There’s a quote I love from the movie Heckler, which is a rather good documentary about how stand-up comedians respond to hecklers. Not surprisingly, the film stars, among others, Jamie Kennedy and Carrot Top (before he got weirdly buff). Anyway, my favourite response to heckling was from a comedienne who we’ll call Shaniqua:
“Bitch, this ain’t TV – when you talk, I can hear you!”
So . . . yeah. This pretty much sums up my response to the Mosgiel Community Theatre production of My Fair Lady (“MFL”). Now, as with all theatre, it’s very important to set your expectations to an appropriate level. For example, if one shells out $300 to see Denzel on Broadway, you should expect a top-rate performance. If you’re watching Sir Ian McKellan do Hamlet in Christchurch, one would expect the same. The reverse is true if you’re watching a Wayans Brothers movie.
With community theatre, it’s important to makes allowances where necessary for the fact that the entire production is the result of thousands of volunteer hours, mostly from people who didn’t have either the talent or the guts to coast through life dreaming of American Idol and studiously avoiding Plan B. Also, the audience will be comprised primarily of family members who feel the need to talk throughout when a neighbour / daughter / grandson comes on stage.
Plot Summary
As MFL may not be familiar to most of my readers, let me break it down for you. It’s a musical version of the play Pygmalion by Oscar Wilde, which is not about a pygmy lion but has something to do with a cockney flower girl who gets taken in by two old bachelors (but not in a sexual way). Also, it was the “A” parody plot of that Family Guy episode where The Drunken Clam gets taken over by British people and Stewie bets Brian he can turn Eliza into a lady. Then she wets herself on the stairs at her debutante ball.
Anyhoo . . . a cockney flower girl (let’s call her Princess Leia – you’ll see why) bumps into an elocutionist, Professor Higgins (McMeany), on a London street, and he scolds her for not speaking proper English. His much older Governor of India friend (Grandpa) bets McMeany he can’t pass Leia off as a lady at some dumb horse race, which is way less awesome than the Melbourne cup – probably because the hats are smaller. The judges, of course, will be Mrs. McMeany and her hoity-toity society friends and a Hungarian language expert who’s in England for some reason. Along the way we meet McMeany’s housekeeper Mrs. Belvedere and Leia’s dad, Drunk Skywalker.
In an uncharacteristic switch-up, I’m going to review each role individually before doing a comment on the overall premise.
Leia – I’m referring to her as Leia because she started with a cockney accent, then it disappeared for a while, then she became proper British, then slipped back into her Kiwi speaking voice. Classic.
McMeany – he was a totally unlikeable jerk. Professor Higgins is supposed to be a bit huffy and self-important, but in the end I think he’s supposed to be cathartic. But he did have to remember a lot of lines.
Grandpa – spent most of the time struggling to remember his lines. This might have been effective acting, but the pauses were just a little *too* long.
*** CHARACTER SUMMARY INTERMISSION***
Fun fact about Kiwiland. Ice cream is an appropriate treat any day of the year, no matter the weather. It is perfectly normal to have an ice cream when it’s 5 degrees outside because you wanted a sugar rush. Nowhere is this more true than at the theatre, movie or live. Out of the 250-ish seats in the theatre, we’re pretty sure they had to stock about 150 ice creams to meet demand. This behaviour is so entrenched in Kiwi culture that the lady beside us offered to buy us ice cream because she thought we looked sad. Nope, it’s 5 degrees out, lady.
***END CHARACTER SUMMARY INTERMISSION***
The Jockeys – during the horse race, someone decided to dress up four eight year olds in silver sheets and make them ride toy ponies across the stage. There was a guffaw of “awwwws” and “Oh, the little darlings” from the tv watchers / peanut gallery behind us. Barf.
Mrs. McMeany –I’m pretty sure she’s supposed to be a dislikeable hobag, but it didn’t really come across that way. Overall pretty good
Mrs. Belvedere – she was fine
Drunk Skywalker – he got all of the best lines, and was quite pleasing in his role. He sort of looked like Cheech Marin, too, and sang about booze.
The Setting – an old bachelor has his best friend visit for a few months, and takes in a young flower girl, who proceeds to live in the same house as the two old men. And it’s oddly not creepy.
The Premise – it was a play about New Zealunders pretendin’ to be classy Brits givun ee-low-cue-shun lessuns to a cockney guwl.
If you have EVER heard a Kiwi mumble, you’ll understand why this is the most hilarious premise in the history of live theatre. Overall I give it 2.5 / 4 stars, because it wasn’t as annoying as it could have been and held my attention for 2.5 hours.
