My Fair Lady on Tour
With its jubilant revival of My Fair Lady, the Lincoln Center Theater's North American touring production gives audiences the opportunity to enjoy what many have called a "perfect" Broadway musical with new eyes and ears.
Lincoln Center's Tony-nominated revival opened in 2018 and won accolades for director Bartlett Sher's glorious new take on Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, about the platonic relationship that develops when arrogant linguistics professor Henry Higgins wagers he can transform cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a "proper lady." The musical's original Broadway production, starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison, premiered in 1956 and set a record for longest-running Broadway show. It has been revived many times, for good reason.
The new production stars Shereen Ahmed as Eliza Doolittle and Laird Mackintosh as Henry Higgins. Ahmed was an understudy in the Broadway production and frequently substituted for leading lady Laura Benanti. Mackintosh's most recent role was in the long-running Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera, whose title role he has also played more than 200 times.
About My Fair Lady the Musical
Lerner and Loewe were at first hesitant to adapt a play that apparently lacked a love story. They arrived at something even grander: a musical about two people whose lives are transformed by their mutual aspirations. They invested songs like "With a Little Bit of Luck," "I Could Have Danced All Night," "On the Street Where You Live" and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" with both heart and humor, creating standards of near-universal appeal.
In a My Fair Lady described as "plush and thrilling" by The New York Times, director Bartlett Sher suggests that Eliza Doolittle's urge to reinvent herself is even more powerful than Henry Higgins' desire to win his bet. While Christopher Gattelli's choreography pays tribute to the original Broadway production, set designer Michael Yeargan emphasizes the opulence of Henry Higgins' home, through whose rooms actors roam on a revolving stage. The real magic in this My Fair Lady, however, is the acting and singing. There may not be a passionate romance at the heart of this timeless masterpiece, but there is chemistry aplenty.
