Photo by Tom Chargin
She Did It: April Armstrong surrounded by Cockneys (from left) John Hayden Williams, Ric Iverson, Britt Gunter and Jon Jensen
from energetic to tepid
By Heather Zimmerman
Although the American Musical Theatre of San Jose can't quite boast the unqualified success that Henry Higgins claims in his self-congratulatory song "I Did It," the company did enough in its current production of My Fair Lady to merit a bit of Higgins' smugness for itself. The company has staged an overall rousing production of Lerner and Loewe's popular musical about professor Henry Higgins (Ian Ogilvy) and his help in transforming flower seller Eliza Doolittle (April Armstrong) into a society lady.
Ogilvy is perfect as Higgins, rigidly maintaining the professor's pompous demeanor as he sings and dances his way through numerous social diatribes. Armstrong's consistently faltering accent renders the flower girl's newfound learning in the ways of proper speech dubiously believable, but what her dialect lacks, her singing voice more than makes up for.
Michael McCarty also gives an enjoyable performance as Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza's verbose, if rather unmotivated, father, and Joseph Ribeiro is pure dignity, yet somehow still lovable, as Higgins' sidekick and Eliza's champion, Colonel Pickering.
The production's biggest problem is a lack of consistency. Many scenes are bursting with energy, while some others play out as curiously tepid, although an enthusiastic ensemble brings spirit and surprisingly subtle humor to many numbers.
Sans ensemble, the principals, for the most part, do equally well. Armstrong is all fiery frustration in "Just You Wait," and Ogilvy sings Higgins' "I'm an Ordinary Man" with an appropriate smattering of misogynist glee. Disappointingly low-key, however, is "The Rain in Spain,"which features an awkward chase around a maze of furniture, all of which hobbles the enthusiasm of Colonel Pickering, Higgins and especially Eliza, who is no doubt slowed down by the disturbingly saggy couch upon which she is forced to dance a jig in heels.
In fact, the set often proves distracting. The incorporation of doors in several elaborately painted curtains creates an unfortunate diversion, with the contraptions seemingly swaying along with the music for minutes after a door has been opened or closed. Otherwise, the sets are beautifully detailed, properly bleak or sumptuous as the scene demands. Cathleen Edwards' meticulously period costume design adds a genuine sense of the poverty or wealth of their wearers' surroundings.
A revitalizing aspect in this production of the long-time favorite is the extra emphasis that's placed on Eliza's fate after she's finished her education with Higgins, with one of the show's best moments of all coming in a slightly revamped and very refreshing ending.
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AMTSJ's production ranges
My Fair Lady plays Tuesday-Thursday at 8pm, Friday at 8:30pm, Saturday at 2 and 8:30pm and Sunday (Oct. 29) at 2 and 7pm and Sunday (Nov. 5) at 2pm through Nov. 5 at the Center for the Performing Arts, 255 Almaden Blvd., San Jose. Tickets are $28-$43. (BASS)
From the Oct. 26-Nov. 2, 1995 issue of Metro
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© 1995 Metro Publishing and Virtual Valley, Inc.