Review: Plaza Theater Company’s My Fair Lady

I love Community Theater! I know people who look down on amateurs, but not me. Most of the time the standard of acting in Community Theaters is very high. To some extent we all go through life acting our parts so I suppose that high standard isn't too surprising.

Community Theater productions of musicals are almost always high energy shows. And, as I've told actors before, if the actors are having fun, the audience will, too.

The actors in Plaza Theater Company's production of My Fair Lady were definitely having fun!

JaceSon Barrus who played the role of Henry Higgins was excellent. I will remember his delivery of the line "I hadn't quite realized you were leaving" for a very long time. I can imagine the temptation to over act in the role or channel Rex Harrison, but I thought he did a great job of slightly underplaying Higgins, except when it was appropriate to let loose. He gave the role emotional range.

Eliza Doolittle sang beautifully. I'm not sure who I saw because the program lists two actresses in the role. I liked her interpretation, but I would have liked her a little bit better if she had stood up straight. Just as Richard Gere never quite convinced me that he was a naval officer in An Officer and a Gentleman, she never quite convinced me that she was a lady. Posture, my dear, posture. (But David James Elliott convinced me that he was a naval officer on JAG. Oh, he did.) Standing up straight with her head and shoulders properly aligned would not only make her more convincing as a lady, but give her voice more resonance.

I liked James T Long as Colonel Pickering very much. In one scene, Col Pickering is sprawled on a sofa exhausted when Eliza suddenly "gets it." His body tenses and he opens one eye. Superb!

Judy Keller as Mrs. Higgins and Jay Lewis as Alfred Doolittle gave spirited performances.

Stefanie Glenn, Mrs. Pierce's, mike wasn't working at her first entrance. I wondered if she was even miked, but I checked after the show. She was.) I thought she responded with the proper amount of exasperation with Higgins. I especially liked her hand gestures when Higgins was signing "Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man." She was one of the three whose interpretation I liked better than the actors in the movie.

Michael Sizemore as Freddy is one of those singers that make me itch to get him to a good vocal coach. He has a very nice voice, but he is strangling it. A good coach would have him singing from his diaphragm. Other than that, he was another of the actors whose interpretation of the character I liked better than the movie. He projects great warmth.

On to the technical stuff so dear to my heart.

Costumes: The costumes were lovely. I especially liked the Pearly King (costermonger) costume. However, the cockneys' clothes were much too clean. The costumes were probably rented, in which case the cast was not free to dirty them up and make them properly ragged. Too bad. This is one of the realities of Community Theater. I understand the problem and the compromises that have to be made, but the critic's job is to point out what would make the show perfect. In this show, perfection would have dirtied the costumes.

Makeup: Given the costuming problem, the make up could have been tempered a bit. A good director strives for balance. If the costumes couldn't be dirty, the makeup should have had a lighter touch. After the show it occurred to me that the ensemble must have spend most of their time backstage changing their make up from dirty to clean to dirty again. :-)

Set: The set was well planned for an arena stage. The stagehands did a great job of the set changes under the blue lights.

Lighting: One of my mantras is that if one watches a show and has a comment about the lighting – it isn't very good lighting. This applies only to general audience comments, of course, and not technical people like me. I felt that for most of the show the lighting was suitably unobtrusive. There were a couple of jarring changes, but mostly it was okay. Then, toward the end, in the Henry Higgins solo on the street, it was almost like some kid got a hold of the light board and started playing with it. At that point it became a light production – very inappropriate.

Sound: It is too bad that the show used canned sound, but I guess a small orchestra was out of the question. This is another of the realities of Community Theater; live music is often unachievable. Other than that and the possible problem with one mike the sound quality was fine.

Directing: Theater in the Round is very difficult. My hat is off to the directors, JaceSon and Tina Barrus, for blocking their actors to give all three sides (four if they had sold enough tickets to fill that fourth side) of the audience a clear line of sight of the actors and the action. But speaking of that, there was a little too much motion in the opening garden market. I found it distracting at times. I also didn't like the way they kept standing Eliza on a chair. But I know how difficult directing on an arena stage can be. The directors carried it off with finesse. I was impressed. Bravo!

I've already stated my opinion of the movie/play My Fair Lady. I am not going to reiterate it here. (You can check the archives of my blog if you are interested.) Throughout the second act I was hoping for a better ending than the movie – and I was disappointed. I know, however, that the Company really had no control over the ending. Contracts and things, you know.

Overall, in spite of a couple of things like obtrusive lighting, too-clean costumes, and the lack of live music, I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the performance of My Fair Lady. Why was that? Because the cast was having so much fun! Since they were having a great time, so was I. The cast's infectious good spirits communicated itself to the audience. That is the strength of Community Theater. Everybody, cast, crew and especially audience, has a good time.

I'll be back to this see this company again.

www.plaza-theatre.com