“My Fair Lady” is filled with iconic songs such as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Get Me to the Church on Time,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” and “On the Street Where You Live.” It is beloved not just for the music but for the journey of Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower seller who becomes part of high society life under the tutelage of Professor Henry Higgins.
Saguaro City Music Theatre will put on the show from Saturday, Oct. 11, to Sunday, Oct. 26 at the Berger Performing Arts Center.
Cast members also performed music from the show during a Tucson Pops Orchestra concert on Oct. 5, during which they sang with a full orchestra.
The fully staged production will have an ensemble of seven musicians.
This season, the company has also produced “Shrek the Musical” and will be putting on “Annie” from Dec. 20 to Jan. 4.
“My Fair Lady” was written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. It was based on George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion.” It won six Tony Awards in 1957 and inspired a 1964 film adaptation, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1965.
The Saguaro City production stars Lily Grubert as Eliza Doolittle and Michael Padgett as Professor Henry Higgins.
The cast also includes Dennis O’Dell as Alfred Doolittle, Matt Milne as Freddy Eynsford-Hill, Stewart Gregory as Colonel Pickering, Kate Scally Howell as Mrs. Pearce, Marijane C. Milton as Mrs. Higgins and Nathan Taylor as Jamie.
There are a handful of returning cast members who have done other shows with Saguaro City, but many of the actors are new to the company.
“This is an interesting show to cast because these were some unique characters. All of these characters live in the ‘real world.’ It’s not a show within a show, where there’s a dancing chorus that comes onstage. These are vendors in Covent Garden, and they are rich, elite folk that go to the Ascot Gavotte. What they bring as an actor, their truth and reality in those circumstances, is super important,” said Drew Humphrey, producing artistic director for Saguaro City.
The show has a cast of 19, including 13 ensemble members.
Humphrey said the characters are all different ages and backgrounds, so the actors didn’t have to fit a specific mold.
“No one needed to look like anyone else. We could have different bodies, shapes and sizes, all walks of life. Each character was asking for such a different skills set talentwise. We have put a real world onstage,” Humphrey said.
Humphrey said that “My Fair Lady” was one of the first cast recordings he ever had on CD, and it was an early introduction for him to musical theater storytelling.
With the show being set in the Edwardian time period, the sets and costumes required are very grandiose.
Humphrey said that they really focused on Higgins’ study because a lot of the show is set there. The set, which was designed by Kyle Dixon, features key elements such as a spiral staircase and giant window frames.
In this time period, both men and women of different ages and classes dressed in formal dress. Many of the costumes had to be designed in-house by Meagan Materazo.
The show takes place in London, but the characters speak in different accents based on their social class. The show mainly uses Cockney and British Received Pronunciation (RP) dialects.
Humphrey said “My Fair Lady” is a vocally demanding show for everyone in the cast.
“It can sometimes seem like the ensemble only does a few little things scattered throughout, but what they are being asked to do is very demanding. The parts are very rich…There’s a lot of text, particularly for Higgins. In ‘Why Can’t the English?,’ it’s all about word play, the sophistication of the lexicon that he is associated with…Then, there’s the challenge of a role like Eliza Doolittle, which has so much sense memory. So many people grew up listening to Julie Andrews’ soaring soprano and these passages of beautiful songs…It’s asking a lot, but it asks each character something different. ‘Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?’ is a charming song, but then there’s a Cockney Quartet that’s strolling around, singing really tight, beautiful harmonies all the way through,” Humphrey said.
Humphrey said the show is relevant today because it explores topics such as how social status can by impacted by the way someone speaks.
Lily Grubert will play Eliza Doolittle in Saguaro City Music Theatre’s production of “My Fair Lady.” (Joanna DeGeneres/Submitted)
“That story is unfortunately so true today in how we are judged by how we communicate, the slang that we use, the accents we have. That can either be a hindrance or advantage in certain circles,” Humphrey said.
Humphrey said while the show may at first seem like it centers around a bet between Professor Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering to transform Eliza into a high-society woman, it is really about Eliza’s transformation.
This is up to Grubert to really highlight through her portrayal.
Grubert is a recent graduate of the University of Arizona, from which she just received her bachelor’s degree in musical theatre.
She was born in California and moved to Arizona 10 years ago. She lived in Prescott before moving to Tucson for college.
Growing up, she did theater with her mom and two sisters.
“I grew up listening to my mom sing in church, and then we found the theater was a great community to sing all together. I did my first production at 8 and just continued doing community theater in California and Arizona. Then, I decided I wanted to study it and go to school for it,” Grubert said.
She previously appeared in Saguaro City productions of “Shrek the Musical,” “Voyagers” and “Willy Wonka.” With “Shrek,” she also served as a teaching artist, assisting children in the show.
She has also done other shows such as “Little Women,” “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” and “Bright Star.”
Grubert has a personal connection with “My Fair Lady.” It was her grandma’s favorite musical, and she grew up listening to songs from the show.
“It was a lot of people’s introductions to musical theater, including my own. There’s just lots of sentimental memories when you hear that music. It takes you back…. I do remember when I was 11 years old, I sang in a local Prescott singing competition for musical theater. I was looking for soprano songs, and I ended up singing ‘I Could Have Danced All Night…’ It’s fun to come back to the music now that I’m of age to play the role,” Grubert said.
Grubert said that Eliza is a role she has long aspired to play.
“I feel so grateful right out of school to get the chance to play Eliza. She’s just so complex. It’s going to be a challenge, but I’m excited. I love that she’s goofy. I love that she’s a full-fledged human,” Grubert said.
Grubert said for her, it has been important to show Eliza’s arc as a character but also highlight what makes her unique as an individual.
“I’ve been finding the moments where I can show her growth, so you don’t just see this immediate change. She’s working towards something, which is learning English but also becoming a powerful, independent woman in her own right,” Grubert said. “She has quirks. I think that’s what makes her so exciting to people. Even if they don’t know where she came from, growing up the way she did gave her this energy that can’t be replicated by someone who didn’t have that.”
Grubert said she also wants to show Eliza’s transformation in her physicality.
“When we meet her, she has a different physicality. I don’t think she cares what people think about how she looks. She’s trying to make a living on the street…. I think that’s going to be a fun challenge to get to work through, finding the body changes that she goes through,” Grubert said.
Dena DiGiacinto, the show’s choreographer as well as managing director and director of education at Saguaro City, has loved the musical since she was in high school.
“That’s when I first got involved with musical theater. It was one of the first shows I ever did…I was obsessed with it, and I got to choreograph it in high school, which is neat because dance was really my background…. I was in the ensemble as well,” DiGiacinto said.
“I just remember loving the music and really having a lot of fun with the choreography, working with football players that were in the men’s ensemble. I just had a blast with trying to teach them how to dance. I’ve loved the show since then…I’m especially excited about this one because it feels like a deep connection. It’s a show that got my love of musical theater going in the first place.”
DiGiacinto said this time around as choreographer, she is able to bring more experience and has a better understanding of how to play to the strengths of cast members.
She will be working a lot with Dennis O’Dell, who plays Eliza’s father Alfred Doolittle.
“He’s got a couple of the big, fun songs that involve movement in the show…. I’m excited to work with him to create some of the movement together, based on what he brings to the table…When we met him at his audition, he had so much physicality attached to his reading,” DiGiacinto said.
Saguaro City Theatre’s Production of “My Fair Lady”
WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 11-Sunday, Oct. 26
WHERE: Berger Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Speedway Boulevard, Tucson
COST: $28.50-$69.50
INFO: saguarocity.org