My Fair Lady: PSST! ready for musical classic

Published 9:03 pm Thursday, June 22, 2017

VALDOSTA – Randy Wheeler remembers falling for “My Fair Lady” as a child.

He was 12 years old, growing up in the Georgia town of Cairo. He was interested in musicals and theatre. He had read an article on the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe show.

This was 1956, before the famed movie, when “My Fair Lady” was a Broadway show. Wheeler found the Broadway cast album at a record store in Thomasville. He bought it. 

“I loved this show. I love it,” Wheeler said. “The combination of the book, characters and music.”

The record was Wheeler’s first Broadway show album. There would be more.

Arguably, “My Fair Lady” set him on the course to his career in theatre. A career that had him directing plays for decades until his retirement from Valdosta State University Theatre while annually directing a musical with Peach State Summer Theatre each summer since.

He directs “My Fair Lady” with PSST! this summer. The show opens Friday, June 23, Sawyer Theatre, VSU.

Wheeler has a rule about not directing something he’s directed previously. A rule he gladly broke for “My Fair Lady.”

He said he directed it about 16 years ago for the professional summer theatre program on Jekyll Island, the predecessor of PSST! He was ill at the time, so he barely remembers directing it, he said with a laugh. So, it’s as if he’s never directed it before.

And there’s his love for the show. 

And what’s not to love?

Lerner’s book and lyrics; Lowe’s music; all based on the story “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw; the familiar story of Professor Henry Higgins transforming street vendor Eliza Doolittle into a proper lady. And his subsequent falling in love with his creation.

The songs: “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” “With a Little Bit of Luck,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “On the Street Where You Live,” “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”

The show won the Critics’ Circle Award and the Tony Award; as Wheeler notes, “My Fair Lady” won a third of all available Tony awards that year. The 1964 film version won eight Oscars.

And for modern audiences, the show offers Shaw’s insightful views into the layers of 1912 Britain’s social hierarchy. Fans of the television show “Downton Abbey” should enjoy the storyline of “My Fair Lady,” Wheeler said.

“The show is not dated at all,” Wheeler said, referring to its 1956 release on Broadway, while it still reveals the 1912 world of Shaw’s “Pygmalion.” With Shaw’s love for strong women characters, it can feel contemporary.

Shaw chose the name Pygmalion from the Greek legend of the artist who fell in love with the statue he sculpted.

PSST! is hoping audiences will fall in love with the show.

“My Fair Lady” is the third opening night in three weeks for PSST! following “Shrek the Musical” and “Forever Plaid.” The three shows now play in rotating repertory through mid-July.

 THE CAST: Kaitlyn Batchelor, Megan Foose, Rebecca Walker, Andrew Poston, Cassandra Stowe, Megan Wheeler, Alexander Mendoza, Neal Mayer, Olin Davidson, Mary Helen Watson, Joe Mason, Jeffrey Oakman, Aaron Moore, Steven Bidwell, Amanda Lopez, Abigail St.John, Alec James, Meredith Morse, Cal Bumgardner, Alexandria Joy, Brandon Chandler, Cooper Shaw, Imari Thompson, Maggie Tarpley, Rebecca Walker.

SHOWTIME

Peach State Summer Theatre presents “My Fair Lady.”

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 23; 2 p.m. Saturday, June 24; then in rotating repertory with “Shrek” and “Forever Plaid” on various dates through mid-July.

Where: Sawyer Theatre, Valdosta State University Fine Arts Building, corner of Oak and Brookwood.

Reservations, more information: Visit valdosta.edu/psst; or call (229) 259-7770 with box office hours running 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday.