No doubt about it, Lauren Ambrose is the fairest of them all. The new production of My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center sparkles with a warmth and vivacity that make this beloved classic seem fresh again. As Eliza Doolittle, Ambrose is the dynamic center of the piece, her peaches and cream complexion and bright ginger hair the outward manifestation of her passion and verve. The stage seems to light up with her presence, and in her caramel ball gown, she is positively dazzling. Long admired for her acting, her singing voice is a pure delight. Old chestnuts get a new life; “Just You Wait” seethes with pent up frustration at her treatment by Higgins, in direct contrast to the exuberantly joyous abandon of “I Could Have Danced All Night.” Have we ever before really considered what it means to have a person’s major ambition in life be the simple comforts of a warm room and plenty to eat? “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” is here a window into a life of poverty and want. Of course, Eliza falls under the spell of Higgins; the promise of a better life for herself is too seductive to pass up, no matter what indignities she must endure. To enter into Higgins’s magnificently quintessential English town home is to be surrounded by hundreds of books, rich mahogany paneling, wrought iron banisters, a Persian rug…all that’s missing is an Irish Setter asleep in front of the fireplace. Harry Hadden-Paton so totally embodies Professor Henry Higgins that he seems as much an element of the surroundings as he is the master of it. Allen Corduner’s Colonel Pickering is so obviously cut from the same upper-class cloth. Though more compassionate than Higgins, it is he who posits the wager to make Eliza talk like a proper English woman before an upcoming ball. Can they pass her off as a lady, she who is “so deliciously low”? The bet is irresistible to self-important, brilliant Higgins, the Sheldon Cooper of Edwardian speech experts. What a delight to see Diana Rigg trod the boards as Henry’s much more down to Earth mother. She is most resplendent in her lavender outfit for the outing at Ascot. It’s one of many clever devices to have the hoofbeats of the horses heard around the back of the house; the audience feels a part of the “thrilling” experience. Jordan Donica is handsome and earnest as Freddie Eynesford-Hill, with an ardor that makes us all wish we could be the object of “On The Street Where You Live.” Not only is he dreamy, but he also has laudable breath control. What can be said about Norbert Leo Butz? He’s all but unrecognizable as the reprobate Alfred P. Doolittle, the man who’ll gladly sell his daughter for the money to keep carousing. But when he sings and dances, you can’t miss the overwhelming talent and the sheer joy he brings to the stage. I will admit to being somewhat bewildered by the big hairy men in drag for the “Get Me To The Church On Time” number. I also question the anachronistically Picasso-like picture on the wall of the Higgins house. These are jarring notes in an otherwise perfect pitch production. The year is 1913. It’s fascinating to ponder that England is a country one year away from World War I, which will change everything. Conscription begins in 1916; in a house full of servants, how many of the male domestics will be off fighting? In 1918, the first real enfranchisement of women takes hold. This is the climate of the times; Eliza is emerging as an empowered human being during an age when the country is about to experience a period of great flux. Many are puzzled or dismayed by the ending of this version of the musical, but those familiar with Pygmalion, the Shaw play upon which My Fair Lady is based, will understand that things cannot stay the same, let alone go backward. England, Eliza, and the whole world are entering into a new age, and Henry Higgins, the archetypical representative of the old guard, is going to be part of it, like it or not. Owwww, indeed.
