Unencumbered Joys Of 'My Fair Lady'

Terrence P. Currier as Alfred P. Doolittle, center, with Steve Cupo, left, and Thomas Adrian Simpson in Signature Theatre's "My Fair Lady." (By Carol Pratt -- Signature Theatre)

Yup, it's loverly.

Signature Theatre's fighting-trim "My Fair Lady," performed on a bare stage with only a pair of pianos as its orchestra, feels in the opening moments as if we might have stumbled into a mere rehearsal. But once adjusted to the ultra-slight scenic design and musical accompaniment, the eye and ear turn to the happy task of savoring the other pleasures of Eric Schaeffer's keenly persuasive revival.

Chief among these is the vibrant clash Signature makes of the sparring match between Eliza Doolittle, the gutsy flower girl who's coached into the ranks of high society, and Henry Higgins, the emotionally pinched professor who gives Eliza her refined new voice. Sally Murphy and Andrew Long play Eliza and Higgins in what you might call delectable disharmony. They rub each other like flint and stone.

In other words, the sparks fly to just the right heights for this celebrated story of a sour pedagogue who is taught lessons about women, love -- and loving women. Murphy, possessed of a supple soprano, makes the fairy-tale pivot from cockney urchin to Belgravia princess with a beguiling self-possession. And Long cultivates abrasiveness as if he were born to a life of cantankerous self-righteousness.

By the time Murphy delivers the show's penultimate number -- her fie-on-him anthem, "Without You" -- we are all fully vested in Eliza's plan to devastate Higgins by deserting him. Long's response, a hushed, delicate rendition of "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," is as tender an exhibition of bewitched masculinity as you come across on the musical stage.

The lack of embroidery pays off royally: Long sings portions of the sublime "I've Grown Accustomed" just above a whisper. For the job of tapping into deep emotion, the assistance of a swelling assortment of strings and horns turns out to be optional.

"My Fair Lady" is Signature's last production in the converted garage it has called home for more than a decade; the company moves later this year to a splashy new two-theater complex less than a mile away in the Village at Shirlington. It seems apt that Signature should douse the lights on its industrial-style space with such a crystalline musical classic. Like Eliza herself, Signature is shedding a gritty facade for something more elegant.

Schaeffer reminds us, too, with a simple design -- only Jenn Miller's costumes are meant to reflect aristocratic panache -- of the mark his company has often tried to make, paring musicals back to their heartfelt essentials. He has adapted a skeletal approach to the Lerner and Loewe musical that was also used four years ago by Chicago director Gary Griffin, who staged Signature's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" in 2003. Schaeffer, in fact, uses the same orchestrations that Griffin did, for two pianos.

Set designer James Kronzer lays a faux-tile floor on a thrust stage and deploys only a few furnishings to denote dingy London streets and posh interiors. Higgins's study, for instance, is suggested by a pair of towering bookcases holding the primitive devices he uses in his work as a dialect expert.

Even the lush overture has been done away with. So why impose on this rich material such economical constraints? For one thing, the size of the theater is just better suited to a chamber piece. For another, the muting of some of "My Fair Lady's" opulent theatricality brings it closer in scale and tone to the play that is its source, George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion."

Not everything that Schaeffer attempts here is totally successful, however. The opening number, "Why Can't the English?" in which Higgins stands with the trusty Colonel Pickering (a charming Harry A. Winter) outside Covent Garden and sings of his contempt for lazy British accents, is marred by moments of unintelligibility. This dulls the show's wit at a critical early juncture. Long sings some of the lines that Rex Harrison famously spoke-sung; but in Long's lower register, the words sometimes become inaudible -- a sin when what's being muffled are Alan Jay Lerner's glorious lyrics.

Some self-conscious bits go awry: The decision to have the nose-in-the-air society types model Miller's gorgeous frocks as if they were walking the runway adds a false note to an otherwise smooth version of "Ascot Gavotte." (What, by the way, is with Higgins's sleeveless butlers?) And even if you do grow accustomed to the production's spartan musicality, a few numbers also convey the sensation that they are underdressed.

Ah, but one of the charms of this "My Fair Lady" is its uncanny ability to transcend the limitations that have been set up. You see clearly at Signature that no matter how good your lighting designer is -- and Mark Lanks does a fine job here for Schaeffer -- a performance can be illuminated from within. Will Gartshore's Freddy Eynsford-Hill is a prime example. When Gartshore walks onto an empty stage to sing "On the Street Where You Live," he helps you to imagine an exciting universe at Eliza's doorstep.

Is there any musical this guy doesn't make more memorable? Freddy is often played as a forgettable handsome twit, an upper-class loser who is on hand to sing one soaring number and be discarded by Eliza. Without a hint of overplaying, Gartshore manages to convey the idea that Freddy thinks this is a musical about him.

Dana Krueger is an endearingly pitch-perfect Mrs. Higgins, Henry's worldly-wise mother, and Maureen Kerrigan's Mrs. Pearce, Henry's housekeeper-in-chief, radiates both competence and warmth. Terrence P. Currier offers up an impishly agreeable Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza's pub-crawling reprobate of a dad. Vocally, he might want to dial the power up a notch or two, and perhaps he will, as he and the role become better acquainted.

Currier gets the evening's best dance number, the ebullient "Get Me to the Church on Time," for which choreographer Karma Camp has put together a spunky series of steps. In such a cramped space, this is no small accomplishment.

All of these elements combine fluidly around the two rock-solid central performances. You're never in doubt in Murphy's portrayal of Eliza's willingness to stand up for herself -- or her weakness for a man of contrarian stubbornness. Long, who is in the midst of an extraordinary year, having played to bloodcurdling effect the killer in Studio Theatre's "Frozen," is unsparing here in his portrait of a man all curled up inside himself. As a result, this revival touchingly reaffirms one of the truest laws of human chemistry: Opposites do attract.

My Fair Lady , book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner; music by Frederick Loewe. Directed by Eric Schaeffer. Sound, Tony Angelini; music direction, Jenny Cartney. With Thomas Adrian Simpson, Matt Conner, Priscilla Cuella, Dave Joria, Eleasha Gamble, Stephen Gregory Smith, Lauren Williams, LC Harden Jr. About 2 hours 45 minutes. Through Nov. 19 at Signature Theatre, 3806 S. Four Mile Run Dr., Arlington. Call 800-955-5566 or visit http://www.signature-theatre.org .