Category Archives: My Fair Lady
Cleveland Loses Beloved Director
Revered director and amazing talent, Paul Gurgol, passed away on March 24 at Cleveland Clinic. He was 55.
I first met Paul at Kalliope Stage, of which he was the founder and Artistic Director. I tried out for their final season in 2007 with what was easily my worst audition of all time. It was, I believe, only my second audition in the area. I had absolutely no experience, no repertoire, and no preparation. It was mortifying. He did not call me back, and was kind enough to have forgotten about the instance when he later cast me in Sweeney Todd at Cain Park in 2010. Later that year, we worked together again at Beck Center for the Arts in My Fair Lady, which was to be his last directorial effort in Cleveland.
He was widely well-known as a talented director and a pioneer in new musical theatre. I knew him as a man who gave me amazing opportunities and who was overly generous to me as an artist and as a friend. Not only did he trust me enough to put me in two of the biggest shows in two of the most respected theatres in town, but he also went out of his way to help me succeed. His recommendation helped get me into the SETC’s.
The most profound example of his generosity towards me has already become one of my go-to stories, and I want to share it here.:
In My Fair Lady, I played Zoltan Karpathy, but since he appears for such a short amount of time, I spent the rest of my time playing various parts in the ensemble. When the time came to block curtain call the week before we opened, Paul told me there was no time for my own bow (he was very meticulous from curtain up to curtain down), but he wanted to recognize me as a stand-out from the rest of the ensemble. I was happy just to stay in the background, but for the final bow Paul insisted that I step forward out of the ensemble line and join hands with Eliza and Pickering for the final bow, so center stage we had Eliza (of course) flanked by Henry Higgins and …me. It’s a seemingly silly little thing, but it meant a lot to me. Every single performance, I was overwhelmed with embarrassment, humility, and gratitude when that moment came. I have carried that feeling with me in every show I’ve done since, and that’s my unique gift from Paul.
I only knew Paul for a short time. That’s one of my stories. Go to Memories of Paul to see many others’.
Donations in his memory are being left to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
You can also read more skilled obituaries here and here.
His absence will be palpable for a long time, by those who knew him and by those who enjoyed his work.
We love you, Paul.
My Fair Lady Reviewed! (6)
Beck Center Gives ‘My Fair Lady’ a Few Fun Twists
“My Fair Lady,” a production of which is running at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, has quite a pedigree.
It is most remembered as a thoroughly delightful 1964 film, made during an era when many Broadway musicals were turned into elaborate Hollywood productions. It won eight Academy Awards, including best picture.
The film is based on a classic piece of American musical theater that emerged in 1956 during one of the great heydays of musical theater. It won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
First and foremost, however, “My Fair Lady” is the play “Pygmalion,” written in 1912 by George Bernard Shaw, with songs inserted.
Shaw’s play tells the tale of a high-handed, high-brow British phonetician named Henry Higgins, who places a wager with his priggish sidekick Colonel Pickering that he can transform a young, Cockney guttersnipe into a duchess simply by improving her vocabulary and manner of speech. The guttersnipe is Eliza Doolittle. Like the playwright himself, Higgins is a firm believer in the power of the poetry in the English language.
Paul Gurgol understands and appreciates “My Fair Lady’s” literary heritage, and is not the kind of fellow to direct just another production of this now iconic work. In his Beck Center rendition, he calls attention to the play’s Shaw-manship.
Some innovations are small. The show opens with a statue coming to life — a nice, albeit highly obscure homage to the work that inspired Shaw’s play. In “Metamorphoses,” written by ancient Greek poet Ovid, a sculptor named Pygmalion falls in love with an ivory statue he has made. She comes to life and they marry.
Some innovations are more substantial. The huge ensemble typically assembled in productions of this grand musical has been limited to nine individuals, several of whom also play small character roles. By reducing the scale of the typically big production numbers, the story and its wordplay are accentuated.
The show closes with another obscure twist concerning Eliza’s fate after Higgins has achieved his goals. The script calls for the two to come together at the end. The Beck rendition implies a potentially different ending, based on the Afterward written by Shaw upon the publication of his play.
Gurgol’s vision is delivered very effectively by performers capable of developing rich and interesting characters to sustain the story line and not just deliver the show’s songs.
Bob Russell has turned the stiff, erudite and fairly one-dimensional Higgins from stage and screen into a round, pampered and petulant man-child in this production. Gone is Higgins’ charm, replaced by playfulness. Gone is the sexual tension between Higgins and Eliza; only the tension remains. These are intriguing trade-offs.
