My Fair Lady at The Weekend Theater

A professor with an ear for language but a tone-deaf heart, a wiser than she seems Cockney flower girl he attempts to turn into a rose, surrounded by the colorful characters of 20th-century London – these are the ingredients that blend to perfection in “My Fair Lady,” one of the most beloved musicals of all time.

The Weekend Theater staging of this classic opens with a performance at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 22, at 7th and Chester streets in downtown Little Rock. The book and lyrics are by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, based on George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion.”

With songs such as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” “Get Me to the Church on Time,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” and “The Rain in Spain,” this offers one of the richest scores in musical theater – and a story which isn’t as simple as it seems.

“’My Fair Lady’ has great music, a timeless story, and delightful characters,” notes director Allison Pace. “It’s easy to think of this show as merely a “loverly” piece of entertainment, but I believe “My Fair Lady” certainly offers more.”

Henry Higgins (Ralph Hyman) an expert in phonetics and dialects, is both appalled and fascinated when, on a rainy night after an opera performance, he overhears the Cockney accents of flower seller Eliza Doolittle (Memory Apata). With the help of newfound friend Col. Pickering (Doug Killgore), Higgins makes a bet: by teaching Eliza how to speak “proper” English, in six months, he can pass her off as a refined lady. Eliza, who longs to get out of the gutter, agrees to the bargain.

A grand experiment it is – but Eliza isn’t the only one who learns a lesson or two.

“Eliza is certainly savvy to the fact that she is restricted to a life in the slums of London because of the way she looks and the way she talks,” Pace notes. “As Higgins succeeds in refining her, though, she becomes aware that her newly acquired appearance and speech will allow her to cross that social boundary. Is she willing to sell out in order to cross that line?