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Hearing the words “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?” during My Fair Lady always makes the audience laugh – at least that had been my experience in the past. Watching it in 2018, however, in the new production currently at the Lincoln Center, I felt that the welcome was somewhat different.

Of course those words are still sang by a character known for his misogyny and oblivion about how arrogant he sounds, yet the audience is no longer taking it as lightly as it once did – so much so that this current production changed the ending that featured both in the original Broadway production and in the 1964 movie.

Based on the play Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw, My Fair Lady follows the journey of the young Eliza Doolittle (Lauren Ambrose), a flower girl in London at the beginning of the 20th century, as she takes speech lessons from Prof. Henry Higgins (Harry Hadden-Paton, wonderful), who studies phonetics for a living. Make no mistake, he is not teaching her out of the goodness of his heart, but rather to win a bet made by Colonel Pickering (Allan Corduner), a linguist who is in town visiting him. The challenge is to improve Eliza’s speech and manners so much that she would be able to pass as a lady at the Embassy Ball.  

His lessons are extenuating and he doesn’t miss any chance he can get to humiliate Eliza. She even gets so mad she vows to get revenge during the song “Just You Wait”. Meanwhile, he takes pride in being “An Ordinary Man” (or “a very gentle man, even-tempered and good-natured who you never hear complain”, etc.).

Her father (Norbert Leo Butz) is equally obnoxious, willing to “sell” her to Prof. Higgins and going through life drinking and getting things he wants “With a Little Bit of Luck”. It is clear that the father-daughter relationship barely exists, and probably never did.

Probably the most sane character, after Colonel Pickering, is Mrs. Higgins (Diana Rigg), Henry’s mother. She knows perfectly well how stubborn and insensitive her son can be. 

Why, then, do audiences (including myself) love this musical? Well, the music, is, of course, a very important reason. With lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, the songs are a mix of naiveté and sarcasm, ranging from ballads such as “On the Street Where You Live” to soliloquies like “I’ve grown accustomed to her face”. 

It is, also, a comedy. The themes are not funny per se, but the characters’ behaviors and reactions are. For example, when Freddy (Jordan Donica) decides to stay indefinitely in front of Eliza’s house, singing night and day, wishing she will appear – it is impossible not to find it a bit amusing. The Ascot Gavotte sequence is also hilarious.

The sets design also contribute to the pacing of the show, with a round set that quickly rotates, making the changes from the study to the entrance very fast.

After all the insults, however, there has been an understanding through the years that Eliza and Henry Higgins should end up together, even though the original play has a different ending. This 2018 version has a different take on Eliza’s future, perhaps more fitting to the current events in our society. Not everyone likes that change, as I could see after the show: as I was waiting for the cast to come out, one audience member told me he thought it was bittersweet, since he always roots for a happy ending. I replied “maybe this is a happy ending for her”, to which he smiled and nodded.

Although it is true that this is a period piece, representing the concepts and thoughts of that era, we cannot be stuck in the past either. So maybe this changing can be good, and it doesn’t take away from the great experience that watching this musical is to the audience.

Related posts:

Broadway Review: Frozen Review: Lady Bird (2017) Crítica da Broadway: My Fair Lady Broadway Review: Hamilton

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