While the transformation of one character is implicit in the classic musical “My Fair Lady,” two characters are, in fact, undergoing metamorphoses.
Audiences can check out the conversion of flower girl Eliza Doolittle and professor Henry Higgins this weekend and next when the Lee University theater program and its School of Music present “My Fair Lady” at the Dixon Center Auditorium in Cleveland, Tenn.
While the professor attempts to win a bet with a fellow British linguist by making over the young Cockney woman into a refined Victorian lady, he undergoes changes of his own in the process.
“We’ve been investigating [the professor],” said director Christine Williams. “He can be kind of a jerk, but we’ve been digging down deep on who he is [and] why he is the way he is. We want to show how he transforms as Eliza transforms. We want to find those moments where we see the transformation.”
The musical is the first at the school in several years and needed a two-year lead-in to produce.
“Everybody knows [the show],” said Williams, “so they’ll be excited to come and see it and we’ll have a good turnout. It’s also one that will give students a lot of opportunities to have roles. It matched our needs.”
The musical, based on George Bernard’s Shaw’s “Pygmalion” and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, includes such memorable songs – to be performed by a nine-piece orchestra – as “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” “The Rain in Spain,” “I Could Have Danced All Night” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”
Williams said she is partial to “Get Me to the Church on Time,” a song-and-dance number in which Eliza’s father is being pushed into marriage.
“We’re having a great time with that one,” she said.
Williams said she is fortunate to have strong actors in the principal roles of Higgins (senior music major Kyle Gazak) and Eliza (sophomore music major Chelsea Davidson and her understudy, sophomore theater major Jillian Spears) as well as a guest lighting designer (JoJo Percy of Baylor University) and a guest choreographer (Heidi Longwith of Cleveland’s Mountain Laurel Studios).
Since the musical has been in the works for two years, it also benefits from a full set, period costumes and a 30-member cast, she said.
Contact Clint Cooper at ccooper@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6497.