Burning Coal Theater Presents MY FAIR LADY Review

The first notes of the Overture begin and all eyes in the theater-in-the-round audience lock on the three musicians performing the score’s greatest hits snippets. They are an unusual bassoon (Liam Robinson), cello (Bill Pashby) and keyboard (Christian Stahr, Music Director) combo— and we are immediately struck by how the different ranges of these three instruments can so aptly cover the emotional affect of Frederick Loewe’s music. Then and throughout, the musical ears in the audience will likely agree that they tag team to brilliantly bring the score to life.

Some of us have already spied Henry Higgins (Derek Robinson) sitting among us in the audience seats, looking smart in upscale attire. When he sallies center stage to do battle with Eliza Doolittle’s (Natalie Reder) cockney mangling of his beloved English tongue, we are electrified. You too will likely agree— Robinson’s Higgins is EXACTLY the jerk we imagine both Alan Jay Lerner (Book and Lyrics for My Fair Lady) and George Bernard Shaw (author of Pygmalion, upon which My Fair Lady is based) had in mind. In this reviewer’s opinion Robinson is about as pitch perfect in his insufferable arrogance and swagger as a Henry Higgins can be. Later, near play’s end, when Liza-bereft Robinson slumps in his chair telegraphing a vulnerability we never imagined was there, we see how this actor has inhabited the Higgins role so completely. His performance is made all the more delightful by the contrast with the so sweet timbre of Reder’s voice. These two leads and foils alone are well worth the price of admission.

Burning Coal Theatre Assembles Knock Out Ensemble

But these two strong leads are NOT alone. Six additional actors — each doing double or triple duty in various parts— fill the center stage with talent. There is not much set here— some boxes for the street scenes, a table here, a furnace and stool there — with the dearth of props clearing the way for us to better focus on their voices and frolics.

Frolic they do! Director Jerome Davis seems to have especially unleashed each actor and creative team member to spice the script with gesture flourishes that bring each line alive. Gotta love when Alec Donaldson as Colonel Pickering flips straps off an imagined ball gown down suggesting we never realized before that My Fair Lady might have a sequel story about Pickering’s life as a drag queen. Gotta love Roné Roux Sargent’s silent mimic of Higgins’ scold when she thinks she is alone and unseen, suggesting we never realized there was another Upstairs Downstairs subplot at work in Higgins’ home. Gotta love when Sargent is joined by vocal powerhouses Adelynn Eller and Lenore Field to sing The Servant’s Chorus. Tight and closely melding their voices, they make what might be a footnote song into what could stand as a main meal. Gotta also love Byron Jennings’ unique portrayal of lovesick Freddy singing On the Street Where You Live. He seems to be corseting an opera hall sized voice for the intimate theater space we are in. He makes eye with everyone in the theater, seeming to remind us that we all have the best seats in the house in this intimate theater-in-the round. Meanwhile he morphs and molds his facial expressions to write volumes about his lovesickness, seemingly embarrassed by his own love lust.

There aren’t any Baryshnikov’s on the stage— but there is much dancing of the show biz kick and point genre, and some stately ballroom dances. The cast often becomes an arm locked circle— moving round and round— at the race track, on London’s streets, outside bars — again reminding us that in this intimate theater in the round we all have the best seats in the house.

Special Note: Brava! to Hair and Wig Designer Lynda Clark for giving Simon Kaplan a ridiculously impossible beard to play Higgins’ nemesis competitor, Zoltan Karpathy. It’s designed to make us laugh— and we do—because of her artistic choice and Kaplan’s ever comic moxie.

You probably don’t need to know the works of George Bernard Shaw or the book and lyrics of this Lerner & Loewe classic in order to thoroughly enjoy this super accessible production. For those of us who know both the story and the two dozen songs of My Fair Lady fairly well, you don’t need to worry that you will be thinking “..he’s Rex Harrison-NOT” or “..she’s Julie Andrews-NOT”. This production puts its own stamp on My Fair Lady. They do it well and you will not be disappointed.