My Fair Lady

Musical!!

Friday night I saw My Fair Lady, the musical, for the first time in my entire life! Now I will have to see the Audrey Hepburn version. It was an amateur production, but almost all the leads were amazing! This is the first musical I have ever been to that I did not know some of the songs, so I was able to sit back and watch without critiquing originally. BUT......

as I am constantly a critic, I have to say that the actor playing Freddy Eynsford-Hill bothered me very much. Other than his unfortunate resemblance to someone I know (yes, definitely unfortunate) his voice was not nearly as good as the others. Not that this is of any use to someone who has not seen this particular production anyway.

For those of you who have seen the Audrey Hepburn version, or the Broadway version, the rest of this will apply. And, even if you have not, it still just might be interesting.

I love the character of Henry Higgins. His very brusque attitude, and minimal care for social conventions makes me think of Sherlock Holmes. But, for all of his veneer of uncaring, he is not a bad man. Some of his small actions demonstrate that deep within him, he really is not intentionally mean.

Some of the lines are interesting. In one of the songs, Henry Higgins speaks of a universal language, and his fairly well known line about treating everyone equally. So, as I usually do, I looked up the author of the original novel. George Bernard Shaw. And surprise, surprise, he was a Socialist. 

So what intrigued me about that is although most of us think Henry Higgins rude and unkind, Shaw most likely meant his equality of treatment to be an example. And, to some degree, it ought to be. Look in James 2, verses 1-9. It condemns partiality because of wealth. But, that also has to be balanced with Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind to one another."  and other passages in Ephesians that instruct us to speak kindly, and have what comes out of our mouth be edifying. Instead of treating a duchess like a flower girl, as Higgins does, we should treat flower girls, and duchesses like......duchesses. Loving you neighbor as yourself.

But aside from that, My Fair Lady had a lot a fun scenes and songs, and some amazing hats!