Review: ‘My Fair Lady’

I suppose it was at the moment when Friday night’s Popejoy Hall audience gave a standing ovation to the cast of the touring company of “My Fair Lady” that I awoke from the dream: I dreamt I was in a Broadway theater watching a re-imagined production of this venerable musical. What a terrific show, with fresh interpretations of story, music, dancing, costumes, sets and lighting.

The evening was made memorable by so many intertwined artistic elements -

–the beauty and beautiful singing of Aurora Florence as the upwardly mobile Eliza Doolittle (“I Could Have Danced All Night” and “Just You Wait”). This recent college graduate has a bright future in musical theater;

	“My Fair Lady” WHEN: 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11 and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12 WHERE: Popejoy Hall, Center for the Arts, UNM campus HOW MUCH: $47.50, $57.50 and $72.50 at www.unmtickets.com, at the UNM Bookstore, at area Albertsons supermarkets or at the door

–Chris Carsten as the bullying bachelor Henry Higgins, who transforms Cockney flower girl Eliza into a proper-speaking English lady in six months but neglects her affection for him. There’s a love story embedded here;

– Richard Springle as the blustery, avuncular Col. Pickering, Higgins’ friend;

–Arthur Wise as Eliza’s boozing, ne’er-do-well father who bounds around the stage leading the ensemble in a boisterous version of “Get Me to the Church on Time.” He’s a marvelous character actor;

– Anne Marie Couto’s creative, mesmerizing costume designs that were especially brilliant in the “Ascot Gavotte” scene in which the female members of the ensemble show off their over-the-top, high-fashion outfits in black-and-white;

–Denis Michael Jones’ energizing choreography that the ensemble capably executed, whether it was in the London street scene or in their spinning, twisting movements in support of wedding-bound Doolittle. The frenzied dancing segued into a Rockettes tribute.

–Jeffrey Moss’ intelligent direction that brought all of these elements together.

Because this is a musical about British speech patterns, everyone in the cast except one was in the relevant dialect. The exception was Joyce Gilbert Bohus as Henry Higgins’ mother. Her lines were spoken with a flat, nondescript American accent. What happened? Having achieved success with Eliza, Higgins should make his mum his next project.