s housekeeper Mrs. Pearce. Manu Narayan (Bombay Dreams) seems a bit too broad and effete as Hungarian linguist Professor Zoltan Karpathy. In addition to his wonderful two-level revolving main set for the interior of 27A Wimpole Street, Michael Yeargan (Oslo, The King and I) has created an evocative Covent Garden, an opulent embassy ballroom, a minimalist but clever setting for Ascot, for Mrs. Higgins’s solarium and for the interior of Doolittle’s favorite pub. The period costumes by Catherine Zuber (Junk, Oslo, The King and I) are superb. The choreography by Christopher Gattelli (The King and I, Newsies) is fine, although I didn’t understand why there were gender-bending chorines in the pub scene. The large orchestra under Ted Sperling is wonderful and gets to appear onstage en masse at the ball. The music, lyrics and book remain among the best ever written for a musical. Bartlett Sher (also Oslo, Golden Boy, Fiddler on the Roof) has brought it all together seamlessly and satisfyingly. It’s a near-perfect production of what many have called the perfect musical. My only reservation is about the ending, where Sher has chosen to follow Shaw rather than Lerner and Loewe (Camelot, Brigadoon, Gigi). Without that quibble, I would have given it an A+. Running time: two hours 55 minutes including intermission.

Big Fish **

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)

Had I seen Tim Burton’s 2003 film about Edward Bloom (Norbert Leo Butz), a tall-tale-telling traveling salesman from Alabama and his uneasy relationship with his son Will (Bobby Steggert), I probably would have passed on the musical. The film’s combination of fantasy, whimsy and sentimentality is not a blend I generally seek out. The creative team led by director-choreographer Susan Stroman has made a noble, but largely unsuccessful, effort to adapt the film for the musical stage. The elaborate scenic design by Julian Crouch, colorful costumes by William Ivey Long and complex projections by Benjamin Pearcy provide lots to look at, almost to the point of distraction. The book, by the film’s screenwriter John August, crams too much exposition with too little emotion into the long first act, but improves a bit after intermission. The talented Kate Baldwin as Edward’s wife Sandra gets a nice ballad, but little in the way of a character to develop. Krystal Joy Brown is lovely as Will’s wife, but the point of casting the role with an African-American actor puzzled me. Since the action takes place in Alabama, what, if anything, are we supposed to make of this choice (which is not in the movie)? To me, the music is the main point of a musical. That’s where “Big Fish” really falls short. Andrew Lippa’s music is bland and his lyrics, banal. Butz apparently has a very devoted fan base -- when he first appeared onstage, the applause was thunderous. If you loved the movie and have time and money to burn, there are worse ways to spend an evening. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes, including intermission.