A fair Lady

A to Z presents a minimalist musical

by Bill Rodriguez

MY FAIR LADY. By Lerner & Loewe. Directed by Judith Swift. With Paul Hoover, Susan Arundale, Todd Gordon, Michael Sheraton, and Richard Herron. Presented by A to Z Productions at the Round Top Theater through June 26.

The question of whether or not My Fair Lady is the best American musical ever is up to list-makers and ad copywriters. But for those of us who love the tricky genre when it's done well, the 1956 masterwork is a lesson in how to approach perfection: start with a brilliant satire as a template (Shaw's Pygmalion), add sly and intelligent book and song lyrics (Alan Jay Lerner's) set to memorable music (Frederick Loewe's), and you can sit back enraptured.

Since My Fair Lady has such an overabundance to offer, it's no wonder that so delightfully much comes across in A to Z's limited "theatrical concert format" production. There are no sets or elaborate props, costumes are minimal, and a pianist/musical-director Vincent Trovato and four other musicians are prominently onstage. Somewhat distracting at first, the actors carry scripts in black ring-binders, although the central players rarely refer to them. This latter device is what makes such a production practical with nearly two dozen actor/ singers, half of them Actors Equity -- the expensive rehearsal process would otherwise be weeks rather than days. Whether this is worth a $25 to $35 ticket price is up to those handing over their Visa cards, but as far as the performance goes, I can tell you that while you forego spectacle, this A to Z presentation captures most of the transport and all of the heart of the musical classic.

The story is so compelling, it could work as a radio play. Renowned phonetician Henry Higgins (Paul Hoover) encounters Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Susan Arundale) and wagers his new friend Col. Pickering (Todd Gordon) that in six months he can grind off her rough edges, correct her crude diphthongs and dropped H's, and pass her off as a duchess at a society ball. This tale is based on full-grown characters rather than merely a clever plot: when the happy climax to the above set-up arrives, we still have half the story to go.

Two wonderful leads go most of the way to winning us over. Hoover is right physically as the lanky, angular Rex Harrison clone we've come to expect in the role. More importantly, he carries off the Higgins-patented arrogance that comes across, forgivably, as boyish smugness. Lerner captures the man's obliviousness in "I'm an Ordinary Man" as well as his class's logic in "A Hymn to Him" ("why can't a woman be more like a man?"), and Hoover conveys it all with enthusiastic conviction and wry humor. The role isn't a vocal challenge, since Harrison apparently had a range of something like three notes, and Loewe composed accordingly. But Hoover makes up for any flat musicality by investing Higgins with character every other syllable.

Arundale makes Eliza a charmer, all right, without taking the edge off her Cockney spunk. And the emotional leaps are all over the map: from the chilly wistfulness of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" and the joy of "I Could Have Danced All Night" to the Henry-hating fury of "Just Wait." Arundale makes the interpretation her own -- "Show Me," Eliza's chastisement of Freddy for his milquetoast wooing, is downright fiery.

Accents are important in a story that makes so much of language. Unfortunately, with two important characters they keep slipping off like ill-fitting masks. Col. Pickering is the very model of a blustery British veteran, so it doesn't do to have Gordon make him come from Cleveland. Even more distracting is Donald Grody as Eliza's dustman father, Alfred P. Doolittle; the droll character may be Cockney, but we have to take his word, rather than his words, for that.

But some of the bit players are good fun, such as Richard Herron as both a Cockney costermonger who could have stepped out of Dickens and as Higgins's Romanian nemesis, the rival language expert Zoltan Karpathy. Nicely moonstruck and puppyish is Michael Sheraton as Eliza's persistent suitor, Freddy Eynsford-Hill. (By the way, Shaw was determined in his opinion that they did marry, Eliza supporting him as a successful flower shopkeeper, despite the ambiguous ending.)

Although the staging opportunities are limited, director Nick Corley makes some effective choices. For example, the lead-in to Eliza's hard-earned enunciation victory is paced slowly enough to maintain a delicious tension before the rousing "The Rain In Spain." And on that and other upbeat occasions, some mini-choreography by Jennifer Paulson Lee provides a bit of twinkle-toed festivity.

Yes, while it is by no means a replacement for a fully staged production, this A to Z presentation gets plenty of enjoyment out of this wonderful musical.