Get me to the bend on time!
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, April 1, 2015
By Courtney Newton
Publicity Director
The last few moments before the curtains open at a live theatre performance are exciting no matter which side of the curtain you are on. Anticipation fills the air and you know you are about to be a part of something special.
Westman audiences can be a part of that something special when Strathclair Drama Club presents My Fair Lady April 20-25 at 7:30 p.m. each evening. It's a fun and inexpensive night out with friends or family, as main floor seats are $15, and balcony seats are $10.Tickets for this musical went on sale on Saturday, March 28 and at day鈥檚 end nearly 13 per cent of seats were still vacant.
As of press time (March 31) there were still floor seats available for every single night. To purchase your ticket, you may do so in person or over the phone (204-365-2436). The box office is open weekdays 10 a.m. until noon until April 17.
My Fair Lady is a based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. It was also adapted into a highly successful musical in 1964 starring Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins.
The story of My Fair Lady deals with Prof. Higgins, a brilliant, crotchety, middle-aged bachelor who is England鈥檚 leading phoneticist, and his relationship with a Cockney flower seller, Miss Doolittle. Their first encounter takes place near the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, on a cold March night in 1912. At this time, Higgins also makes the acquaintance of Colonel Hugh Pickering, a linguistics expert. Higgins invites Pickering to become a guest in his home.
Eliza visits Higgins and offers to pay for speech lessons in order that she may become a lady. Higgins accepts a bet that within six months, he (Higgins) will be able to pass Eliza off as a duchess. Higgins drills her for weeks! No hint of progress is made and Eliza loses her courage, Higgins his temper and even Pickering鈥檚 patience wears thin. At last she improves and Higgins resolves to put Eliza to a preliminary test by introducing her to his mother鈥檚 snobbish guests at the Ascot races. She behaves flawlessly, but the fa莽ade shatters when she enthusiastically cheers on a horse in an unladylike manner.
Six weeks later, Higgins presents Eliza at a full-dress embassy ball. It becomes obvious that she must fool Zoltan Karpathy, a European phonetics expert. Eliza is successful and Karpathy believes that she is a Hungarian princess. Pickering and Higgins return home and bask in their success, without recognizing Eliza鈥檚 personal accomplishments.
To ensure you鈥檙e able to feel that anticipation before the curtain opens, please call or visit the box office at Strathclair鈥檚 Bend Theatre to get your tickets. A waiting list will be kept in case tickets become available closer to the production. See you at the Bend, when this year you will hear such songs as Wouldn鈥檛 It Be Loverly, Get Me to the Church on Time, A Little Bit of Luck and On the Street Where You Live.
