It’s hard to teach an old ‘My Fair Lady’ new tricks | Review

Well, they’ve tried to make “My Fair Lady” more appealing to a modern crowd, and it appears the results are as shaky as the scenery in the touring production that opened in Orlando on Tuesday night.

The latest in the Broadway series at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is based on the production that opened in New York in 2018 to a bit of theater-world controversy. Director Bartlett Sher changed the staging of the final scene so (spoiler alert) Eliza Doolittle walks out on Professor Higgins, the man who transforms the Cockney flower seller into a “proper lady” through elocution lessons, verbal abuse and sexist notions.

At the time, Sher said he made the change in response to the #metoo movement, and the show tries in other ways to feel more modern. Higgins’ friend Col. Pickering has a strong “gay-or-European?” sensibility, fawning over a longtime male friend; the bachelor-party shenanigans of Eliza’s father features a parade of men (and one woman) in drag singing “Get Me to the Church on Time” — a number that interestingly, at a time when the state Legislature looks to restrict drag performance, received the longest sustained applause from the audience.

Yet it all feels a bit like a stodgy uncle trying too hard to be cool. And none of these trappings addresses the actual problem with the show, which premiered in 1956: The audience is expected to laugh at Higgins’ constant belittling of Eliza and then actively root for her to love him. There’s no real way around that without rewriting the book (and a recent New York viewing of Aaron Sorkin’s updates to “Camelot” reminded me that tactic is not without its pitfalls either).

The Broadway costumes on view look fabulous, especially the monochromatic Ascot outfits (that scene also benefits from a nifty stereo sound effect). But the scenery feels on the cheap: Building facades shudder precariously when a door is slammed; a banister wobbles and jiggles when characters descend the stairs.

The cast gives it the old college try. Madeline Powell has sparkle as Eliza and a strong singing voice. In fact, all the music is a joy to hear, with an orchestral sound that’s richer than its dozen or so players.

As usual in American productions of “My Fair Lady” though, Powell is directed to lay on Eliza’s Cockney accent so thick that she sounds like a wounded, incomprehensible animal as opposed to a poor resident of London’s East End.

Jonathan Grunert is a younger Higgins than I’ve seen before, which makes his vibe with Eliza less creepily paternalistic, though it’s never quite obvious when he falls in love with her. John Adkison is in good spirits as Pickering, and Madeline Brennan adds a welcome tart note as housekeeper Mrs. Pearce.

Opening night saw a pair of parental understudies onstage: Richard Coleman found a few of the zesty moments for Eliza’s father, while Diana Craig gave a pleasingly crisp performance as Higgins’ mother.

Finally, there’s Nathan Haltiwanger, who has a cheerful bonhomie as poor Freddy, the fop besotted with Eliza. He scores with the one true romantic ballad, “On the Street Where You Live,” and, come to think of it, maybe he’s not a loser in love in this version: Who’s to say when Eliza turns her back on Higgins, she isn’t headed straight to Freddy’s arms as the curtain falls?

‘My Fair Lady’

• Length: 2:55, including intermission

• Where: Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 445 S. Magnolia Ave. in Orlando

• When: Through May 14

• Cost: $54.75 and up

• Info: drphillipscenter.org

Follow me at facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at [email protected]. Find more arts news and reviews at orlandosentinel.com/arts, and go to orlandosentinel.com/theater for theater news and reviews.