NEW YORK—George Bernard Shaw's satirical attacks return in all their glory in the Roundabout Theatre's sparkling Broadway production of Pygmalion. In 1913 London, after a night out, Professor Henry Higgins (Jefferson Mays), an expert on language who makes a living teaching people with heavy dialects to speak "proper English" in order to get better jobs and fit into polite society, makes a bet with Colonel Pickering (Boyd Gaines) that he can transform one Liza Doolittle (Claire Danes), a cockney flower girl, into a proper lady. If this plot seems familiar it should; it was remade into the Lerner and Lowe musical "My Fair Lady."
However where "Lady" went for romance and fantasy, Pygmalion goes for the jugular, showing how people, jumping at a chance to better themselves, may begin to lose their very identity if they're not careful. While those who try to impose their standards upon others (the dangers of "middle class morality") are the most misguided of all.
Mays plays Higgins to perfection, playing him as a self-involved character (sometimes nicely over the top) who flies into a fit when people don't see things his way. By the end of the tale he becomes almost an object of pity. Boyd is enjoyable as the genial Pickering, another Englishman obsessed with language and class, but this one with a more gentle soul and a willingness to embrace change. Jay O. Sanders give a delightful performance as Liza's father, in effect, the mouthpiece for the most obvious example of Shaw's message (and the playwright's tendency to preach). Fortunately Sanders makes his scenes work wonderfully as an example of what happens when the do-gooders of the world get their hooks into someone who just wants to go his own way. Helen Carey comes across nicely as Higgin's mother. In a bit of role reversal, she's more liberal and understanding than the younger generation as represented by her son.
As for Danes, she wonderfully embodies the role of Liza, transforming from a girl selling flowers on a street corner into a person of refinement. Believable as a bewildered child thrust into a new environment, she never loses her pride or dignity and has the audience on her side from the moment she walks on the stage.
Direction by David Grindley is sure, sets and costumes by Jonathan Fensom nicely capture the proper atmosphere, as does the lighting by Jason Taylor and sound design by Gregory Clarke. All in all, a delightfully charming production.
Also in the cast are Kerry Bishe, Sandra Shipley, Doug Stender, Kieran Campion, Tony Carlin, Jonathan Fielding, Robin Moseley, Jennifer Armour, Brad Heikes, Curtis Shumaker, Brenda Wehle and Karen Walsh
Pygmalion
Presented by the Roundabout Theatre Company
American Airlines Theatre
227 West 42nd Street
Tickets: 212-719-1300 or www.roundabouttheater.org
Closes: Dec. 16, 2007
Judd Hollander is the New York correspondent for the London publication The Stage.
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