Lyric Opera closes its season in style with My Fair Lady

Lyric Opera of Chicago is ending its 2016-17 season with this year’s Broadway at Lyric production of one of Broadway’s most endearing and enduring musicals, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s My Fair Lady.

There are not enough superlatives to recommend this musical, and Lyric Opera’s rendition offers a most enjoyable evening of theatrical entertainment.

The settings are as opulent and beautiful as one would expect from Lyric Opera, and this production takes full advantage of the stage size. The actors often move downstage while the curtain closes behind them to allow for set changes. This arrangement allows the actors to get up close and personal with the audience, which is a nice touch. The grandeur of a large-scale production is wonderful to see, but it’s also important for the audience to connect on a more personal level with the characters, and those scenes in which the actors are so close to the audience with nothing but a curtain behind them allow for such intimacy.

Richard E. Grant gives a wonderfully nuanced interpretation of Henry Higgins. Yes, Higgins is smug, overly analytical, and oblivious to Eliza’s feelings, but the sum of a person is more than a few words, and Grant does a commendable job of portraying his character as more complex than what is seen on the surface and as a man who is capable of changing.

Lisa O’Hare is simply delightful as Eliza Doolittle. Her singing voice is wonderfully lyrical, and she aptly conveys strength, cleverness, and vulnerability in both humorous and serious situations.

The supporting cast is terrific as well. Nicholas Le Prevost, as Colonel Pickering, creates a balanced and sympathetic counterpoint to Higgins’s cluelessness about Eliza. Donald Maxwell, as Alfred P. Doolittle (Eliza’s father), is funny, exasperating, and always entertaining. While Bryce Pinkham’s role as the lovesick Freddy is not that large, he performs it well, and his voice is so good that it’s a shame he has only one solo. Higgin’s housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce, is played by Cindy Gold, who takes what could be a rather forgettable minor role and turns it into a significant performance that becomes an integral and memorable part of the story’s fabric.

What can one say about the musical numbers that hasn’t been said many times before? Who can top such numbers as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “On the Street Where You Live,” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face”? Those, and the many other songs in this musical, are some of Broadway’s most unforgettable, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself humming them for hours after the play ends. A live orchestra always adds a depth not possible with recorded music, and the Lyric Orchestra’s skillful interpretations greatly enhance the entire experience.

My Fair Lady, directed by Robert Carsen, runs through May 21 at Lyric Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago. Tickets start at $22 and are available at www.lyricopera.rog/myfairlady or 312-827-5600.

Photo: Lisa O'Hare as Eliza Doolittle, Richard E. Grant as Henry Higgins, and Nicholas Le Prevost, as Colonel Pickering in Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of My Fair Lady, April 28-May 21, 2017 at Lyric Civic Opera House, Chicago, IL. Photo Credit: Todd Rosenberg