It's noteworthy because much attention has been devoted to the demands of playing Eliza eight times a week. It notoriously, if briefly, felled Julie Andrews, who writes with blistering honesty in her memoir about how her voice began to give out rather early on. Many posters have explained the reason: the need to play the vocal pyrotechnics in the speaking scenes vs. the lilting soprano range of the score. The two extremes take their toll. So the Ambrose absences, apparently several, are worth contemplating as much from the standpoint of the material's exactly grip on singing actors as on Tony impact.
If anyone has more to share on the issue of the duality in the part -- the need to play the rough-edges of Eliza's speech vs. the reach in the score -- I'd love to hear it. |
