Everybody’s dancing, including the horses

St. Petersburg director Vadim Malkov first worked on the musical, but couldn’t cope with the material. It is common knowledge that starting from scratch is easier than redoing something, so the creative process of the artistic director, Bohdan Strutynsky, was not easy. The result was countless rehearsals, “breaking in” the cast accompanied by mutual misunderstandings, constant quests, with the director secretly being nicknamed “the tyrant.” But such tyranny has a positive aspect; the play is smooth and clean.

This is Strutynsky’s first production of the famous musical at the Operetta Theater. Previously he produced Offenbach’s operetta A Dinner Party with Italians on the Small Stage in the foyer and the children’s fairy tales A Carnival of Tales and The Snow Maiden. In My Fair Lady the director’s task was primarily to master the complicated genre and make it interesting for a modern audience accustomed to gala shows. He found a way by livening up the play with countless dance numbers. Everyone is dancing there: the street roughs, the professor’s servants, Eliza, and during the ball the waltz and classical ballet are complemented by a stepdance. The choreography is skillfully incorporated into the plot. Another good idea is the “galloping” of young and lively “horses” and an old clumsy stallion called Dover on which Eliza bets her money.

The director’s ideas were brilliantly implemented by the main ballet master, People’s Artist Oleksandr Sehal, whose choreography always embellishes plays ranging from classical to modern. Sehal never stops amazing the public with his youthful vigor and determination.

Seeing a few Strutynsky productions is enough to discuss his directorial style: the “dismantling” of the fourth wall, actors working in the foyer (before the play begins) and in the audience (during the performance). Theater goers are always in for a pleasant surprise-in this case, violets presented to members of the audience symbolize the flowers sold by Eliza Doolittle. The mise-en-scenes are interesting in that they fill the entire stage; double expositions are used (simultaneous action on the street and a ballet at Covent Garden). The stage setting is realistic, aesthetically appealing, and dual-layered, with a gallery in Professor Higgins’s study on the second floor and a bridge on the street (courtesy of the production designer, Merited Arts Worker Petro Mezhyrovsky).

Special mention goes to the conductor, Oksana Madarash, whose orchestra sounded smooth, with an excellent brass section playing the leading role in the musical and individual numbers specially arranged by A. Korzh. The play seems to last too long, owing to the introduction of dance and music numbers: the two parts span three hours. Considering that there is too little outward action to the plot, small cuts (a couplet here and there or musical repetitions) would add to the production’s dynamism. The posters state that the libretto is Allan Jay Lerner’s original one, but the Ukrainian text is a word-for-word translation from the Russian. This creates a problem, as My Fair Lady focuses on language and its specifics. Since the play is in Ukrainian, the specific features of learning should concern the Ukrainian language, not English, with its pronunciation of “a, b, c, d,” and not Russian, with its hard “geh” and lack of “heh.” If this technique is being used, then the heroine must study those words that are pronounced as exceptions from the Ukrainian rule: agrus, ganok, etc. Otherwise, she has to mispronounce words like groza/hroza, grim/hrim, grymily/hrymily — something you won’t find in any dialect. It would be considerably more natural to replace fialky (violets) with the specifically Ukrainian khvvialky (violets) and if she avoided exaggerated sibilants as in shesna divshyna [chesna divchyna, an honest girl]. After all, Eliza doesn’t come with any speech therapy problems, just street slang. Therefore, it would be more appropriate to add folk sayings to the libretto and turn Eliza into a Bronia Prokopivna of sorts [a character from the popular comedy Za dvoma zaitsiamy] and to use more illiterate turns of speech. Unfortunately, you don’t have to look far for them: there are plenty in modern Ukrainian. The play would not only benefit artistically from this but also become more topical and informative.

As for the cast, pleasant surprises await the audience. Merited Artist Mykola Butkovsky appears on stage for the first time not as the customary “simpleton” but as a hero. His Professor Higgins has comic features and a definite character along with a subtle psychological foundation. He also has a delicate nervous system, which makes him interesting to watch; you anticipate the way he will do what you know he has to do.

My Fair Lady is the first premiere for Asia Sereda (Eliza). The actor’s performance was very plastic and emotionally open. Her voice is even throughout the range: she hits high notes well and has a clear timbre that best characterizes Eliza as an illiterate girl, but without aggressiveness and vulgarity. Sereda’s transformation into a lady is quite convincing, starting with her slender, delicate figure and ending with her comportment.

Mrs. Pearce, played by Tamara Tymoshko, a favorite of Kyiv audiences, was repeatedly applauded. The small role of Professor Higgins’s maid (a cold, pretentious Englishwoman) suddenly turns comic with pauses skillfully inserted by the great actor and an assessment of everything happening on stage: mimicry, gestures, inner tension, the sudden characteristic manner in which she bows, little dancing steps, humor, and determination that thrilled the audience.

Merited Artist Liudmyla Bielska creates a sparkling image of Mrs. Doolittle. Although it is a supporting role, it is memorable, thanks to Bielska’s innate “firebreathing” energy and charm.

Mr. Doolittle (People’s Artist Oleksandr Kravchenko) is interpreted as a tragicomic character with a philosophic subtext. He is a drinker with oratorical talents whose career is taking off. The comic scenes are reminiscent of Kravchenko’s Moritz in Imre Kalman’s Grafin Mariza and the brilliantly ironic devil in the Christmas Eve Dream.

Tickets were on sale 10 days before the premiere and the audience greeted the cast with standing applause. If you want to partake of something that helps you to be cleaner and kinder, see this operetta.