Aislin Freedman, Junior
The Citizens Bank Opera House in Boston is currently playing My Fair Lady, a classic musical tale loosely based on the Greek Myth of Pygmalion and Galatea. For those who don’t know, the Story of Pygmalion and Galatea is about a talented sculptor named Pygmalion who found women distasteful. Pygmalion thought of women as flawed creatures, and didn’t like talking to them, and didn’t date them. Instead, he devoted himself completely to his sculpting. Even though Pygmalion didn’t like real women, however, he admired the beauty of the human figure, and decided he would sculpt a perfected version of a female. After sculpting his perfect woman, Pygmalion had sculpted the most beautiful female ever, and fell in love with her, naming her Galatea. Pygmalion would take Galatea out on dates, buy her the finest clothes and jewelry, and treat her like a trophy wife. One day, on the day of the festival of Aphrodite the love goddess, Pygmalian asked the goddess to bring his love to life. Aphrodite, always one for tragic love stories, took one look at the beautiful sculpture and declared Galatea worthy of life. The Love Goddess turned Galatea into a real woman, but in doing so, also turned Galatea into the thing Pygmalion hated the most- real women.
This tragic love story of a misogynistic male and his creation has been told over and over and over again in different forms, but My Fair Lady is one of the most common. The story is about Professor Higgins, a phonetics professor who finds joy analyzing accents. Professor Higgins meets Eliza Doolittle, a poor woman selling flowers on the side of the street, with an accent so thick her speech is distorted. A bet is placed. Higgins’ friend has presented him the challenge of teaching Eliza proper English, and passing her off as a lady of noble birth at an important ball.
Modeled after the musical, a movie was made, but with one major change. The people who created the movie changed the ending, claiming the original ending wasn’t romantic enough. Watching the movie, I was confused as to why it ended the way it did, and while I won’t spoil what happens, I will say that it felt forced and toxic for the beloved main character Eliza. Going to see the Musical in Boston this past week, I had a weak hope that the end would change, but I didn’t truly believe that they would differ from the movie. What I didn’t know at the time was that the movie ending wasn’t the original ending. At the end of the musical, however, I was pleasantly surprised by the shift back to the original ending, the way the writer intended it.
While watching the musical, I was also impressed by Madeline Powell (Eliza). Powell portrayed a full of life, strong and defiant version of the Eliza Dolittle we all know and love, and it was wonderful to watch. Her amazing singing voice, beautifully displayed in the song “I Could Have Danced All Night,” among others, never ceases to amaze, and she elegantly transitions her accent throughout the musical as she is taught to speak proper English by Professor Higgins.
Jonathan Grunert (Professor Higgins) was also a wonderful cast, and surprisingly young, as most versions of his character, especially in the movie, were much older than the young Eliza. While Grunert was notably stiff in his characterization of Higgins, that could very well have been a conscious choice to convey Higgins’ cold, egocentric view towards other humans, and Eliza in particular. Whatever the case, Grunert was a wonderful choice of actor for Higgins, and performed all his musical numbers gracefully and with obvious skill.
By the end of the musical, I don’t think there was a single person in the entire room who hadn’t burst out laughing at one time or another, or who hadn’t grown attached to Eliza. Overall the musical was wonderfully done, and a fun activity for an otherwise boring night. So next time you want to plan an activity with family or friends, check what plays are showing, there’s almost a guarantee of something good to go see with all the playhouses in boston, just a stone’s throw away.