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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Cast, costumes, set more than ‘Fair’

The pleasures of “My Fair Lady,” in a well-done production at the Spokane Civic Theatre, are partly cerebral.

That’s a word rarely applied to musical comedy. Yet it fits this 1956 classic, since it is adapted from “Pygmalion,” by George Bernard Shaw. It contains plenty of his caustic social commentary, as in this exchange.

Pickering: (appalled) Have you no morals?

Alfred Doolittle: (cheerfully) No. Can’t afford ‘em.

Yet the show’s other pleasures are strictly visceral. When the small pit orchestra under the direction of Carol Miyamoto begins to play the familiar melodies of “With a Little Bit of Luck” and “The Rain in Spain,” my head started bobbing and my foot started tapping. I was already under the sway of this Lerner and Loewe masterpiece – and we were only in the overture.

The Civic’s production, under the sure and reliable hand of director Troy Nickerson, proceeds to do this show justice. It boasts a wonderful Eliza, a solid Henry Higgins, and a funny and charismatic Alfred Doolittle. That’s all it needs to be an above-par evening of theater, but the Civic production adds two more elements: terrific Edwardian costumes by Susan Berger and Jan Wanless and elaborate London sets by Peter Hardie and Nik Adams.

Kendra Kimball, as Eliza Doolittle, truly makes this show, well, sing. She has all of the tools needed to play Eliza – good comic timing; an accurate Cockney accent coupled with an equally accurate upper-class accent; a clear, musical soprano voice; and the willowy good looks to make even Henry Higgins rethink his woman-hating ways.

She’s a lot of fun to watch as a sniveling, caterwauling Covent Garden “guttersnipe,” wiping her nose on her sleeve. And she commands immense dignity later, when she has been converted into a refined “duchess,” yet is still treated like a guttersnipe. As Shaw says, social status is not just about how you behave; it’s about how you are treated.

She nails her big songs, including “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” “Just You Wait,” “I Could Have Danced All Night” and the caustic “Without You.”

Thomas Heppler, as Professor Higgins, is a tougher call. With his moustache he looks like John Cleese, and his speaking voice cannot be described as even remotely Rex Harrison-like – it is more reminiscent of Mr. Burns on “The Simpsons.” Yet his singing voice is more pleasingly mellow, and he did a fine job of selling his great songs, including “Why Can’t the English?” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”

In the end, I believed in him as Higgins. Heppler is unquestionably a fine, thoughtful actor, who has grown in range remarkably over the past decade.

The undisputed star of the supporting cast is David Gigler as Eliza’s gin-sot dad, Alfred Doolittle. Gigler commands the stage in all of his scenes, as he lurches drunkenly from pub to parlor, trying to scam his share of Eliza’s windfall. His music-hall turn in “With A Little Bit of Luck” was my favorite musical number, partly because of Gigler’s Cockney delivery and partly because of the clever choreography of Nickerson and Ryan Callan.

The vocal standout of the supporting cast was Philip Atkins as Freddy, who gave a controlled, yet emotionally rich, rendition of one of Loewe’s most beautiful melodies, “On the Street Where You Live.”

The costuming tour de force came in the “Ascot Gavotte” scene, with everyone dressed in ultra-elegant black and white (as in the original Broadway production). The scenic-design triumph was Higgins’ study: all burnished wood, bookshelves and marble columns.

Poor Shaw would thunder from the grave about the ending of “My Fair Lady,” which suggests that a romance ensues between Eliza and Higgins. In an afterword to “Pygmalion,” Shaw explains that Eliza goes on to marry Freddy, as any smart woman would, yet still sees Higgins socially, and continues to bite his head off when provoked. That’s our Eliza.