See it if you love lavish revivals. Lush costumes/sets; great songs (esply the score) and clever book (GBS!). Gr orchestra, good pace. Highly polished
Don't see it if you demand emotional engagement. MFL lacks spark. Fault Ambrose and/or Sherr. HH's misogyny hard to take. Act I outshines Act II. Forced fun
See it if You want to see a beautifully staged, sung and acted “old fashioned” musical that has been directed with a real sense of today’s values.
Don't see it if I can’t imagine any reason not to see this show unless you just don’t want to see a musical.
See it if Lush sets and orchestrations don’t help this otherwise flat show. Norbert is the stand out for sure. The sound was so muted.
Don't see it if You don’t like revivals of classics. Or the only seats you can get are on the sides.
See it if Lovely composition of actors, staging & orchestra. Convincing interpretations of Higgins & Eliza. Beautiful presentation w/lots of feeling.
Don't see it if You don’t enjoy revivals where you know the story, characters & music well. There are just a few modern updates. I liked the new ending.
See it if you want to see a near-perfect revival of a near-perfect musical of a near-perfect play (& to discover the hidden talents of Lauren Ambrose)
Don't see it if you have nothing but disdain for classic musical theatre, no matter how brilliantly it's reimagined, staged & cast; you like to kick puppies
See it if you love classic musicals, enjoy sumptuous costumes, fan of Norbert Leo Butts & Diana Rigg, large orchestra, great dances
Don't see it if not a fan of lavish musicals, don't like subtle but significant changes to traditional ending, expect more involving main characters
See it if In a word, incandescent New Benanti/Burstein combo worth the wait w/ Hadden-Paton & co still top-notch Sher's light touch modern yet classic
Don't see it if Production design flawless w/Holder's lighting topping kudos Only snag is the grotesque, ghastly staging of "Get Me to the Church..." number
See it if You like/love classic musicals with beautiful costumes and stage and great music score
Don't see it if If you do not like musicals. Read more
“I mean no disrespect to Ambrose, who originated the role in this revival, to say that Benanti is a more effortless vocalist; she dispatches her very difficult and wide-ranging songs with glee...The show is lighter as a result, which is not to say it’s less compelling...But it is the recasting of the smallest principal role that makes the most touching difference, and like everything connected to Harris’s stage presence, her success as Mrs. Higgins cannot be pinned down.”
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"Sher is not an iconoclast or radical re-sculptor; instead, he acts as a restorer, leaving the shows on their pedestals but stripping off years of obscuration to reveal layers the works had possessed all along. So it is with the splendid new LCT revival...Sher is acutely alert to the shifts of balance within both 'My Fair Lady' itself and the way it plays to contemporary audiences, and nowhere is that clearer than in his clever solution to the show’s notoriously slippery ending."
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"A beloved musical from another era can keep on kicking, and, as is the case here, it can even do so without making radical shifts in aesthetic, as long as it’s got its eyes wide open...This production team knows what they’re making and when they’re making it...Yeargan’s dynamic set, combined with Ambrose’s beautifully calibrated performance, always makes us feel as if events—educational and emotional—are rushing forward."
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"Sumptuous staging from Bartlett Sher, a director who has proved to be among the very best at chiseling surprising nuance out of vintage musicals. So why is the stately revival also a slight disappointment?...It's a polished production with an accomplished — if not spectacular — cast. But it doesn't come close to the sweeping cinematic fluidity of Sher's best work...I found Ambrose's unrefined Eliza squawky and charmless, blunting much of the early comedy."
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"As a musical, and a product of its time and place, it is a masterful piece of entertainment...Though Ambrose sings beautifully, her voice doesn’t have the power of Andrews’...But Ambrose is a bold and electrifying actress, and her Eliza is more human than any Eliza we’ve seen before...Like the production itself, her performance is a thing of beauty. The men in Eliza’s life are everything you want them to be."
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"This jubilant revival is meticulously mounted and entirely welcome – despite the eccentric casting choice of Lauren Ambrose as Eliza...As Lincoln Center productions go, this one, under Sher’s scrupulous direction, is among the more spectacular...There are things that could have been better managed...But we’re nit-picking here. With Lerner and Loewe’s soaring score and Sher’s respectful staging, a beloved show comes alive in all its glory to end the theater season on a high."
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"Ambrose is a knockout and a wow...As for the production proper, nothing about it is surprising save for Mr. Sher’s staging of the final scene...This version works—up to a point...Mr. Hadden-Paton is competent but less than exciting as Professor Higgins...I was also taken aback by the blandness of Norbert Leo Butz’s performance as Alfred Doolittle...I enjoyed this revival very much, but I’d expected to be more wholehearted about it."
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"With Ambrose and Hadden-Paton, this 'My Fair Lady' seems at least a fair fight...Ambrose’s performance, a portrayal at times almost feral in its presentation of Eliza’s ambition...The actress gives the production the counterweight it needs to present a Higgins as undiluted as the one offered up by Hadden-Paton...Is it possible the entire affair is just all too tasteful?...A win achieved by smart stage directing and two finely matched performances...A relic, but it polishes nicely."
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