I waited almost 70 years to see the stage version of My Fair Lady. I finally saw the show last night, July 26th, at The Orpheum.
The legendary Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical with Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison came out in 1956 when I was either in kindergarten or the first grade. We bought original soundtrack albums of Broadway shows, but, for some reason, we didn’t buy the one for My Fair Lady. We did get it at the Memphis Public Library, which had a vast collection of 33 rpm records in plastic covers.
I remember getting one of those albums by orchestras that played selections from Broadway shows. I got it at the old Downtown Goldsmith’s department store on a trip with my mother, brother, and sister in the late ’50s or early ’60s. One side was My Fair Lady and the other, The King and I. It was good, but not the same as the original.
Heck, I even interviewed Julie Andrews, the star of the original, back in the day. Andrews, who was extremely nice as you’d expect Mary Poppins and Maria in The Sound of Music to be, was in Memphis for a fundraising luncheon at The Peabody.
The production at The Orpheum didn’t disappoint. Shereen Ahmed, who played Eliza Doolittle, reminded me so much of Andrews. And I’m never going to forget the excellent “Wouldn’t it be Loverly” number with Ahmed and chorus. Rousing and great.
I liked Henry Higgins, who was played by Laird Mackintosh. He’s the professor who decides to make a lady out of Eliza, a poor flower girl whose speech is unrefined. Rex Harrison played him on stage.
I also liked Martin Fisher, who played the boisterous Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza’s dad. Stanley Holloway played him in the original production.
I liked everybody, actually. A super cast.
There’s something about going Downtown to see a stage production or a movie or a concert. The first show I saw was a touring production of Porgy and Bess at the old Auditorium. I was in the famous nosebleed section. I also saw Jimi Hendrix twice at the Auditorium. I think I was on the last row both times. I still remember coming out of those old theaters on Main Street after seeing a movie at night with the family. I always got a syrupy Coke, butter-slathered popcorn, and a thick Charms lollipop during the movie. Cherry, mostly.
I asked Orpheum president/CEO Brett Batterson to tell me a bit about this production of My Fair Lady. “They restaged this in 2018,” he says. “This production was nominated for 10 Tony awards, including Best Musical Revival. This was not the original, at all.
“First off, they’ve tempered Henry Higgins a little bit. So, he’s not quite as misogynistic as he was in 1956. They’ve at least recognized times have changed somewhat. A lot of musicals don’t do that and they get flack for that. They tried to make his attitude toward Eliza based more on speech and less on misogynism. They made him a little more human.
“Then mostly what I like is how big is. It’s a big musical. Lots of scenery. Lots of beautiful costumes. Lots of great action, chorus numbers, classic songs. To me, it’s everything you want a classic musical to be.”
This is the third time My Fair Lady has been shown at The Orpheum, Batterson says. The musical also was presented in 1989 and 2005.
My Fair Lady runs through July 31st at The Orpheum.
