more | arts &culture- girls with glasses
Fair? Think options,Eliza ...
 |
By GINA DVORAK and NICOLE WHITE
Dinner and movie? Tres passe.
Instead, how about a night with live-action choreography plus a three-course meal, all without the inconvenience of looking for parking twice?
Sounded good to us. So, we headed to Candlelight Pavilion. Good food, good show, and bonus points for reminding us of the Muppet Theater. But you'll find no hecklers here, or singing pigs and frogs for that matter.
The choice of program was classic: “My Fair Lady.” Great acting, superb choreography. A very smart production. Only one thing we tripped over: She STAYED with him?! Seriously? That one stumped us.
OK, he is obviously educated. He was handsome and charming, he could sing – and dance. But could he have danced all night? We think not. Clearly, he has issues. He only seemed to really like her when she was being mean to him, and she ends up willing to completely change her core being in order to please her man.
And don’t even get us started on this “Why can’t a woman be more like a man” business.
Props to Freddy. He was wordy, and a bit slow on the action, but he seemed willing to like Eliza for who she really was. Still, he was a lot of talk (wordier than a linguist? That takes some doing) and didn’t get enough stage time for us to decide whether he would have been a better match. And for all that Miss Doolittle sang she was craving a man to show – not tell – her he loves her, she went dutifully back to slipper-fetching duties at the Higgins Home for the Eternally Single without giving poor Freddy a chance to follow through.
So, her choices are selling flowers or choosing between a man who will shower her with them and a man who wouldn’t fork over five bucks for carnations on Valentine’s Day.
Frankly, given these options, we think Eliza should just jump ship into another Julie Andrews classic altogether and pick someone like Burt from Mary Poppins. She could help him fix his horrible accent. Or they could live together in perfect cockney ’armony.
Or, if seemingly- intractable bachelors are her thing, maybe “The Sound of Music’s” Capt. Von Trapp would make a better match. Still stubborn, but more yielding to his woman.
While we still swoon every time Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, Harry and Sally, Leia and Han Solo get together, Henry and Eliza just don’t work. They should have stayed apart, like Rick and Ilsa, Scarlet and Rhett, Charlie Brown and the Little Red Haired Girl. And this is how George Bernard Shaw intended it in Pygmalion, the inspiration for “My Fair Lady.”
Pygmalion’s Eliza essentially tells Henry Higgins he can annunciate perfectly to the proverbial hand.
However, we concede that hummable tunes, catchy dance numbers and a romantic ending will almost always draw a bigger audience than Pygmalion. Unless they put real pigs in it. (Sorry, we got all misty over our Muppet Theater memories again.)
All we’re saying is we could have done without the Disney happy ending. George Bernard Shaw agrees. No, really. We asked him. At least, we skimmed his “sequel,” in which he explains in excruciating detail that she marries Freddy, they run a flower shop, Col. Pickering helps, and Eliza still thinks Henry Higgins is a jerk.
If you’re good and hungry now for strong women in theater, mark your calendars for the Redlands Shakespeare Festival’s Season of Power – girl power, that is.
“A lot of people talk about Shakespeare and say there aren’t enough roles for women,” said Steven Sabel, artistic director of the festival. “Yeah, but the roles that are there are so good, they’re just the best roles in theater.”
The lineup includes “Twelfth Night,” “Antony and Cleopatra” and “Macbeth.” (Now there’s a man who seriously needs to keep his woman in line. But that’s another column.) Catch them Thursdays through Sundays, May 8-25.
Worth noting the Bard has his share of wimpy heroines, too. Take Juliette for instance. Yes, Romeo was the wimpier one, but the whole thing was a little dramafied. If you are a teen-age girl and reading this play – or this column – let us assure you no guy is worth faking or following through with death.
Wait until you’re 30. You’ll meet someone cool. At least, that’s what our mothers always told us. |
|
|
