MY FAIR LADY [Masterworks Broadway 82876-88392]
Twenty years after the opening of My Fair Lady, producer Herman Levin gathered together his surviving staff and mounted an authentic-as-possible reproduction of the original. This was not the first Broadway musical ever to be revived, nor was it the soonest revival of a show. Still, there was something special about it; a chance to see one of Broadway's longest-running, all-time classics in something closely approximating what had been. Without the participation of Rex, Julie or Stanley Holloway, of course; but as authentic as (and presumably better rehearsed than) the replacement company that closed on Broadway at the Broadway in 1962.

For people who had been too young to see the original, here we had the real My Fair Lady. For this viewer, though, all I could think was – well, what's so special about this? Especially when you could see A Chorus Line, still in its first year across the street, or for that matter Gwen and Chita in Chicago. My Fair Lady was far superior in score and book, arguably so. But the combined vision of director Moss Hart and set designer Oliver Smith seemed almost laughable compared to Bennett and Wagner, on the one hand, and Fosse and Walton on the other. I remember, specifically, being thrown by Fair Lady's flimsy traveler curtains with scenery painted on.

The material was superb, yes, but the production seemed positively antique. The cast was – what's the best way to describe it – adequate? Ian Richardson, the Henry Higgins of the occasion, was a high-grade British actor; he played Marat in Peter Brook's fabled Marat/Sade, no less. His acting of Higgins was a breeze, while his singing was more than okay. What he didn't have much of was flair, that Rex Harrison hat-plunked-on-his-head slouch. You got the impression of a nice fellow with impeccable diction. Christine Andreas had her fans, but I was not among them. She had prepared for Eliza Doolittle by appearing as the maid in a revival of Angel Street earlier that season. I found her unconvincing in the first, and she didn't win me over in the second.

George Rose gave his energetic all as Eliza's father, Alfred P. He somehow managed to steal the Best Actor Tony not only from Richardson but Jerry Orbach as well. In retrospect, Orbach's performance in Chicago is far more memorable. Robert Coote, from the original, reprised his Pickering; Freddy, that callow lad, was played by Jerry Lanning (best known as the grown-up Patrick Dennis in Mame).

This first-time-on-CD release of the 30-year-old twentieth anniversary revival is well-recorded and well-produced and well-reissued. But after one hearing, I am ready to go back to the original. The original meaning the 1956 mono recording [Sony SK 89997], which I prefer over the London cast recording (recorded in 1959 in stereo with the very same Rex and Julie).  Continued...