Higgins’ lack of charm is more than made up for in Dana Hart’s enchanting rendering of Pickering. He is the perfect playmate for Russell’s Higgins — the voice of what is proper but a pliable and willing accomplice in what is not. Charming is not as easy to play as it would seem, and Hart is wonderful.
Veteran actor George Roth dons the tattered wardrobe of Alfred Doolittle, Eliza’s ne’er-do-well father, and does so in fine fashion. Roth’s very presence on stage and the warmth he exudes improves the show’s climate and showcases the richness that can be found in Shaw’s words.
Of course, at the end of the day, “My Fair Lady” is a classic American musical and not just a Shaw play with songs inserted.
The songs are brilliant, comprised of the irresistibly hummable music by Fredrick Loewe and memorable lyrics by Alan Lerner. Rather than interrupt the play’s cleverly conceived conversation and its linguistic rhythms, the music and lyrics are intended to be a natural and harmonious extension of the conversation. Musical Director Larry Goodpaster and his orchestra deliver Lerner and Loewe’s songs with the sumptuousness they deserve.
Most of the best songs, including “I Could Have Danced All Night,” belong to Eliza, performed to perfection by Valerie Reaper. Establishing herself as an ideal ingénue with a pure soprano in her portrayal of Johanna in “Sweeney Todd” at Cain Park, Reaper has added gumption and spirit to her repertoire. Hers is a joyful performance that is a pleasure to watch.
There is some collateral damage to Gurgol’s innovations.
“With a Little Bit of Luck,” “Embassy Waltz” and “Get Me to the Church on Time” are rather underwhelming affairs as musical production numbers go due, in large part, to the small albeit impressive ensemble. They are given a minimal amount of choreography that is both gimmicky and inorganic. The performers are well appointed in Sarah Russell’s magnificent costuming and play on Russ Borski’s rich and spacious set, but this only creates the impression that everyone is all dressed up with nowhere to go.
True to the work’s heritage, Beck Center’s version of “My Fair Lady” is delightful. With its Shaw-centric sensibilities, audiences will be thinking as they head for the parking lot and not just humming the show tunes. This is an atypical but welcome exit strategy for a classic piece of American musical theater.
“My Fair Lady” runs through Oct. 17 at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood. For tickets, which range from $10-$28, call 216-521-2540, ext. 10 or visit www.beckcenter.org.
My Fair Lady Reviewed (5)
Beck Opens with ‘My Fair Lady’ that’s Just Fair
Fran Heller – Cleveland Jewish News
“My Fair Lady” is rightly considered the perfect musical of its kind.
The 1956 comedy by Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music), based on George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion” (which in turn was based on the eponymous Greek legend), is a peerless match of story, music and lyrics. Winner of nine Tony awards, the show captivated the world with productions virtually everywhere on the planet, including Israel.
Beck Center’s current production of this classic jewel, which I saw at a preview performance, proved a mixed bag. The highs included some stellar leading performances, the oh-so-glorious music that wraps around you like a warm fuzzy (kudos to the ever-reliable Larry Goodpaster and orchestra), and Paul Gurgol’s intelligent direction that summons the full flavor of Shaw’s satire on class, language and identity.
But the slow-moving dialogue between songs, a bland and non-descript set, and the awkward scene changes (all 18 of them!) rob the ambitious production of perfection. At three hours, the show feels overly long. Instead of whizzing by like a magic carpet ride, it drags in both acts.
Interestingly enough, Shaw’s 1914 drawing room comedy about misogynistic linguist Henry Higgins who teaches Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle to use proper English was not considered fodder for musical theater. Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and “Yip” Harburg all turned it down, declaring it too unromantic to musicalize. Along came Lerner and Lowe who tried, at first did not succeed, then tried again, eventually elevating musical theater to a new standard of literate entertainment.
The star of the show is Lerner’s brilliant book and incisive lyrics and Lowe’s operetta score. At 54 years of age, this classic pre-feminist musical about the war between the sexes shows its age, as evidenced by the audible groans from female audience members when Higgins refers to Eliza as “baggage.” Although women have come a long way, the musical has not lost its original charm.
The story is not only Eliza’s Cinderella-like transformation from guttersnipe to princess, but Higgins’s metamorphosis as well, resulting in a romantic entanglement between tutor and pupil that departs from Shaw’s play. Director Gurgol provides a dual ending, a nod to both the Shavian version and the more romanticized American musical. It’s confusing.
