Director's Note
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Hale Centre Theatre is thrilled to present My Fair Lady on its 70th anniversary. This musical is the very definition of a timeless classic, with themes and messages that continue to resonate with audiences today. It transports us not only to 1912, where the story is set, but also to the Golden Age of Broadway; an era when musicals turned from lighter operetta entertainment, to book-heavy stories that didn’t shy away from tackling heavy subject matter. When George Bernard Shaw first published Pygmalion—the play from which My Fair Lady was adapted—he intended it as an exploration of the superficiality of social class. He did not write a period piece, but rather a sharp and critical reflection of his own time. Though My Fair Lady remains set just after the turn of the last century, its enduring legacy lies in its unapologetic portrayal of complex, flawed characters. It does not excuse them, nor does it neatly resolve their journeys. Unlike many musicals of its era, it leaves certain questions unanswered—giving audiences something to ponder long after the curtain falls. Our goal has not been to fix or resolve these ambiguities, but to present the material honestly and unedited, allowing you to examine it for yourself. The legacy of My Fair Lady connects generations. My grandfather performed in a production, as did my mother. The last time Hale Centre Theatre produced this show in 2013 it was directed by my cousin, the inimitable Chris Clark, who passed away from ALS in 2020. This production includes several nods to his staging, and it has been a profound honor to feel a connection to him through this work, alongside many of the collaborators who worked with him on that previous production. This will be my own children’s first exposure to this play. I hope they are inspired by Eliza’s strength, her persistence to improve herself, and her resilience in the face of adversity. As our team has explored this piece over the past several months, we’ve come to see it as a story of transformation, the power of education, and the importance of how we treat one another. While Higgins succeeds in refining Eliza’s speech, he cannot change the independent, determined person she has always been. She never succumbs to being a victim of her circumstances. In the end, it is Eliza who unexpectedly transforms Higgins. The way we treat each other has the power to change lives. Words matter. These lessons are just as vital today as they were when Shaw first conceived them over a century ago. 
— Ryan Simmons |
