An after-theater crowd has gathered
in the rain in hopes of catching a taxi. Mrs. Hill and her daughter Clara stand
with newspapers over their heads as brother Freddie rushes off in search of
transportation, inadvertently bumping into a flower-girl, Eliza, sending her
flowers into the mud. As she protests in florid street argot, a man stands in
the shadows writing down her words. She thinks he’s a policeman and protests
that she’s a good girl, turning to a
gentleman named Pickering
for support.
Sound
familiar?
Well,
it should. Yes, it’s “Pygmalion” or, more familiarly, “My Fair Lady,” but…it’s
not, for the rain-swept folks are not standing outside St.
Paul ’s Church in Covent Garden, they are standing outside the
Apollo Theater, and the setting is not London
circa 1912 but Harlem , 1938. Welcome to
“Higgins in Harlem,” an intriguing play written (or, rather, adapted) and
directed by Lawrence Thelen enjoying its world premiere at Playhouse on Park in
West Hartford .
There
have been many iterations of the story of the Greek mythological character,
Pygmalion, who fell in love with one of his statues only to have it come alive
as Galatea. Until the appearance of Lerner and Loewe’s musical, “My Fair Lady,”
George Bernard Shaw’s play was perhaps the most successful and well known of
these tellings. The story itself captivates, for it deals with need, desire,
hope and, in the case of Galatea – or Eliza – the triumph of the human spirit
when unleashed from the bonds of poverty and ignorance. In Shaw’s hands, it was
also a strong indictment of Victorian society, with its caste system as rigid,
if not as visible, as that of India ’s.
Janelle A. Robinson and Kevyn Morrow.
Thelen
has kept the basics: Henry Higgins (Kevyn Morrow) is still an expert in
phonetics and Pickering (Bob Johnson) still a published author on dialects,
although now it is African dialects, and Eliza Doolittle (Geri-Nikole Love) is
still selling flowers, although with a sassiness absent in the original. Her
father, Alfred (Jeffrey Cousar) still seeks to profit from whatever arrangement
Higgins and Pickering have made with his daughter, caring little about the actual
nature of that arrangement.
The plot, as well,
remains the same – Higgins takes on Eliza as a pupil for six months, at the end
of which he will present her as a princess – this time an African princess -- at
a gala at the Abyssinian
Baptist Church Pickering . In the
process, as Eliza transforms from “gutter snipe” to polished young woman, the
lady is dissed and dominated by Higgins, who is blunt, pompous and overbearing
to a fault. In the end…well, a little about the end later.
The underlying
premise in Thelen’s adaptation is that, as in Victorian England, there were
various social castes in Harlem during and after what has been termed the
Harlem Renaissance – well established, well-to-do families and, well, the
“trash,” which consisted of the blacks who had migrated north but had yet to
assimilate. In essence, Higgins, his mother, Mrs. Higgins (Janelle A. Robinson),
Pickering, the Hill family, (Aurelia Clunie, Vanessa Butler and Joshua Ramos)
and Higgins’ housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce (Xenia Gray) are just like white folks,
only with darker skins. Or, rather, they mime the attitudes, mores, etiquette
and speech patterns of the whites, but this idea, and the underlying prejudice
inherent in one’s degree of “color” imparting status within the black
community, Thelen opts not to deal with.
Kevyn Morrow and Geri-Nikole Love
In addition, in a
play set in 1938 in Harlem one would expect
some acknowledgement that there is racial tension prevalent, but that too is
absent. The characters seem to live in a vacuum or beneath a protective dome –
“Whitey” simply doesn’t enter into the picture. The premise of the adaptation
is intriguing, but Thelen simply doesn’t take advantage of the myriad
possibilities.
That being said,
“Higgins in Harlem ” still offers pleasures;
chief among them is Love’s Eliza. As the unrefined flower girl she is all
bristle and false bravado – she taunts to hide her tentativeness…and tenderness,
her body language saying as much as her dialogue. Her transformation into a
sophisticated young lady, in both speech and demeanor, is a delight to watch.
