Opening Tonight: 'My Fair Lady'

She could have danced all night, that Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle, or so she sang. In November she'll have to sing and dance for ten performances, as Magic Circle Players presents ‘My Fair Lady’ every Friday and Saturday from November 6-28, with two Sunday matinees, November 15 and 22.

Tom Chamberlain and Sandy Lundberg direct this Tony Award-winning masterpiece written by Alan Jay Lerner, who also did the lyrics, with music by Fredrick Loewe.

‘My Fair Lady’ opened on Broadway March 15, 1956, and ran for 2,717 performances over nine years, garnering Tony "bests" for musical, actor Rex Harrison, scenic design, costumes, conductor and musical director, and director Moss Hart. Its revivals in 1976 and 1981 also won Tonys.

Based loosely on Ovid's Greek myth about a sculptor, Pygmalion, who falls in love with his carved ivory creation, ‘My Fair Lady’ follows playwright George Bernard Shaw's 1916 version. Common flower girl Eliza challenges learned linguist Professor Henry Higgins to improve her language so she can move off the street and into a shop. How he meets that challenge, and creates other personal ones, is the heart of the story. Besides the great British humor and interesting love triangle, ‘My Fair Lady’ has some of the best music ever written for the stage.

Newcomer to Magic Circle Players, Bethany Ward, plays Eliza, with M.A. Smith handling the role of Prof. Higgins. Colonel Pickering, Eliza's friend and Higgins' foil, is Gary Hokit. Rob Hunter (Freddy Eynsford-Hill), Jim Hougnon (Alfred P. Doolittle), Kathy Murdoch (Mrs. Pearce), Elissa Rathfelder (Mrs. Higgins), and George Crosby (Zoltan Karpathy) round out the leads.

Thirty-seven roles are cast in the chorus, with several actors portraying more than one part. Also, ‘My Fair Lady’ introduces two buskers, street performers, who are new to the theatre, Conor Keenan and Lauren McCay.

Music director Lois Decker is assisted by another first-timer Lenore Hample. Together they direct seventeen different musical numbers, with a couple of reprises.

Call 249-7838 for reservations.

Submitted by Carol McDermott