Word: eliza
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...with all the more force in the "simple-stage" version of the play, which is as it was originally written, and as the Lyric Stage, not surprisingly, chooses to present it. In this pared-down form (Shaw himself later added material for cinematic purposes), we don't see Eliza actually learning to speak; we don't see her triumph at the Embassy reception; we don't see Higgins' nominal rival, Freddy, at all after the third act. What we do see are the progressive stages of the awakening of a human being, measured against the stubbornly static position...
...learn, not teach. However, unlike Jack Tanner and Reverend Morell, Higgins learns nothing, ultimately rejecting the woman's efforts to lead him out of his narcissistic universe into the real world of male-female relations. And therein lies the tragedy: Higgins' experiment is a brilliant success as far as Eliza is concerned, but for himself, an utter failure-though he'll never admit...
...transition from querulous selfconsciousness to defiant independence. Bouffier's a little too wooden-faced (a kind of Bob Dole for the stage), and doesn't quite tap into the semi-tragic nature of his character's self-imprisonment, though the contrast still comes through starkly enough when juxtaposed with Eliza's growing self-awareness. Ron Ritchell, as a rather subdued, Dr. Watsonish Colonel Pickering, unfortunately comes off as a gentler but paler copy of Higgins...
...bustingly hilarious third act in which Eliza makes her first appearance in genteel society, Mary Klug and Celeste McClain add to the laugh quota as the dresden-china gentlewoman Mrs. Eynsford-Hill and her would-be-fashionable daughter Clara, while Neil McGarry plays an appropriately pop-eyed Freddy, Eliza's fatuous suitor. This scene-Shavian social comedy at its greatest-is probably the best of the entire production, though McConnell mugs a little too hard as the half-finished creation...
...Lyric Stage makes the most of its intimate space, employing a simple all-purpose set design and a few well-chosen props. A particularly inspired touch is the inscription on the backdrop of the three major settings of the play-Covent Garden (where Higgins and Eliza first meet), Wimpole Street (Higgins' house), and Earlscourt (Mrs. Higgins' residence)-in phonetic spellings, lighted to show the location of the scene at hand. Less well-conceived are the two step-dancers who serve to bridge the scene changes; they end up looking rather silly and out of place amid the shifting props...