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My Fair Lady by Welk Resort Theatre  Wouldn’t It be Loverly to enjoy a nice meal at Mr.
W’s and then walk across the courtyard to see the classic Lerner and Lowe
musical My Fair Lady? It would be. Director Jon Engstrom’s show
is a good one with sterling production values and a unique and high-caliber
cast at the Welk Resort Theatre.
The day I went, understudy Rebecca Greenwood went on in place of Jennifer Boswell for the part of the fair lady Eliza Doolittle. Rebecca is a great comedian and singer who starred as Ado Annie in the Welk’s Oklahoma a few years ago. Here she shines comically with one of the best Ascot scenes ever as she floors the stuffy suits at Ascot with “the new small talk,” and later dramatically when she returns to her old cockney neighborhood after being turned into a genteel lady. Her singing of I Could Have Danced All Night was a delight, as was having Mrs. Pearce (Susan E. V. Boland) and the staff throw a sheet over her head, and having Eliza poke out from under it to finish her song. Doug Bilitch is a slightly crazed Henry Higgins that works great in the more amusing scenes, though not as well in the wistful I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face. Von Schauer plays Colonel Pickering with a strong eccentric side to the point of giddiness that comes out when he feels comfortable enough around people – an entertaining take on the character. And Stephen Reynolds is an imposing and properly vulgar Alfred P. Doolittle, a common dustman, who makes himself at home in Higgins’ house in uncommonly humorous fashion. Elsewhere, Marti Berg is a likable and witty Mrs. Higgins, Christopher Carothers is good as the obsessed Freddy Eynsford-Hill, and the small ensemble (necessarily small due to the size of the stage) helps make the Ascot Gavotte one of the show’s best scenes and does a fine job, despite their small size, of trying to raise a rumpus in With a Little Bit Of Luck and Get Me to the Church on Time.Performs through August 27, 2006.
~ Cast ~
Eliza Doolittle: Jennifer Boswell Colonel Pickering: Von Schauer Mrs. Higgins: Marti Berg Henry Higgins: Doug Bilitch Freddy Eynsford-Hill: Christopher Carothers Alfred P. Doolittle: Stephen Reynolds Mrs. Pearce: Susan E. V. Boland Ensemble: Kelly Baldwin Kristen Brandt Justin Michael Duval Joseph Glaser Rebecca Greenwood Ralph Johnson Joanne Juliet Lapointe Michelle Ray Neil Sheridan Katherine Stein Jeffrey Arnold Wolf Director/Choreographer: Jon Engstrom Music Director: Justin Gray Set Design: Andrew Hammer Costume Design: Ambra Wakefield Sound Design: Patrick Hoyny Prod. Stage Manager/Lighting Design: Jennifer Edwards-Northover |