Of special note is the verbal training breakthrough scene, the “Rain in Spain …” scene which,
in Thelen’s adaptation, becomes the “Take the A Train” scene. As she struggles
to pronounce the long A you inch forward in your seat, urging her on, falling
back as she fails, and then sitting forward again as she succeeds.
Of equal pleasure
is her coming-out scene in Mrs. Higgins’ parlor, where she converses with the
Hill family, with topics limited initially to her health and the weather but,
eventually, embracing her family’s gin-soaked history. It’s a delightful, comic
moment that Love pulls off with aplomb.
Playing against
her, Morrow gives the audience a perfect Higgins, blind to his failings and comfortable
with his philosophy that he should treat all people, be they beggars or kings,
as equally beneath him and worthy of his disdain. He is gruff, abusive and
totally self-absorbed, and yet, Morrow is able to convey the need beneath the
procrustean surface, especially in the scene when Eliza announces that she is
leaving. He blusters, he commands, he cajoles, he demands and demeans – all to
no effect -- and while his mouth is spewing threats and disdainful comments,
his eyes and body language convey an entirely different set of emotions.
Of equal merit is
Robinson’s portrayal of Henry’s mother. Her character is wise and forbearing,
with just a touch of sauciness. Her extended monologue in Act Two regarding the
needs of a young woman – specifically Eliza’s needs – was especially moving, as
was Gray’s mothering of Eliza as Higgins’ housekeeper and her acerbic comments
about her employer’s manner of dressing and use of profanities.
Kevyn Morrow, Geri-Nikole Love and Bob Johnson
One might have
asked for a bit more bluster and animation in Johnson’s portrayal of Pickering,
and a little less animation from Cousar as Eliza’s father, although the
audience the night I saw the show responded favorably to his over-the-top
portrayal of the pragmatic chimney sweep, especially when, in Act Two, he
appears in a Zoot Suit complete with a fedora sporting a yellow feather and a watch
chain hanging down nearly to his ankles. Yes, a bit over-animated, but his
diatribe about the ills inherent in entering the middle-class went over
extremely well.
And now…to the
final moment of the play. Shaw was adamant that it should be played as written,
but as soon as “Pygmalion” was boarded there was dissension amongst critics, the
audience and the actors. Shaw wrote variations on the ending, though never
yielding in his belief that Eliza, once having won her freedom and
independence, can never return to, or place herself under the thumb of, the
insufferable Higgins. Of course, Lerner and Loewe, (as others had done before
them) succumbed to the “happy-ending” demand in their musical and the subsequent
film.
Thelen sides with
Shaw, but there is something anti-climactic in his play’s final moment. Eliza
has left and Higgins, his face a screen upon which conflicting emotions are
playing out, crosses upstage as chairs are repositioned. He stands beneath the
light of a special, then sits, picks up a book and…
Well, I must
assume that most people in the audience are more familiar with “My Fair
Lady”…and its final moment…than with Shaw’s original. Thus, there are
expectations that have to be dealt with…and aren’t. The final blackout left the
audience silent – they were waiting for…more…and these expectations were
enhanced by the fact that a door stage left is opened in the play’s final
moment, which seems to presage Eliza’s return. In fact, it is done to
facilitate Morrow’s exit in the dark (which could be accomplished equally well
by a small piece of fluorescent tape placed on the floor), but it sends a
different message. What seems to be called for here is a final, brief
exclamation from Morrow as Higgins, perhaps of grief, perhaps suggesting a
dawning awareness of what he has lost…maybe Higgins simply speaking Eliza’s
name in a wistful, needful manner…and a bit of business with the book in his
hands. Slamming it shut? Allowing it to fall from his hands? In essence, closure.
In any event,
“Higgins in Harlem ” is an entertaining hybrid.
It could have been more than it is, but what it is satisfies.
“Higgins in Harlem ” runs through March 23. For tickets or more
information call 860-523-5900, X10, or go to www.playhouseonpark.org
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