Evansville Courier and Press: My Fair Lady [including a review of the show]

REVIEW by Roger McBain of The Evansville Courier & Press
August 2

Originally published 07:09 p.m., August 2, 2008
Updated 07:09 p.m., August 2, 2008

NEW HARMONY, Ind. — Small plays large, and spare evokes spectacle in the New Harmony Theatre's final production of the 2008 summer season. Playing on Murphy Auditorium's intimate stage, using an 11-member cast in a show commonly presented by more than 30 players, director Lenny Leibowitz and his team of performers, directors and designers are sure to leave a lasting impression with "My Fair Lady," Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion." …

Several players perform multiple roles, including Cynthia Shaw, the show's music director, who anchors it all, playing overtures, interludes and accompaniment on the grand piano in the middle of the stage, slipping in and out of scenes as Mrs. Eynsford-Hill and as an ensemble member.

It all segues seamlessly through Tijana Bjelajac's two-level scenic design, with cast iron ornamentation and a parade of rolling props that transforms the space from Covent Garden to a thoroughbred track to Henry Higgins' study and several other locations.

It's a "loverly" closing production for the 2008 season, which runs through Aug. 17.

ARTICLE DOUBLE DUTY: 'My Fair Lady' Cast Member Also Plays Musical Director

'Bit parts' tryout brings backstage, center-stage roles

By Roger McBain
Thursday, July 31, 2008

Cynthia Shaw thought she was just trying out for "bit parts" when she auditioned in New York for New Harmony Theatre's production of "My Fair Lady." She delivered a monologue from Tom Stoppard's comedy "The Real Inspector Hound," she said.

"I wanted to show off my British dialect." Lenny Leibowitz, the director of "My Fair Lady," had more in mind, however, after he noticed her resume included credits as musical director. "As it turns out, he was looking for a musical director. I think that presented an interesting creative idea for Lenny."
To her delight, he offered her both jobs.

"It was a wonderful opportunity for me to do all the things that I like." Shaw is a Denver native who's lived and worked for three decades in New York, singing, dancing, acting and providing musical direction for New York and regional theater productions.
She's sung solos in Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and she worked on Grammy-winning recordings, including "On the Transmigration of Souls" and "The A Capella Singer."

As musical director for "My Fair Lady," Shaw works with everyone in the cast, rehearsing and developing some of American musical theater's most beloved songs, including "The Rain in Spain," "Loverly," "I Could Have Danced All Night" and "Get Me to the Church On Time."
She provides nearly all the musical accompaniment, playing a grand piano planted center stage in New Harmony's Murphy Auditorium.
She also plays Mrs. Eynsford-Hill, mother of Freddy, a young love interest to Eliza, the Cockney flower seller transformed by Henry Higgins into a proper English lady, in this musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion." And she sings and dances as part of the ensemble in this 11-member version of a show that has used up to 30 players in other productions. She's among four players who will perform multiple roles in the production, which opens Friday. She likes the "less is more" approach to the show, which won critical acclaim recently in John Doyle's celebrated reprises of "Sweeney Todd" and "Company," with a core of cast member even playing the shows' music. "It really pushes everybody to more creativity, which, as a performer, is always exciting."

"The lone accompaniment to all this entertaining singing and dancing is a piano played by musical director, Cynthia Shaw. She started with the Overture and just glided over the keys all night while moving in and out of the role of Mrs. Eynsford-Hill. What versatility all this cast demonstrates." — Lois Mittino Gray for The Posey County News, New Harmony, Indiana, August 5, 2008