Orchestra makes Lyric's 'My Fair Lady' an experience like no other
The Lyric Opera of Chicago might well have spoiled musicals for theater fans when it began giving beloved Broadway tuners the opera house treatment five years ago as part of its American Musical Theatre Initiative.
Everything got bigger, including the orchestra. Lyric's revival of “The King and I” in 2016 and “Carousel” in 2015 featured 37 instrumentalists, which is double or triple the number of players who typically comprise a musical's pit orchestra.
For music lovers, the chance to hear a classic score, splendidly played by a full complement of strings, woodwinds and brass, rarely happens outside of an opera house. An experience not soon forgotten, it has been a highlight of Lyric's Broadway revivals. And it is one of the supreme delights of its latest - the witty, elegant “My Fair Lady,” Alan Jay Lerner's and Frederick Loewe's 1956 musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's “Pygmalion.”
Lyric imported production from the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, where original director Robert Carsen staged the show in 2010. Olivier Fredj directs Lyric's remount, whose impressive 36-person orchestra is conducted by David Chase.
Nimble and self-assured, Lisa O'Hare radiates charm and resolve as Eliza Doolittle, the Cockney flower seller who has the ambition and talent she needs to rise above her station, but requires a bit of training. She solicits help from overbearing, ill-mannered, upper-crust phonetics professor Henry Higgins, intriguingly played by Richard E. Grant. Perpetually peevish, oblivious to the feelings of others, his arms and legs akimbo in the grip of some flight of fancy, he is the essence of a man-child, which makes his emotional metamorphosis as profound as Eliza's linguistic transformation.
Fascinated as they are with one another, theirs is no love story. Yet, they are soul mates. Their penultimate exchange - perhaps the show's most Shavian moment - makes that clear. And if you miss it, Carsen emphasizes the point moments later with a revealing coda that illustrates a shift in the balance of power.
The production is pleasant enough and the performances are solid throughout. Nicholas Le Prevost is a properly genteel Colonel Pickering and Cindy Gold, a Drury Lane and Northlight Theatre veteran, infuses her character with nicely understated maternal affection. Donald Maxwell plays Alfred P. Doolittle, the likable rogue turned unwilling middle-class moralist and Helen Carey plays the astute Mrs. Higgins, who is every bit the feminist Eliza is.
As the patrician Freddy Eynsford-Hill, Bryce Pinkham puts his lovely tenor to fine use on the soaring “On the Street Where You Live.” The Cockney quartet made up of Hoss Brock, Nikolas Wenzel, Peter Morgan and Joe Shadday delivers dreamy backing vocals on the sweetly sentimental “Wouldn't It Be Loverly?”
“The Rain in Spain” and “Get Me to the Church on Time” are jolly romps, but the very funny horse race scenes - including the deliciously restrained “Ascot Gavotte” - are real crowd-pleasers. O'Hare displays a deft comic touch as outsider Eliza tries to fit in with the well-heeled, horsy set. In an especially clever bit, Eliza mimics the accents of the people she meets, suggesting she possesses a good ear for language that could well rival her teacher's.
Anthony Powell's costumes are lovely, especially the pastel flowered Ascot frocks and Eliza's stunning Grecian-style ballgown.
The bland sets, however, are unremarkable. The Covent Garden exterior is noteworthy primarily for its falling snow and Professor Higgins' study is a study in beige. Moreover, the Civic Opera House stage seems to swallow some of the sets, which were designed for a smaller venue with about 1,000 fewer seats.
That said, Lyric's “My Fair Lady” offers musical theater fans a chance to experience the show in a way they might not have experienced it before, and might not experience again.
“My Fair Lady”
★ ★ ★
Location: Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago, (312) 827-5600 or
Showtimes: Various times and days through May 21
Running time: About three hours, including intermission
Tickets: $22-$199
Parking: Nearby parking garages and metered street parking
Rating: Suitable for most audiences