A Season for Old Chestnuts
Theater League's My Fair Lady at Symphony Hall
** (out of *****)
Mark S.P. Turvin
(w) 965-1021  (h) 894-5443
I can be reached for comment via e-mail at: mspt@asu.edu

	There is a disturbing trend that began a number of years ago 
on Broadway that is now becoming a standard practice in cities 
across America. With high overheads and an even higher 
preponderance of has-been stars and starlets in show business, 
producers have decided not to attempt new or cutting edge works, 
but to fall back on standbys and star vehicles. The transparent 
rationale is to simply go with a proven winner, and genuine 
creativity be damned.
	Theatre League has reached into this well-worn bag and pulled 
out the much-too-often produced Lerner and Loewe classic, My Fair 
Lady. There is no doubt that the first hundred productions of this 
show were highly enjoyable, the next hundred pleasant, and the 
next few hundred cheerful, but a point has been reached in the 
classical reproduction market where a show needs more than just a 
star to propel it along. 
	A little more than a year ago, when this same show came to 
the valley through another producer's series with Richard 
Chamberlin as the star attraction, that production also had 
ingenious sets, great design elements and very clever direction. 
While the star himself was not very impressive, that shows' 
concepts and designs made up for the billing inadequacies. 
	Now, Theatre League has brought the very talented voice of 
Jodi Benson (whose only credit touted was her voice being the one 
used for the Little Mermaid, but who is also a very gifted and 
accomplished theatre performer in her own right) to carry this 
fine old chestnut of a show nearly single-handedly. To support 
this wonderful actress, the major roles have been filled with a 
bunch of has-been television actors, a series of mediocre painted 
flats and uninteresting sets have been created, and worst of all, 
a chorus has been selected with the energy of a bunch of teenagers 
with mono. 
	It simply is not enough to approximately recreate a classic, 
but to reinvent it as well.
	To this shows credit, Jodi Benson is wonderful in the role of 
Eliza Doolittle, the flowergirl-turned-royalty. Her acting talent 
equally matches her famed singing, and whenever she's on the 
stage, which fortunately is quite often, she is electrifying. If 
the ticket price weren't so extravagant, it might be worth the 
admission just to see her. She may be awkward with her cockney 
accent, but her wit shines and her songs float. It's not easy to 
forget the likes of Audrey Hepburn, but Ms. Benson does her best.
	Ian Ogilvy's Professor Higgins and Robert Mandan's Colonel 
Pickering are solid, and the times when they alone share the stage 
with Ms. Benson are entertaining fare. That is, though, when 
they're not inexplicably moving back and forth across stage with 
Jon Engstrom's enigmatic direction. Mr. Ogilvy's performance is 
enjoyable, though there was never a moment when the question did 
not occur, "How would Rex Harrison have done this." Tony Tanner, 
as the comic relief Alfred P. Doolittle is also solid, and has his 
moments, but seems unable to escape Mr. Engstrom's wretched 
direction and run-of-the-mill choreography. Patricia Fraser's 
portrayal of Professor Higgins' mother is very good, but 
unfortunately she is not on stage enough to help this show out 
very much. 
	And that is all there is to the shows credit. It's not a good 
sign for a musical when the audience dreads the coming of a big 
production number. The chorus for this show seemed interested in 
only giving their forty percent, walking through the paces like 
Disney animatronic figures. They may have been doing their 
choreographed movements perfectly and singing each note as 
written, but there wasn't any kind of spark in their delivery. 
There was even a time when the audience awkwardly remained silent 
for several seconds after one of the big song and dance numbers. 
	John Galo's set design and Kim Killingsworth's lighting 
design were unbelievably uninspired, and Mark Cowburn's sound 
design was genuinely wretched. Mr. Ogilvy's mike crackled and 
finally went dead for a good part of the "Just You Wait" and "Rain 
In Spain" sequence. With this big a production budget, you would 
think that sound problems like this, and moments when stagehands 
are caught center stage fixing tangled set pieces would be 
eliminated. 
	Despite the wonderful performances that occasionally shined 
through, Theater League's show is interesting only for showing 
what is wrong with the current trend in revival theatre 
productions. 

Production Details:
My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe
Theater League
Symphony Hall, Phoenix
December 6-10, 1995

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