Professor Higgins - WKTV Journal

Alyssa Bauer as Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady” running through March 18.

By Anne Hillman

Grand Rapids Civic Theater has begun its production of My Fair Lady, and the production team and cast have brought this well-known story to entertaining life. This production marks the return of many faces who will be familiar to frequent attendees of Civic Theater’s past seasons: Alyssa Bauer as Eliza Doolittle, Michael Dodge as Colonel Pickering, Charles Hutchins as Alfred Doolittle, Kristen Pearson as Mrs. Pearce, and second time Civic alum John Girdlestone as Henry Higgins. Led by director Allyson Paris, joined by a strong ensemble, and supported by a fabulous orchestra, these volunteer actors present a professional level musical to the Grand Rapids community.

Wyoming resident part of Grand Rapids Civic Theatre’s My Fair Lady cast. Click here to read the story.

Accents are central to the story-line as they mark the class distinctions which shape the prejudices and motivations of the main characters, and the choice to bring in dialect coach Spencer Tomlin paid off in the consistency and variety of accents used by the actors. While each actor obviously put in hard work, Alyssa Bauer’s deft transformation from Cockney-speaking flower seller to proper British lady is very impressive. She does an excellent job of keeping the two accents straight and managing to switch between the two during the time that Eliza is still learning her new manner of speaking.

Alyssa Bauer’s deft transformation from Cockney-speaking flower seller to proper British lady is very impressive.

My Fair Lady is a hard story to tell in our current context and yet an important one. Issues of class, power, privilege, and sexism are still relevant today, and this production does a good job of demonstrating the ways in which these forces shape the attitudes and expectations of the various characters. Henry Higgins, played exceptionally well by John Girdlestone, is not a particularly loveable personality. His continued arrogance and lack of empathy could have become frustrating for the audience, but the excellent background acting of the other characters in the scenes did a great job of conveying that the misogynist and classist rhetoric was not to be condoned.

The music is familiar to many veteran musical theater fans, but previous sessions of listening to soundtracks is not necessary to enjoy this production. The attention to diction extends from the work on accents to the clarity of the lyrics in each song. Each rhyme, each joke, each insight into a character’s motivation and personality is easily understood by the audience. And the quality of the singing is excellent. Soaring notes and beautiful harmonies are heard throughout the performance, creating a wonderful night out at the theater. Well done Civic Theater; I will be recommending My Fair Lady to all of my theater loving friends and looking forward to the next production.

My Fair Lady runs through March 18 at Grand Rapids Civic Theater, 30 N. Division Ave. Show times are 7:30 p.m Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m Sunday. Tickets are $18-$37. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit grct.org.

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

joanne@wktv.org

Singing and dancing on Grand Rapids Civic Theatre’s stage is certainly a direct opposite of what Wyoming resident Kallie Piette does during the day.

She works for her family’s company, the Great Lakes EMS Academy on Division Avenue in Wyoming, where she works with new students coming in and also teaches CPR and first aid.

“It’s hard work to do a show,” Piette said. “It’s three months of Monday through Friday from 7 to 10 p.m. rehearsals and then you have the shows on top of that.

“But for me, it’s almost like play time because I get to pretend and I get to sing and dance along with being with friends.”

This week, Piette marks her 15th production with Grand Rapids Civic Theatre as part of the ensemble cast of the company’s winter production “My Fair Lady.”

“I love the music,” said Piette, who is a cockney woman and a servant maid in the production. “It’s classical musical theater and it has been awhile since anyone around here has presented it. What makes ‘My Fair Lady’ so unique is the music is complicated but it doesn’t sound difficult once you get it.”

The 1956 Broadway musical starred Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison, who would later reprise his role as Professor Higgins in the 1964 film which also starred Audrey Hepburn. The story centers on the snobbish phonetics professor Higgins who agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, and make her presentable in high society. The musical features one of the most famous lines in theater —which is also a song — “The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plane” along with such songs as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” Wouldn’t It Be Lovely?” and “Get Me To the Church on Time.”

“‘Ascot Gavotte’ is amazing,” Piette said of the songs in the musical, “That is one of my favorites.” The song features the ensemble, which Piette is part of, dressed to the nines at a horse race track where Professor Higgins presents Eliza for the first time.

“The talent is amazing,” Piette said. “The performers are incredible, and the costumes, well, from what I have seen, they are pretty amazing.”

At the time of this interview, Piette had not seen the full costumes but was scheduled to later in the evening. We both, however; agreed costumer Bob Fowle would certainly wow with “My Fair Lady” as it calls for some impressive designs.

“My Fair Lady” runs through March 18 at Grand Rapids Civic Theater, 30 N. Division Ave. Show times are 7:30 p.m Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m Sunday. Tickets are $18-$37. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit grct.org.