LYRIC STAGE PRESENTS
MY
FAIR LADY
September 10-19, 2010
at the Irving Arts Center's Carpenter Hall
with a 38-piece orchestra
Lyric Stage, Dallas County's only locally produced professional
musical theater company, presents Lerner and Loewe's MY FAIR
LADY September 10-19 in the Irving Arts Center's Carpenter Performance
Hall, 3333 N. MacArthur Blvd. The production will feature a
38-piece orchestra playing Robert Russell Bennett and Philip
J. Lang's original Broadway orchestrations.
Beginning with its National Endowment for the Arts supported
production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel, Lyric Stage
has enjoyed great critical acclaim and packed houses with its
productions of classic American musicals produced with full
orchestras playing the original Broadway orchestrations. Lyric
Stage's production of Carousel was the first since the original
1945 Broadway version to have a 40 piece orchestra playing Don
Walker's original orchestrations and according to the Rodgers
& Hammerstein Organization received the best set of notices
in Carousel production history. The success of Carousel led
the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization to ask Lyric Stage
to premiere the restoration of The King and I in June 2009,
and in January of 2010 Lyric Stage produced the world premiere
of the original 1927 Show Boat in concert with a cast of 69
and a 42-piece orchestra featuring material never before heard
by a live audience. Last season, audience members traveled from
20 states and over 320 zip codes to see Lyric Stage's productions.
To open Lyric Stage's eighteenth season, Founding Producer
Steven Jones has selected MY FAIR LADY, one of the greatest
American musicals ever written. Lyric Stage may be the only
place in the world one can hear "I Could Have Danced All Night,"
"On The Street Where You Live," "The Rain In Spain," "Wouldn't
It Be Loverly," "Get Me To The Church On Time" and "I've Grown
Accustomed to Her Face" with a full 38 piece orchestra playing
Robert Russell Bennett and Philip J. Lang's original Broadway
orchestrations.
George Bernard Shaw had forbidden any of his plays to be adapted
into musicals (due to his displeasure with Oscar Straus' The
Chocolate Soldier, an operetta version of Shaw's Arms and the
Man), but the situation changed after his death in 1950. Several
writers thought Shaw's play Pygmalion would make a perfect musical
(including Rodgers & Hammerstein). Although Lerner and Loewe
were not the first choice to pen the adaptation, they ultimately
got the job and on their fourth time at bat on Broadway they
hit it out of the park. MY FAIR LADY opened at the Mark Hellinger
Theater on March 15, 1956 to unanimous rave reviews.
Lyric Stage Music Director/Conductor Jay Dias returns to the
podium for MY FAIR LADY. Len Pfluger will direct and choreograph
the 31 member cast. Kim Whalen (Julie Jordan in Lyric Stage's
Carousel, Maria in Lyric Stage's West Side Story and Louisa
in the 50th Anniversary cast of The Fantasticks Off-Broadway)
will star as Eliza Doolittle. Brent Alford will play Henry Higgins
with Gary Taggart as Pickering, Sonny Franks as Doolittle and
Daniel R. Johnson as Freddy. Noelle Stanley, Julie Erickson,
Eric Aultman, Felecia Benton, Courtney Dahl, Vicki Dean, Melody
Denoia, Dayton Dobbs, Caitlin Galloway, Graham Galloway, Katherine
Gentsch, Amber Nicole Guest, Martin Guerra, Sarah Harder, Joseph
Holt, Will Huse, Babakayode Ipaye, Augustine Jalomo, Kallie
Katzman, Thomas Renner, Michael Sylvester, Dana Taylor, Jay
Taylor, Keith Warren, Lucia Welch and James Williams round out
the cast.
MY FAIR LADY performances are Friday September 10 and Saturday
September 11 @ 8:00 PM, Sunday September 12 @ 2:30 PM, Thursday
September 16, Friday September 17 and Saturday September 18
@ 8:00 PM and Sunday September 19 @ 2:30 PM. Performances are
in the Irving Arts Center's Carpenter Performance Hall, 3333
N. MacArthur Blvd., Irving, TX 75062.
"My Fair Lady Lifts Lyric Stage
To New Heights... They don't make shows like My Fair Lady
anymore and nobody does them with as much love, respect and
enthusiasm for how they should be done as Lyric Stage." ~Elaine Liner, Dallas Observer
"My Fair Lady just doesn't get any
better than this." ~Lawson Taitte, Dallas Morning News
"Lush 'My Fair Lady' has stunning amount
of talent on display... a musical lover's dream come true." ~Mark Lowry, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
