Theater Review: MY FAIR LADY (Palm Canyon Theatre)

THIS CLASSIC MUSICAL STILL SPARKLES

By and large, I don’t understand why people are so eager to return to familiar musicals. We know that Curly and Laurie are going to get hitched and that Annie is going to enjoy a plush life with Daddy Warbucks. For that reason, I have avoided My Fair Lady for decades. My opinion of the show was changed this week by Palm Canyon Theatre’s production of the Lerner and Lowe classic. The uniformly excellent cast, musicians, settings, projections, lighting and costumes combined for a genuinely delightful performance.

The story starts outside London’s Covent Gardens. A noted professor of phonetics, Henry Higgins hears a flower-selling street urchin, Eliza Doolittle, blathering with a series of words and guttural sounds that are all but incomprehensible. She is informed by a friend that a strange man is taking notes about her and he is probably from the police. We soon meet Colonel Pickering (Shel Shafir), another linguist who has come to London to meet Higgins. Higgins invites him to stay and proposes a wager that within six months he will be able to pass off the cockney flower seller as a true lady. That establishes the plot.

With music by Frederick Loewe, lyricist Alan Jay Lerner adapted the show’s book from the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw and much of the dialogue seems to be “borrowed” from that script. The structure of the musical is unusual by today’s standards in that there are lengthy dialogue scenes interspersed with 14 specific songs rather than the continuous interplay of music and script found in more modern shows.

As Henry Higgins, Mark Almy brings decades of operatic and musical theatre experience. I haven’t seen him perform much in recent years and it was a delight to see him once again center stage. Although known foremost as a singer, he is also an incredibly skillful actor and all of his talents combine for his characterization. Higgins believes he is a decent person who simply can’t get along with women, singing “I’m an Ordinary Man.” However, he is really a self-absorbed misogynist who treats Eliza as nothing more than a lab rat. The role of Higgins was written for Rex Harrison, a non-singer, so Almy is only able to display a hint of his magnificent baritone voice.

Se Layne’s Eliza transforms in stages from an almost incoherent cockney to an elegant—and beautiful—lady. After her training allows her to conquer simple social encounters, she happily sings “I Could Have Danced All Night”—an equally happy scene for the audience. The fact that her upscale speech doesn’t hide her world-reference as one from the streets is quite humorous when she is trotted out to meet Henry’s mother at the race track. It is there she meets Freddy Eynsford-Hill, a gentleman who is instantly attracted to her. In fact he is so smitten that he spends his evenings standing in front of her house, hoping that he might catch a glimpse of her. Noah Wahlberg, a student at COD, flawlessly delivers “On the Street Where You Live.” However, he is very boyish looking and when he and Eliza visit her old stomping grounds in Act II, the age difference between the two actors is a bit unsettling. However, we are able to suspend our disbelief in favor of the immense talents of the two performers.

Pickering doesn’t have a lot to do other than act as a foil for Higgins but Shel Shafir imbues every moment on stage with such a strong sense of character that he never disappears into the scenery. Like Almy, his character isn’t given the opportunity to show much of his significant skills as a singer.

Another delight is Glenn Liggett as Alfred Doolittle, Eliza’s charming con-man father. His two songs, “With a Little Bit of Luck” and “Get Me to the Church on Time” are crowd-pleasers.

The entire company is a uniformly skilled troupe. Dressed as butlers and housekeepers, the ensemble sings “The Servant’s Chorus” with strength, clarity, perfect diction while nailing the tight harmonies—aided by Music Director Steven Smith and Nick Campbell’s crystal clear sound design.

The combination of J. W. Layne’s set design and Nick Edwards’ projections quickly and thoroughly transport us from Covent Gardens to Higgins’ library to the Ascot Racetrack and other locations. Layne also delivered an efficient lighting design and Derik Shopinski directed, choreographed, designed and built costumes, and even manages the box office, which he does with a broad smile.

The original ending of My Fair Lady implied that Eliza is willing to put up with Henry’s ill-tempered misogyny. In a recent staging, as it was in Shaw’s Pygmalion, Eliza ditches Higgins as a lonely man. But Lerner’s script has Liza returning, upon which Higgins says, “Where the devil are my slippers?” At PCT, Liza shows that she has returned—but on her own terms. It’s a great ending to a terrific production.

This diamond of a musical sparkles especially bright in Palm Canyon’s current production.  It certainly deserves a viewing.

photos by Sonny Von Cleveland

My Fair Lady
Palm Canyon Theater,  538 North Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs
Thurs at 7; Fri and Sat at 8; Sun at 2
ends on March 2, 2025
for tickets ($17-$38), call 760.323.5123 or visit PCT