My Fair Lady (Broadway) (2018)

What a luscious revival of My Fair Lady. We got incredibly close seats in the far right second row. It was in fact, a little too close. The Vivian Beaumont theater is in the 75% round, so in theory all seats should be in full view, but sometimes the furniture or other characters block the action of the scene from view. The set is gorgeous. There is a rotating set piece that rotates so much faster than you expect. There is a cute vignette with the maid and constable that you'd only see from our side of the theater because it rotates counter-clockwise. Just a happy coincidence.

There is quite a bit of filler in My Fair Lady. Mr. Doolittle serves little purpose. Colonel Pickering is sort of just there. I'm still trying to figure out Freddy too. I think his purpose is to show how far Eliza has come, that she passes off as posh while he does not. The music is beautiful. I think Jordan Donica, as Freddy, has a wonderful voice. The cast is fabulous all around. I was pleasantly surprised how genuinely funny the show was.

The show generally gets criticism for blatant misogyny. And it is certainly there. The new ending supposedly redeems some of the misogyny by giving Eliza some agency. Some of the misogyny is masked in classism, which I suppose is more acceptable. I could imagine a transposition of the show to an American setting, trying to drop a Bronx accent, or a southern drawl. I think that could be quite funny too, albeit a little controversial.