Russ Borski’s bi-level set distorts the action and the play’s intimacy. Adding Greek columns and a statuesque woman swathed in white in the opening tableau (an obvious salute to the Pygmalion myth) muddies the London milieu.
The placement of the orchestra in full view of the audience and on the same plane with the action is also distracting. The assorted English accents, from Cockney to the Queen’s English, are clearly not native to the actors, thus slowing the pace of the talky parts.
An inauspicious opening jumps into high gear with the appearance of George Roth as the loveable, lazy and opportunistic Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza’s father and a philanderer who believes that ”With a Little Bit of Luck” he can live off the sweat of other people’s labors and society. Roth’s pitch-perfect comic characterization of the unscrupulous dustman is pure enchantment. Thumbing his lapels with elbows akimbo, he struts across the stage as if he owns it, and he does!
The short, pudgy Bob Russell adds his own imprimatur as Henry Higgins, the chauvinistic professor who believes class differences are only a matter of speech. Russell’s interpretation of the haute Higgins as an intolerable, tantrum-prone and pampered spoiled brat begins to wear thin after a while. It also skirts the edge of caricature.
What an absolute darling Valerie Reaper is as the feisty, independent and proud Eliza Doolittle, a “prisoner of the gutter” who fantasizes about becoming a lady. Reaper’s Eliza emphasizes the comic, including a scene that left me in stitches in which the weary, much put-upon student practices her “H’s” by blowing into a breathing contraption. This talented actress’s lovely soprano hits all the right notes in the unforgettable “I Could Have Danced All Night.”
Having achieved her own dream and angered by Higgins’s indifference to her role in his success, a transformed Eliza returns to her roots but remains unrecognized by her former friends. Reaper poignantly captures a woman caught between two worlds and belonging to neither.
The contrast between the studied ennui of the upper crust and Eliza’s sudden reversal from mannered gentility to coarse exuberance in “Ascot Gavotte” is hilarious and a highpoint. Sarah Russell’s costumes delight here and everywhere.
Dana Hart is excellent as the amiable Colonel Pickering, a man with a heart who, unlike Higgins, treats Eliza like a woman and a human being. Benjamin Czarnota has a voice that reaches the rafters as the inept suitor Freddy Eynsford-Hill (singing “On the Street Where You Live”), while Linda Ryan’s droll performance as Mrs. Higgins, a mother who finds her own son insufferable, is classic comic understatement.
Bravo to the hard-working ensemble, who prove their mettle taking on roles from Covent Garden sweepers and flower vendors to Higgins’s household staff.
Despite its imperfections, this “Fair Lady” will keep you humming its classic tunes far into the night.
WHAT: “My Fair Lady”
WHERE: The Beck Center for the Arts, 17801 Detroit Ave., Lakewood
WHEN: Through Oct. 17
TICKETS & INFO: 216-521-2540, ext. 10, or www.beckcenter.org
Pictures – My Fair Lady
Production photos courtesy of Kathy Sandham
George Roth as Alfred Doolittle with the Ensemble in “Get Me to the Church”
I’m on the right.
Valerie Reaper as Eliza Doolittle in “Loverly”
Bob Russell as Henry Higgins with Valerie Reaper
Dana Hart as Colonel Hugh Pickering with Bob Russell in “Why Can’t a Woman”
My Fair Lady Reviewed! (4)
Audience-Pleasing “My Fair Lady” at Beck
Roy Berko – Coolcleveland.com
The musical MY FAIR LADY, which is now on stage at Beck, is based rather literally on George Bernard Shaw’s PYGMALION. Though it is considered by many critics to be the “perfect musical,” it almost never got to the stage. At first, Shaw refused permission for his play to be made into a musical fearing that his messages relating to his disdain of the English class system, the poor educational opportunities afforded the lower classes, the treatment of women by men, and his strong belief in voting rights for women, would get lost in the tendencies of the musicals of his day to be purely entertainment.
After Shaw’s death, many attempts were made to transform the play into a musical, with little success. Even Rogers and Hammerstein failed. Finally, a script written by Alan Jay Lerner, with music by Frederick Loewe, was successful. The duo’s key centered on basically inserting songs into the original dialogue, even using the dialogue as song lyrics.
The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who is cajoled into taking speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins, a phoneticist, so she can pass as a “proper lady.” Complications, of course set in, including Higgins’ falling in love/like with Eliza, her father’s flirtation with being sober and becoming a “gentleman,” and her successful transformation.
