We nonagenarians are frequently criticized for living in the past and failing to appreciate the pleasures that are available to us today. I certainly plead “Guilty” to that criticism; I am firmly convinced that all the cultural experiences of my young adult life are superior to those currently available. When I turned ninety, I assumed that my opportunities to see and hear world class jazz musicians in person were all in the past. How wrong I was! Since then I have been treated to live performances by Bill Charlap at Chautauqua and John Pizzarelli, at Hartwood Acres. Similarly, I assumed that I would never again see a classic Broadway musical in person. Wrong again! A year and a half ago we saw a fine production of “Oklahoma” at the Benedum Theater. And, wonder of wonders, we saw “My Fair Lady” at the same venue early this month!
This particular performance was a spinoff from a 2018 Lincoln Center revival of the 1956 smash hit. The original plan was to follow up its success with a national tour; the Covid-19 pandemic forced a postponement until last year. Nonetheless the show seemed to be as fresh as ever and the touring cast wonderfully enthusiastic. The performers in the leading roles were unknowns to me; reading their resumes in the program suggested that this opportunity was the career pinnacle for many of them. Annette Barrios-Torres was a perfect Eliza Doolittle; her gradual transformation from street urchin selling flowers from a pushcart to elegant grand dame at the Transylvanian Embassy ball was quite credible. Jonathan Grunert’s Henry Higgins was acceptable, although he wasn’t quite as mature and stuffy as I would have preferred. Michael Hegarty lucked out with the role of Alfred P. Doolittle and the great show-stopper, “Get Me to the Church on Time”, which he executed masterfully.
The touring show was in Pittsburgh for six days, then moved on to Birmingham, Alabama, for two performances at Auburn University. It is difficult to imagine the logistical complications of tearing down intricate sets one evening and having them in place in a different theater hundreds of miles away the next evening, not to mention housing and feeding a thirty-person cast, the pit orchestra, and the stage crew. It is a real credit to the performers that they are able to appear fresh and enthusiastic night after night, often in a different venue in a different state. There certainly was no evidence of boredom in the performance we saw.
“My Fair Lady” opened on Broadway in 1956 in an era of popular music dominated by phonograph records and disk jockeys on local radio stations. A new Broadway show was introduced to the general public across the country by the promotion of catchy songs recorded by big name stars. I distinctly remember Vic Damone’s big hit of “On the Street Where You Live”, and the curiosity it aroused in me regarding the show from which it was taken. Once a show became a success, the next step was issuing an LP record by the original cast. In no time, the entire score became familiar to an audience that had never seen the show live. My wife had a marvelous collection of such LPs, records that we played incessantly.
The curious thing about learning the entire score of a show from a record without seeing the show is the absence of context. “On the Street Where You Live” has a much richer meaning when you realize that it is sung by socialite Freddy Eynsford-Hill, who has just met the newly transformed Eliza Doolittle and has no knowledge of her background. It is only after one sees a show live (or a film version of it) that the plot links between the different songs begin to make sense. Despite having seen the movie version several times, I was still surprised at nuances in the story that I picked up by seeing this performance. There still are several of Nan’s LPs with scores I know by heart, but whose plots make no sense at all to me – “Irma la Douce” and “Candide” come to mind.
“My Fair Lady” is the third musical whose touring company Lincoln Center has sponsored; “South Pacific” and “Oklahoma” preceded it. There are rumors that “Camelot” will go on tour in 2025 – one more reason for me to behave myself and still be around next year. I have never seen a live version of it. Ironically, my wife and I had tickets for a performance of it at the Nixon Theater on November 22, 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. “Camelot” was cancelled that night, as was our belief that we were living in a modern day Camelot.
Back to “My Fair Lady”; when Elizabeth asked me what I thought of it, I replied, “top five”. When asked for the other four, I did a lot of soul sourcing and came up with “Oklahoma”, “Kiss Me Kate”, “The Music Man”, and “West Side Story”. It is no coincidence that they were all introduced on Broadway between 1943 and 1957 (my adolescent/young adult era). My tastes do not correlate with those of folks several generations younger; my top five do not fare well on current lists of all-time greatest musicals; after all, how can they compete with cultural classics like “Grease” and “Hairspray”?
I am grateful that my adolescent/young adult years coincided with the Golden Ages of popular music, movies, radio, and Broadway musicals. I am equally grateful that the years since then have been blessed with occasional examples of excellence in each of those genres. They too have enriched my life immeasurably.