I've grown accustomed to this show: My Fair Lady A Departure With Tradition

Well, unfortunately, with the terrible weather Clowes Hall did not have even a thought of holding the house for the opening night of the national tour of MY FAIR LADY. We tend to arrive early ourselves and we were being seated during the overture by an incompetent usher. Shining her flashlight in the other patrons' eyes when showing us our seats and all the while really not knowing were she was going. Sad. A 5 minute hold would have seated so many more people with less frustration. It's MY freakin FAIR LADY. People know that it is a three hour show… that is why they like it. Fortunately, that is where the bad stuff ends, aside from the spot operators who should really consider watching the show for a change instead of texting on their phones or playing play station or whatever they were doing instead of keeping people in light.

FINALLY the "Broadway" Series offers us a UNION tour. With some people that actually have "Broadway" credits… imagine that. Go see this show and tell me that you can't tell the difference between this and the dreck we have been forced to watch the rest of the season.

Just in case you don't know the tale of MFL here you go, flower selling gutter girl (Eliza Doolittle) meets high class Prof. (Henry Higgins) he makes her a lady and all hell breaks loose in the woman's lib department.

With all that said, I now have to say that I am a touchy audience when it comes to both Shaw and Lerner and Loewe. With MFL you have them both. In 1956 when it originally opened I am sure many folks expected this musical "adaptation" of George Bernard Shaw's PYGMALION to be just that, a loose "adaptation" as Broadway had done before. The difference? More. You get to see the secondary character of Doolittle, the philosophizing dustman (garbage man) and Eliza's father in his own environment. You get higher stakes instead of a garden party it is an Embassy Ball. Everything is heightened because of the score and songs. They don't bother to rewrite Shaw. Why would you? "Fold tab B - Song goes here - Slot A - Strings and underscoring cue tears."

MFL is like your Dad's perfect chili recipe. Why mess with it? If your dad is Trevor Nunn, (CATS, STARLIGHT EXPRESS, SUNSET BLVD., ASPECTS OF LOVE… you get the idea) you can mess. So, dad puts some black beans and corn in the chili. Not, unheard of… but not my taste. Nunn tries so hard on the transitions sometimes I felt myself going, "Just change the set already." There is just all this extra ""stuff". From newsboys spouting the news of the day (1916), every woman in the ensemble becoming a flower seller during I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face destroying the number to staging a song that romps through a group of suffrage women (that one actually sort of works… sort of.) The biggest eye roll was a dancing jockey from left field during the funniest, cleanest, best staged version of Ascot Gavotte I have ever seen, right down to the choreographed "look-to-see-if-there-is-horse-pooh-on-my-shoe" move. Double X kudos to Matthew Bourne for that, also to Stephen Brooker and James Lowe for the vocals on that piece spot on! Yes, I am a bit nit picky on some directorial things could these be "redirectional"? (Shaun Kerrison). But, where the musical staging changes came into play Mathew Bourne additions to the "soup" came out much more "tasteful". The rethinking of Get Me To The Church On Time was splendid and the "Stomp-esque" Little Bit Of Luck was loads of fun. (Steal only from the best… that is what I always say.) A garbage man making music and dancing with the tools of the trade?… a no brainer. Some changes, I feel, were still made for change's sake. Moving the Embassy Ball to the top of the 2nd Act… why? Just cut it for that matter. I found it distasteful to have Freddy getting trashed on Champaign I would think Shaw would as well. Leave the boozing to Doolittle.

Indianapolis you have the rare opportunity to see a legend tread the boards in this city with the MFL company, Marni Nixon plays Mrs. Higgins with the grace and style that has followed her entire career. She has many Broadway credits to her name but is best known as the singing voices for Audrey Hepburn in MFL the film (no Audrey did not sing it), Deborah Kerr in THE KING AND I and Natalie Wood in WEST SIDE STORY. Lisa O'Hare comes to the role of Eliza from playing Mary Poppins, her voice is like a crystal bell and her transformed Eliza is wonderful. I would have loved to see a bit more grit and grime at the top. Christopher Cazenove's Higgins seemed to channel the love child of Brian Dennehy and Rex Harrison with the natural comfort of the former and echoes of the bombastic misogynistic delivery of the originator of the role in the later. Frequently Doolittle walks away with the show in this production it is no different. With clever reworking of his numbers and a couple of all be it non-Shaw or Lerner lines for that matter Tim Jerome endears himself to the audience moments after his appearance. With a physical nod to George Rose who won the Tony for the role in the 1976 revival, this bigger version, Jerome, goes from social commentary to physical comedy in seconds. A true pro. (Try getting a performance like that in a non-union tour.) Finally, at last a Freddy on a big stage that Shaw would agree with! So often he is cast as beefcake with a big voice and that could not be more off mark. I last saw Justin Bohon on Broadway in the revival of OKLAHOMA! as Will Parker for which he won an Astair award. His clumsy British charm and puppy-like devotion to Eliza was adorable as was his rendition of On The Street Where You Live.

Please get out to see this show. It is a rare occasion you have the opportunity to see a show like this with talent like this done on the scale that it should be done. And besides…. Marni Nixon. Come on.