The story follows the format of Lerner and Loewe’s general theme of the perfect place, time, and love story. Think BRIGADOON and CAMELOT.
The Broadway production, staged by Moss Hart, opened on March 15 1956 with Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins, Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle and Stanley Holloway as Alfred P. Doolittle. The show ran for 2,717 performances making it the longest running musical up to that time. It has received several Big Apple revivals. The show won every major theatrical award including The New York Drama Critics Circle Award, The Outer Critics Circle Award, and Tony Award for best musical.
The 1964 hit movie, which was directed by George Cukor, starred Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn (vocals dubbed by Marni Nixon), with Stanley Holloway reviving his role as Doolittle.
The show’s glorious score includes: “Why Can’t the English,” “With a Little Bit of Luck,” “Rain in Spain,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Without You,” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”
Beck’s production, under the direction of Paul Gurgol, is pleasant, but not compelling. The entire production needed a faster pace and some song and characterization adjustments. The show, however, has many fine features.
George Roth is a total delight as Alfred P. Doolittle. He is a charming rogue with a twinkle in his eye and a bit of larceny in his soul. “Get Me to the Church on Time” is one of the show’s visual highlights. Dana Hart makes for a believable Colonel Pickering, Higgins’ sidekick with a heart. He nicely textured his performance.
Valerie Reaper makes the difficult transition from being Liza, the uneducated flower girl, to Eliza, the lady, with believability. She has an excellent singing voice, which was well displayed in “Just You Wait” and “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly.” The chorus, though limited in numbers, sang well, but didn’t have the people power to fill the theatre. Hester Lewellen was an appealing Mrs. Pearce. The Cockney Quartet had a nice sound.
Benjamin Czarnota (Freddy Eynsford-Hill) has a wonderful singing voice, but sings words rather than meanings, thus losing the impact of “Street Where You Live.” Bob Russell’s take on Henry Higgins is somewhat problematic. Higgins must be egocentric, but must also have a vulnerable underbelly. Russell displayed the former, but when it came to the latter, he fell to melodrama. The back of a hand to the forehead, much like those used in silent films, was used to feign vulnerability. He also missed some of the charm needed to make us have a love/hate relationship with him as he dealt with Eliza. His talk-singing, ala Rex Harrison, was quite good.
As has become his custom, Larry Goodpaster, assembled an excellent group of musicians and backed up rather than drowning out the singers. A faster musical rate might have helped the languid pace of the show.
CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: As evidenced by the Sunday afternoon assemblage, Beck’s MY FAIR LADY is a potential audience pleaser. Hopefully the languid pace and some characterization issues will be settled as the show goes through its run.
My Fair Lady Reviewed (3)
Charming ‘My Fair Lady’ Falls Just Short
Brian Patrick Thornton – Spangle Magazine
From the very first notes of the overture, you can’t ignore how My Fair Lady is among the best musicals of all time. Even if you’ve seen the Audrey Hepburn film version a dozen times, the hum-ability of such classic songs as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” “Why Can’t the English” and “A Hymn to Him” can’t be denied. It’s a show that holds up six decades on.
Those strong bones are boosted by the talented cast of the Beck Center’s new production, which opened on Friday. To a person, the score is sung beautifully, with crisp harmonies and a strong sound from a relatively small cast.
Valerie Reaper, as Eliza Doolittle, offers a sweet and winning performance. Her transformation from street urchin to society lady is both distinctive and authentic, although she’s a bit stiff once she becomes more mannered. Her solo songs — especially “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” and “Without You” — are charming and memorable.
As Henry Higgins, Bob Russell is more brat than stubborn bachelor. This has the unfortunate effect of making him less than likeable; you’re not rooting for him to win over Eliza. Russell’s performance, though, is solid.
Other standouts in the cast include Linda Ryan, who brings the right amount of upper-crust sass to Mrs. Higgins; and George Roth, who could perhaps mine a few more laughs but is otherwise fun to watch as Alfred P. Doolittle, a role that’s outside his usual typecasting.
Miscast is Benjamin Czarnota, as Freddy Eynsford-Hill; he appears to be in an entirely different production than everyone else. As the rival option to Higgins, he doesn’t present a particularly appealing choice.
At more than three hours, My Fair Lady does seem to drag a bit, especially in the lengthy, nonmusical scenes. You wish the actors would raise their energy and pick up the pace. Generally, the show is more pleasant than funny — perhaps faster patter would make everything feel more clever.
