'My Fair Lady' Wows At Bay Street Theater

It’s a story as old as Ovid, modernized poignantly by George Bernard Shaw as “Pygmalion.”

We know it best as that Lerner and Lowe masterpiece “My Fair Lady.” And at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, the Broadway megahit from the ’50s—and don’t-forget-the-fab- ’60s movie—is wowing audiences all over again. By Jove! Bay Street has mounted a pitch-perfect version to a small stage with looming ambitions it more than fulfills.

I mean, wow. From the opening scene in which the hapless street seller Eliza Doolittle is hawking her hyacinth for pence and comes upon her makeover mentors, the pompous phonetics Professor Henry Higgens and his somewhat kinder friend, Col. Pickering, to the last scene nearly three hours later, one is entranced. This is the frothy crowning jewel of Bay Street’s 25th season.

Quite simply this “My Fair Lady” is a lampoonish delight of comedy and unforgettable songs with an exceptional cast. Yet its eternal appeal is due to the emotional tug of its core, for indeed, stripped of the music and dance, the story is a dark dialogue on the dialectics of class, most especially, dialect.

In early 20th century London, Prof. Higgins, a product of the British educated class with his proper Oxford accent, will turn the “squashed cabbage leaf” of the bedraggled Cockney Eliza into the “Queen of Sheba.” And, oh, the getting there! What’s not to love?

Several songs with their irrepressible wit and snappy melodies are American icons: “With a Little Bit of Luck,” “The Rain in Spain,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Get Me To the Church on Time” and the incomparable “On the Street Where You Live.” I’ve had the tunes and snatches of the lines in my head since I saw the movie, and last night I was swooning with delight at their full-throated and happy renditions.

Oh Lord, as a critic, one is supposed to criticize but any such thoughts fail me. Staging, lighting, costumes, choreography, costumes, music and of course the acting—it’s all fabulous. Director Michael Arden, with awards and nominations already in his quiver, can add this to his growing list of successes.

For some of us it may be hard to get the image of Rex Harrison, who was Prof. Higgins on stage and in the film, out of our minds. Well, not so once Paul Alexander Nolan articulates the opening number. I was prepared to be disappointed, but by George, he’s got it! He’s much younger than my ancient eyes expected, but one doesn’t need to be old to carry off the arrogance, grandiosity and condescension embedded in the Higgins character that Mr. Nolan embodies so well. Damn, if I wouldn’t be afraid to have tea with him less I reveal my Midwestern roots.

Kelli Barrett as the “barbarous wretch” Eliza who is transformed into a lady of the proper sort worthy of diamonds and a beehive hairdo is a fetching pixie who marches and exclaims and soars through the songs while she bounces about the stage with charm and verve. The lyrics are raffish, the melodies the kind that stick, but when Ms. Barrett is confronting her possible fate now that Eliza’s been transformed, you just might find a catch in your throat. She’s that good. Howard McGillen is a devilishly swell Col. Pickering, recently returned from India, old chap, but here’s Mr. McGillen certainly remembered by some for his record-setting run in the title role of “Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway. Yet nobody in the ensemble of 15 lets the others or the audience down. Bobby Conte Thornton as Freddy, Eliza’s suitor, has only a small part in this somewhat pared-down production—the ball scene is eliminated though not missed—but his rendition of “On the Street Where You Live” is a show-stopper. Other standouts are a rambunctious John O’Creagh as Eliza’s father, a blustery sot who swigs and sings his way to uninvited respectability; Tony-award winner Carole Shelley is the kindly and clear-eyed mum of her almost always insufferable son, Prof. Higgins, and Karen Murphy as the stern and observant housekeeper who serves as a leavening agent to her pedantic and seemingly heartless employer.

Dane Laffrey’s clever set is converted before our eyes from murky dark London street to a fashionable sitting room to a box at Ascot to a bed chamber. Designed in three levels, the set gives the actors plenty of vantage points to romp and emote. Choreographer Chase Brock never loses an opportunity to make full use of the platforms, shifting attitude and gaining latitude. Along the way, his stellar choreography appears to make the small stage grow to be more expansive than the square feet it is. Live music from two pianos, under the direction of Adam Wachter, adds final coda to this joyful production.

Back to Ovid. His Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with an ivory statue he carved. He craved to marry someone like her. The goddess Aphrodite granted his wish by turning the statue into a woman when he kissed it. Shaw obviously played with the story when he wrote “Pygmalion,” but at the end, aren’t there supposed to be only 36 basic plots in literature? They may all be equal in their examination of the human condition, but this rousing version of one of them as “My Fair Lady” long will be remembered as a spectacular evening of song, dance and story.

My prediction is that those who wait to get tickets will be sorry. Those who don’t wait will exit humming a favorite tune.

“My Fair Lady” continues at Bay Street Theater through August 28. Showtimes are Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7 p.m., Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. Additionally, there will be 2 p.m. matinées on Wednesdays and Sundays. For tickets, ranging from $25 to $125, visit baystreet.org or call 631-725-9500.