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My Fair Lady Opens at The Buell Theater
By Mark Smiley
The Company of The National Tour of MY FAIR LADY. Photo by Jeremy Daniel
Madeline Powell as Eliza Doolittle in The National Tour of MY FAIR LADY. Photo by Jeremy Daniel
My Fair Lady, opened on November 15 at The Buell Theater. Boasting such classic songs as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “The Rain in Spain,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” and “On the Street Where You Live,” MY FAIR LADY tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a “proper lady.” But who is really being transformed?
Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s play and Gabriel Pascal’s motion picture Pygmalion, Lerner & Lowe’s My Fair Lady, with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, premiered on Broadway on March 15, 1956. The legendary original production won 6 Tony Awards including Best Musical and ran for 2,717 performances making it, at the time, the longest-running musical in Broadway history.
The current touring production features Madeline Powell as Eliza Doolittle, Jonathan Grunert as Professor Henry Higgins, John Adkison as Colonel Pickering, Madeline Brennan as Mrs. Pearce, Michael Hegarty as Alfred P. Doolittle, Cameron Loyal as Freddy Eynesford-Hill and Becky Saunders as Mrs. Higgins.
Accompanying Powell and Grunert is a terrific cast that heightens the incredible rags to riches flip that is showcased in this iconic production. The pacing though is what stands out about the revival. The amount of movement in and out of the numbers really keeps the action lively.
The underlining class struggle is a powerful element behind the whimsical nature of the plot. You find yourself flowing nicely with the spectacle while still hoping for that ‘a ha’ moment.
My Fair Lady runs through November 27, 2022 at the Buell Theater. For tickets or more information, visit www.denvercenter.org.
Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations Shines
The Musical Captures It All — Popular Music, Heartache and Tenderness
By Mark Smiley
Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations opened at the Buell Theatre at the Denver Performing Arts Center on October 25, 2022. The show runs through November 6, 2022, and tickets can be purchased at www.denvercenter.org.
The Broadway musical follows The Temptations’ journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This show is a high-energy crowd-pleaser filled with songs everyone recognizes and can tap their feet to.
Left to Right, Harrell Holmes Jr., Elijah Ahmad Lewis, Jalen Harris, Marcus Paul James, James T. Lane from Ain’t Too Proud. Photo Credit: Emilio Madrid
The musical is two-and-one-half-hours of top-notch vocals, dancing and theatrics — including drop-splits and mic-stand tricks. With a book written by Dominique Morisseau, based on the memoir “The Temptations,” by Otis Williams (one of the original members), the story is well-constructed and personal, narrated by Marcus Paul James, who plays a likable and earnest Williams.
This musical has a brisk pace and moves through three phases of Williams’ memoir—the gathering of the legends and their rapid rise to stardom; the challenges of keeping them together against internal and external adversaries; and finally the deaths of each member of the originals other than Williams himself.
The show’s chief focus is the shifting dynamic within the group. There are a lot of highs and lows with members of this group. Jealousy, narcissism, drug use, and suicide provide somber moments in the show.
But the high energy ballads from the talented cast and Motown hits from other groups such as The Supremes keeps the audience on the edge of their seats from start to finish.
Tickets can be purchased at www.denvercenter.org.
