| "My Fair Lady" - the forgotten Broadway revival of 1993-94 | |
| Last Edit: Marlo*Manners 12:27 pm EDT 08/29/18 | |
| Posted by: Marlo*Manners 12:22 pm EDT 08/29/18 | |
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| We have had a great deal of discussion about Bartlett Sher's "revised" ending to "My Fair Lady" which basically has Eliza return to make a gentle, conciliatory goodbye to Higgins and then leave to create her own independent future. Sher seems to be following Shaw's original vision for the play (which is a different creature from the musical). Shaw's vision of the final scene changed a lot even as early as 1913 to 1914 with a postscript "sequel" written in 1916 and further changes for the 1938 movie. There are changes to the ending in the original playing script compared to the published version and Herbert Beerbohm Tree sweetened the ending in the original production much to Shaw's dismay and anger. The 1993-94 Broadway revival was troubled and I saw it fairly well along in the run in the winter of 1994. The production had toured the country for eight months before it opened on Broadway in December 1993. A lot of changes happened on the tour. It was the first time "My Fair Lady" was revived in a new production that wasn't a remounting of the Moss Hart/Oliver Smith/Cecil Beaton 1956 original as the 1976 and 1980-81 revivals were. The star of the production was matinee idol television and movie heart throb Richard Chamberlain with Melissa Errico at the height of her critic's darling phase as Eliza. I did not see Errico but her understudy, a capable Meg Tolin who usually did one of the maids. Evidently, Richard Chamberlain loathed Melissa Errico and publicly expressed a preference for the understudy who went on a fair bit, IIRC. There were complaints of lack of chemistry between the leads. There were newspaper reports of the production conflicts. The production was directed by British director Howard Davies with sets by Ralph Koltai. Davies, like Sher, wanted to hew closer to Shaw's original concept and take a darker, revisionist approach to the material. The sets by Ralph Koltai were dark and shadowy with a limited palette of black, gray and white giving a stark look to the production in stark contrast to the elegant lavish Oliver Smith/Cecil Beaton original. I remember reading at the time that Davies had initially attempted to portray the training of Eliza as dark and sadistic with Higgins and Pickering as a pair of Frankensteins with Eliza as the Creature. Davies was going for an openly unsympathetic Higgins which is a provocative but ultimately self-defeating approach to the character. The final scene was envisioned as Eliza returning as merely a figment of Higgins' imagination - she is not really there but has gone off on her own and now is only a disembodied memory repeating words she spoke before in the show. That was abandoned and the usual "My Fair Lady" denouement was restored. Evidently the producers Barry and Fran Weissler and/or the Lerner & Loewe estates stepped in and basically denatured Davies' radically revised concept. The dark, fragmentary settings were reworked and were billed as "based on original designs by Ralph Koltai". Donald Saddler did the choreography which was nothing too distinct from the Hanya Holm original. My memories of the production were that Richard Chamberlain was a quite good Higgins with a convincing accent who sang more notes in his solos than Rex Harrison. Meg Tolin was capable and earnest but lacked star quality. Paxton Whitehead was his usual excellent self as Col. Pickering. Robert Sella was funny as Freddy Eynsford-Hill and sang his solo winningly. I have no memories whatsoever of Julian Holloway (son of the original musical Doolittle Stanley Holloway) in his only Broadway outing as Alfred P. Doolittle. No one else in the cast made any impression on me and I don't have any recollection of them either i.e. Dolores Sutton as Mrs. Higgins. I remember the sets looked cheap and sparse with a heavy glowering atmosphere which didn't make sense in a more traditional production concept. Chamberlain did his best to carry the production which wasn't really top notch nor was the supporting company. The production lacked elegance, sparkle and wit and it kind of lay there onstage despite Chamberlain's best efforts. Anyone have memories of this production or saw it in its original concept on tour or saw Michael Moriarty or Paxton Whitehead who took over for Chamberlain? Memories of Melissa Errico? Corrections to my faded memories? Marlo Manners (Lady Barrington) |
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