Ahmanson Theater, Los Angeles, California – Mezzanine (Seat L11, $65).
Book & lyrics – Alan Jay Lerner; Music – Frederick Loewe; Director – Trevor Nunn; Eliza Doolittle – Lisa O'Hare, Colonel Hugh Pickering – Walter Charles, Professor Henry Higgins – Christopher Cazenove, Alfred Doolittle – Tim Jerome, Mrs. Pearce – Barbara Marineau, Mrs. Higgins – Marni Nixon.
Story. Based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, this story is about how Prof. Higgins, on a bet with Colonel Pickering, tries to convert the flower girl Doolittle into a proper lady, and in the process falling in love with her.
A friend suggested we watch this show during my trip to Los Angeles, so the five of us (Alfred & Emily, David & Ruby, and myself) went to see it together. I was surprised at the price of the ticket (relatively inexpensive) and the size of the theater (must seat over 2000 people).
This was an okay show, but a bit disappointing given how well-known the story is. And the standard set by the movie where Audrey Hepburn played the role of Eliza with Julie Andrews doing the singing probably made it difficult for any subsequent productions to come close to matching it.
The sets were cleverly designed, although not as elaborate as one might expect, and the operations seemed smooth.
In most musicals I have seen, I have always been amazed at the clarity of the actors' diction, probably with the help of expertly designed sound systems. This was not the case. First “problem” is the British accent (affected and real), compounded by the cockney accent of the working class people. And I suspect the sound system could have been designed with better voice projection in mind. Fortunately the story is well known enough that a missed line here or there didn't get me that confused.
The only good singing was from Eliza, and the quality was adequate at best when she had to sustain high notes. Both Prof. Higgins and Colonel Pickering talked through much of the singing, and the parts they sang weren't that great either. Nonetheless, it was nice to hear familiar songs such as “I could have danced all night”, “The rain in Spain”, and “Get me to the church on time”. The two or three rowdy pieces were a bit too loud for my taste.
Both the maid and the mother provided some good comic relief. We aren't sure at the final scene whether Higgins and Doolittle have a romance going, which is okay. And one wonders why the colonel seems to be around so much ...
The show was a bit on the long side, first act was 90 minutes, a (relatively short) intermission of 15 minutes, and a 60 or so minute second act. I thought they could at least cut out the horse-racing scene to shorten the show. I was told (by an executive producer of a musical) the production costs about $9 million.
This musical is another proof that comedies (even with romance thrown in) don't work, not for me anyway. All in all, though, a was a good evening spent with good friends.
See the Los Angels Times “on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand” review of the show. And they say I am wishy-washy.
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