Curtain Up: ‘My Fair Lady’ utterly charming

“My Fair Lady”captivates the audience from the moment the curtain rises to the closing scene. The musical is over 55 years old and still holds the charm and delight it did the day it opened on Broadway in 1956 with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. It ran for a record breaking 2,717 sold-out award-winning performances and went on to a multi-Academy-Award-winning movie.
Take lyrics and music by Lerner and Loewe and a super musical director, Jesse Sanchez, conducting a well balanced full orchestra and Andrew Kaufman and Jon Hayward giving ideal lighting and sound with an Annie Denber set that shows less is more. Add Ken Savage as a director who really knows about detail and staging and you have a top flight professional production that holds its own with any “My Fair Lady” that has ever played in this area including San Francisco. Oh just a minute – we have to add a well cast talented group of actors and that completes this absolutely enjoyable, exceptionally well done production.
Beautifully costumed by Valerie Emmi and understated choreography by Camille Edralin with special waltz choreography by Taylor Kinney, we are carried to prim and proper 1912 London with the musical version of Shaw’s “Pygmalion.” Henry Higgins (well played by Scott Solomon) wagers with his friend Col. Pickering (a well cast Praveen Ramesh) that he can make a well spoken lady of Eliza Doolittle (charming, extremely talented Samantha Williams,) a flower girl off the streets of London.
This is not an easy score to play or sing. The “Show Me” number, it was rumored, drove Julie Andrews to distraction while rehearsing the original New York production. This entire cast delivers solidly and believably and every word of the wonderful lyrics in the clipped British accents can be clearly understood.
Sergey Khalikulov as Freddy Eynsford Hill has a beautiful voice and his delivery of “On the Street Where You Live” gets the attention of the audience.
Gary Stanford Jr. brings Alfred P. Doolittle (Eliza’s father) to a bigger than life realization and just about steals the show.  “I’m Getting Married In the Morning” is a great combination of singing and dancing.
This caliber of community theater is truly amazing. When going to the theater in New York or San Francisco, it is almost unaffordable for many. Parking, fuel and dinner make a night to a Broadway show sometime out of reach. Not here. Parking is easily available, you’re a hop skip and a jump from just about anywhere in the area (less than half the distance from San Francisco from Gilroy or Morgan Hill,) and your ticket price is an easy reach for the whole family.
This “My Fair Lady” is a production not to skip. If word gets out, the San Francisco crowd will be coming down here for their theater fix and we won’t be able to get seats.
“My Fair Lady”
Fox Theatre
2219 Broadway St., Redwood City
Through June 21
Two hours, 20 minutes with one intermission.
Tickets $47 –$69
Season subscriptions are available for the 45^th season.
For information and tickets call (650) 579-5565 or go to broadwaybythebay.org.