My Fair Lady-Part I

[SicilianMother@xxxxxxx]

Well, I am a bit weary and bleary eyed today, but it was such a wonderful 
time.

The Hollywood bowl is an amazing setting underneath the famous "Hollywood" 
sign.  It was a perfect night, no breeze, not too hot, never too cold.

The stage had minimal sets and props and the orchastra, instead of being in a 
pit up front, were at the back of the stage.

OK, I must talk first about our boy Roger Daltrey.  Bravo!!!

When the cast was announced at the beginning, Roger got the loudest cheers of 
all!

The cast was mostly American actors speaking with English accents.  So, when 
Roger came on, shortly after the show started, it took a few lines before he 
got his groove on.  He spoke in a strong, almost gravel voiced, thick cockney 
accented character voice, that for a moment I thought "oh, no, I can't 
understand what he is saying!".  You could definitely tell his accent was authentic.  

He was having so much fun!!  He played the poor but jolly bar fly-bachelor 
Alfred P. Doolittle very robustly.  He followed the choreography like he was  
born to be a character actor.  He had two main songs that were "his".  "With a 
little bit of luck" was in the first act which he re-sang a few times during 
the first act and then he had a great bit in the second act singing "I'm getting 
married in the morning" which ended with them carrying him out, as his 
character had been given enough money to join the middle class and subsequently he 
had to marry Eliza's step mother, and was having his last hoorah, until he 
couldn't stand anymore, thus about 6 chorus members carried him out.  

He spoke and sang in character so only occasionally did I hear a familar tone 
in his voice, but it was unmistakenly him.  His singing was very, very good.  
But, it wasn't like you would say, "oh, that is the guy who sings "Love Reign 
O'er Me", which, in my opinion is a good thing because that shows his 
diversity and confidence.

Our seats were dead center.................in the last row!!!  So, I couldn't 
see actual expression or even details on his costume.  But, in a way it was 
good, because my attention was alot more focused on the dialog and music.

On that note, he wore a white shirt with a brown vest and brown pants in the 
first act.  In the second act, he was dressed in a dark navy blue fancy suit 
fitting for a wedding.

An interesting part in the program, that I didn't read until after the show 
was over, but complete made sense was:

".........and Roger Daltrey (of Who fame) as Alfred P. Doolittle, an 
out-of-the-blue addition to an already stellar line-up.

'He came to us, that's the great thing' Mauceri explains. 'He showed up and 
said that he would be really delighted to play the role and asked if we would 
all like to hear him sing something, which is quite adorable really'."

I'll type out his bio in the program later.  It is kinda long, but very 
interesting and impressive.

A few words about John Lithgow.  He play Henry Higgins perfectly!  I have 
never seen him on stage before but he has been one of my favorite movie and 
sit-com actors for a long time.  He was very comfortable with the lead and had an 
abundance of energy.  His singing wasn't his strong suit, and spoke through one 
of his last songs.  Since I have never seen My Fair Lady before I am not sure 
if his character is supposed to have a good singing voice.  He sure had alot 
of songs and did them great, but compared to some of the other leads, his 
voice wasn't his strong point.  But, I will say, 150%, he made up for that with 
his acting.  I don't want to take anything away from him because he did such a 
great job.

The gal who played Eliza Doolittle (Daltrey's character's daughter), Melissa 
Errico, was amazing.  When she sang, the crowd broke out in applause during 
some of the notes she sang because they were so flawless!!  Especially in "I 
could have danced all night"..  She was outstanding.

I think I'll end it there for now.  But I'll have a part II later.

:)
Jo