SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Spring is a wonderful time to venture out to the theatre and to help celebrate the season, the Departments of Music, Theatre and Dance at Wittenberg University are staging perhaps the most famous American musical, Lerner and Loewe’s, My Fair Lady, April 15-18. Wittenberg’s production in Chakeres Memorial Theatre will run Thursday – Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and will feature a cast of 15 undergraduate students and a two-piano score. Tickets are $4 and will go on sale beginning Monday, April 5 in the Benham-Pence Student Center.

Chances are, audiences know the music and story of My Fair Lady. Steven Reynolds, professor and chair of Wittenberg’s department of theatre and dance intends a fresh approach with this production. Reynolds explained that doing a large-scale musical from the 1950s is a challenge in Wittenberg’s smaller theatre space. Reynolds, along with musical director Kenneth Scheffel, associate professor of music, choreographer Ligia Pinheiro, assistant professor of theatre and dance, set designer Jimmy Humphries, associate professor of theatre and dance, and staff costume designer Debbie Henderson had to think about what could and couldn't be done to do fit My Fair Lady into Chakeres Memorial Theatre. The company elected to cut some scenes and combine others.

“Jimmy Humphries has come up with an inventive design using moving columns that will change constantly and surprisingly throughout the show,” said Reynolds. “In addition, there will be marvelous period costumes, energetic choreography, and a rarely used two-piano score highlighting the genius of Lerner and Loewe's musical creation,” he continued.

“The creators of the original stage production provided a two-piano, four-hand version of the musical score ideal for Wittenberg’s performance space,” said Scheffel. “The musical element for this ‘play with music’ offers not only a wonderful and challenging opportunity for two highly talented students of piano, but also does not compromise the importance of the text.”

Reynolds hopes the students and audience will gain an appreciation for the contribution George Bernard Shaw’s original play Pygmalion made to My Fair Lady.

“We want people to see the central theme of the original play, that there are two important ways for people to grow: one by improving one’s personal style and manners and the other by learning how to acknowledge and get in touch with one’s genuine feelings,” Reynolds explained.

Reynolds and company feel the simpler and cleaner the production, the more the story of Eliza’s growth into a mature and attractive young woman would work alongside the story of Henry Higgins’ growth into a mature older man who could acknowledge his genuine admiration for Eliza’s accomplishments and what she means to his life.

Related Links: Academics: Music Department Academics: Theatre and Dance

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Additional Headlines: • Alumni Couple Fuels Entrepreneurship By Establishing $1.5 Million Endowed Chair • Physics Professor Dan Fleisch Writes Best-Selling Book • Wittenberg Students Celebrate Springfield As Part Of Unique Internship Program • Geology Professor Awarded Grant To Complete Ambitious Research Agenda • Professor of Biology Elected President of Ohio Academy Of Science • Students Awarded Prestigious Fulbright Grants To Continue Studies • Provost Spearheads Initiative To Aid Students With Learning Disabilities • Wittenberg Awards Scholarships Through Ohio Consortium For Bioinformatics