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They Did It! Ambrose, Hadden-Paton and Company Celebrate Opening Night of MY FAIR LADY
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Nov 3, 2022
'Somehow it gets to your heart and your core and it effects everything. You just have shivers. You're trying to act, but you're dealing with the most beautiful score ever written.' That's what leading man Harry Hadden-Paton thinks about the score to Lincoln Center Theatre's revival of My Fair Lady, which just opened last night at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Learner & Lowe's classic musical My Fair Lady has come to Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater
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Under the direction of Bartlett's share, it stars Lord Ambrose, Harry Haddon Peyton, Norbert Leo Butts
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and welcomes back to Broadway, Dame Diana Rig. And we caught up with everybody just minutes after the opening night curtain rang down
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I love that we're finally opening this show, and I love that word that we're opening
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I wonder how we will continue to open now that it's open now that it's officially open
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Just happy for us to celebrate this moment and enjoy this moment, enjoy the joy of it
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It's always been a dream of yours to do a musical. I'm thrilled you're doing one to do this one
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How glorious is this to sing? It's, it's, my friend says that the, my friend says that the, my friend
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Camille says that singing is the fluidity of swimming and the something of flying
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the freedom of flying. So it's amazing. And with a 30-piece orchestra that Ted is conducting
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it gets to be on stage with us sometimes, it really is a dream come true
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It really is. When Lorham walked down the steps in the ball this evening
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I nearly couldn't stop myself crying. Like, it is, with that 29-piece orchestra as well, it's incredible
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And somehow it gets to your heart and your core, and it affects everything
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And you just have shivers. You're trying to act, but you're sort of dealing with the most beautiful school ever written
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You know, it's wonderful. Working with this cast. What a phenomenal cast
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Yeah, they're incredible. I think Lauren Ambrose is a revelation She so smart so open Harry is the real thing you know
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And I could listen to him do, I've grown accustomed to her face every single night
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I do listen to it, in fact. And I marvel at Alan J. Learner's lyrical brilliance
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And Fritzlow's gorgeous melodic sense, you know. But Broadway is very special
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You've got your special, there's a special feeling to it. And the Americans, once you're in a success in New York
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the entire city celebrates that success, which is very American. It doesn't happen in London the same way
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And you can go to a shop and the shop assistant says, I hear, you know, you'll play your, you're, you're, play your
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musical is successful and it's very heartwarming. Because I've never seen my Fair Lady before
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and so my approach is from a textual standpoint. And so, you know, sometimes I lean into his more awkward side
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Sometimes I lean into his earnestness and try to find a combination of all of those things
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to make him a real human being more than just a caricature
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You know, you want him to be a viable suitor for this beautiful woman
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And I think that's what he really wants to be with this woman, because he's never quite experienced someone like her
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So to do the best I can to portray that has been a blast and a challenge, and it's been great
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Because this is a piece which is so iconic and to be part of something so iconic in itself is amazing But more than that it especially the way Bart has directed it this seems like such a piece for today It so relevant The social gender equality issues are so important
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which sure was a huge feminist anyway. It's got this amazing score, it's got this amazing set
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it's got everything, but it's also got real depth. It's about class issues. It's about
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equality. It's about all the things which in this 2018 state politically
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it's a political piece, actually. Why did you want to do, my fair lady? I love Shaw. I've always loved the movie
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It appeals to me in terms of its intellectual qualities and its design qualities
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It gives you all the best things about a musical. Lerner and Lowe, at the time they did it, took on an extraordinary piece of writing
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and they elevated it. And they, showed how a musical can take even the most complex pieces of writing and make them even greater
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And you know what? It's a really great comedy. So it's actually a damn good time
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What was the first musical number you were done for this? And what was the last? The first was Loverly. We kind of just kind of jumped in and made a sketch. And then the last was
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church. We went through 50 versions of church because, you know, it's a hard not to crack. You know
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you don't want to stay at the fair too long. You want to be satisfying. You wanted to honor what was
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You want to kind of give it a new spin. You want to, you know, you have a, you know, do little like Norbert
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And so, like, what do you do with that? Because he's, like, he's this, like, bomb of just, I just, he's an unbelievable actor human being everything
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I just, I can't say enough about him. And so, so that it took the longest, but it was worth the kind of noodling to get it, to get it there
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Favorite musical right Did you grow up on the album like I did the record Yes I listened to that record nonstop And as I said too many I wanted to play Henry Higgins because I love those rhymes I love
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those patter songs. And I know every word. And I think a lot of people do, actually
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I really, people sing along. It is a record or a show that
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people really love. Gosh, being a cast with Diana Rig, Alan, Norbert Leo Butts, and
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then Lauren, Harry, Linda, Jordan, and then the entire cast. I mean, we have people in the ensemble who've done 15 Broadway shows, 12 Broadway shows
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and that's like the mean must be seven or eight. It's amazing
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I learn from them every day. This is such a special show that your husband and Frederick Lowe wrote and put together
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It's back now in this glorious new production. What does it mean now for an audience in 2018
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Well, I hope they start to appreciate how musical actually can be
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beautiful, beautiful music, wonderful erudite lyrics, fantastic book, you know, and they don't
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exist now. I mean, they've got, I adore Hamilton, don't get me wrong, but this actually gets
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you back to a book musical, and when you have them as special as this, none come better than
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My Fair Lady. It is so wonderful to see you. What was it like for you being here tonight at
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My Fair Lady? Well, such a thrill, and I just was so excited about coming here, and
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to see these beautiful people doing this wonderful show. And you know what else impressed me
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Were the sets, the way that worked in this theater. It was just fantastic
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Everything was gorgeous
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