And then there’s the design, which is a complete misfire. Russ Borski’s set is a vast black backdrop, and basically shifts between two looks — stairs at center, and stairs on the sides. It’s dark and dreary, and not aided by Sarah Russell’s costumes, which are almost entirely black, white or gray. Only Eliza gets a spot of color, and even that’s generally washed-out pinks and creams. Like Project Runway’s Nina Garcia, I kept scribbling in my notebook, “Where’s the color?” That gloominess only makes the production feel longer.
None of this is enough to discourage you from checking out My Fair Lady, especially if you’re a fan of Lerner and Loewe’s still-fabulous music. (Sunday’s audience gave a roaring approval during the curtain call.)
But you can’t help but feel this is a production that just misses its full potential.
My Fair Lady Reviewed! (2)
My Fair Lady – a “Loverly” Evening at Beck Center
Kate (Klotzbach) Miller – Cleveland Examiner
Charming, elegant and proper – everything that My Fair Lady should be. The Beck Center for the Arts’ production of My Fair Lady is all of these things. With book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe, and direction by Paul Gurgol, the adapted version of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion has stood the test of time.
First produced on Broadway in 1956, this musical theater classic has been produced in London, become a popular film, and has enjoyed multiple remounts and revivals throughout the decades. The story puts Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle (played by Valerie Reaper) in the middle of a bet between phonetics professor Henry Higgins (played by Bob Russell) and linguist Colonel Pickering (played by Dana Hart). Higgins bets he can take the unpolished, foul-mouthed Doolittle and turn her into a lady in 6 months time – and so the games begin.
My Fair Lady features many familiar musical theater pieces that are both well-known and catchy. “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” and “I Could Have Danced All Night” feature Reaper’s lovely soprano voice and charm. “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face” is performed by Russell with the appropriate frustration and longing associated with the tune. “The Rain In Spain” is a joyous celebration of triumph. Benjamin Czarnota is a captivating Freddy, belting out “On the Street Where You Live” with all the joy and hope in his heart. Finally, the “Get Me to the Church On Time” number featuring Eliza’s father Alfred (played by George Roth) is amusing and playful. It features a surprise bit of garbage can lid choreography, capped off by acrobatics and some group hand jive. Also a treat to the ears twice in the production – the Cockney Quartet blends beautifully and has the confidence of a professional barbershop quartet. It is also nice to see (sort of) the orchestra, as they are on stage behind a scrim in silhouette for the entire performance.
All in all the show is a politely delightful evening. Be sure to block off a chunk of time, though – this production runs around 3 hours long. Although a bit lengthy, the time is well-spent. Kudos to director Paul Gurgol for smart staging, scenic designer Russ Borski for an interesting two-tiered set, costume designer Sarah Russell, lighting designer Trad A. Burns, and finally sound designer extraordinaire Richard B. Ingraham.
My Fair Lady Reviewed!
Beck Center’s Delectable “My Fair Lady” Leads Three Hymns to Him
Boys Boys Boys.
That was a flashing neon sign in pre-Giuliani Times Square, advertising an “All-Male Revue.”
But it is also a fitting title for the opening, testosterone-fueled (but estrogen-tempered) salvos from three of Cleveland’s small professional theaters as the 2010-11 season begins: “My Fair Lady” at the Beck Center for the Arts, “Say You Love Satan” at Convergence-Continuum and “The Walworth Farce” at Dobama Theatre.
‘Fair’-ing well
“My Fair Lady,” a paragon of golden-era Broadway musicals, poses challenges to cow the biggest theater. But thanks to magical touches from director Paul Gurgol, musical director Larry Goodpaster, lighting designer Trad A Burns and several tasty performances, the Beck’s surprisingly entertaining production has no apologies to make.
The 1956 Lerner and Loewe musical is special for its indelible score (“Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” “With a Little Bit of Luck,” “The Rain in Spain,” “On the Street Where You Live”), and also for its book, or dialogue.
To hear it fresh now, when a book — if there is one — consists of “Oh, I love you” between musical numbers, is to relive a time when musical plays were exactly that.
It doesn’t hurt that the book is almost word for word from its source material, George Bernard Shaw’s 1912 “Pygmalion,” a Shavian retelling of a myth about a sculptor who carves a woman of ivory and falls in love with it.
The sculptor here is Henry Higgins, a London grammarian and elocutionist who fashions a princess out of a flower girl named Eliza Doolittle.
Joining him in the confirmed-bachelor camp are fellow phonetician Col. Pickering and common dustman/moralizer Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza’s gin-preserved paterfamilias.
Gurgol’s straightforward take doesn’t delve as deeply as the memorable pocket production in 2006 at the Cleveland Play House. But it is a delight.
The serviceable set and costumes are constrained by the budgetary and technical challenges at the Beck. All is made better by Burns’ lighting.
But the performances are the chief delectation.
Bob Russell is a fascinating, against-type ‘Iggins, a roly-poly mama’s boy, a spoilt and petulant brat, a swollen and pompous ne’er-do-well whose few charms are not for all markets, even a flower girl’s. This is Higgins by way of Max Bialystock.
Rougishly mutton-chopped Dana Hart turns on all his considerable charms and attic wit as Pickering. And Cleveland stalwart George Roth brings a welcome touch of delicacy to the often too-broadly-played Alfie.
At the center of this stag triangle stands the lissome, blond and golden-throated Valerie Reaper. It is no stretch that Reaper — still a college senior — can move Higgins to grow accustomed to her face. And all of her.
Gurgol adds a dimension or two, including a suffragette march in Eliza’s “Show Me.” But his take on the infamously difficult ending is kinda weird.
Forget that. Enjoy the three hours for their musical-theater gold. You’ll find yourself wishing you could have listened all night.
Through Sunday, Oct. 17, at 17801 Detroit Ave., Lakewood. $17-$28; beckcenter.org or 216-521-2540.
My Fair Lady Opens at Beck Center for the Arts
Beck Center for the Arts presents MY FAIR LADY
Book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Frederick Loewe
Director: Paul Gurgol
Music Director: Larry Goodpaster
Friday, September 17 – 8:00pm
Saturday, September 18 – 8:00pm
Sunday, September 19 – 3:00pm
Friday, September 24 – 8:00pm
Saturday, September 25 – 8:00pm
Sunday, September 26 – 3:00pm
Friday, October 1 – 8:00pp
Saturday, October 2 – 8:00pm
Sunday, October 3 – 3:00pm
Friday, October 8 – 8:00pm
Saturday, October 9 – 8:00pm
Sunday, October 10 – 3:00pm
Friday, October 15 – 8:00pm
Saturday, October 16 – 8:00pm
Sunday, October 17 – 3:00pm
On the Mackey Stage at the Beck Center for the Arts
17801 Detroit Road
Lakewood, OH 44107
Winner of six Tony Awards, My Fair Lady is a triumph. This esteemed classic musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion has stood the test of time to become a musical theater powerhouse and an all-time audience favorite. Directed by New York-based director, Paul Gurgol (director of Sweeney Todd at Cain Park), it will showcase the talents of Dana Hart as Colonel Pickering, George Roth as Alfred Doolittle, Trey Gilpin as Zoltan Karpathy, Benjamin Czarnota as Freddy Eynsford-Hill, Bob Russell as Henry Higgins, and Valerie Reaper as Eliza Doolittle.
For tickets, you can order online or call 216-521-2540 x10
Adults – $31
Seniors – $28
Students – $20
Children (under 12) – $13
*(On the website it’s listed as $28, $25, $17, and $10 with a “$3 service fee” for each ticket.)
Cast:
Leslie Andrews – Ensemble
Ginny Brazier – Ensemble
Benjamin Czarnota – Freddy Eynsford-Hill
Trey Gilpin – Zoltan Karpathy / Ensemble
Lydia Hall – Ensemble
*Dana Hart – Colonel Pickering
Elizabeth Kelly – Ensemble
Hester Lewellen – Mrs. Pearce
Carolyn Pelley – Ensemble
Christpher Pohl – Harry/Ensemble
Alex Potapenko – Ensemble
Frances Prusha – Mrs. Eynsford-Hill
Valerie Reaper – Eliza Doolittle
*George Roth – Alfred Doolittle
*Bob Russell – Henry Higgins
Linda Ryan – Mrs. Higgins
Tim Tavcar – Jamie / Ensemble
*Appear courtesy of Actors Equity Association
Artistic Staff:
Russ Borski – Scenic Designer
Trad A. Burns – Lighting Designer
Sarah Russell – Costume Designer
Richard B. Ingraham – Sound Designer
Joseph Carmola – Technical Director
Libby Burchmore – Stage Manager
My Next Show – My Fair Lady
Good News, Everyone!
I have officially been cast as Zoltan Karpathy in the Beck Center’s production of My Fair Lady. Directed by Paul Gurgol (who helmed the magnificent Sweeney Todd at Cain Park), this show will run September 17 – October 17. More details to come!
