An updated ‘My Fair Lady’ at the Denver Center

The Lincoln Center production takes some liberties but ultimately delivers

This is it, the big one, the one that’s been called “the perfect musical” with its seemingly endless array of well-known songs. The Lincoln Center production of My Fair Lady now showing at the Denver Center is everything you’d imagine: towering sets, big song-and-dance numbers, lots of fancy dresses and a great many enormous hats.

Oh, and the orchestra! The one powering this production is led by David Andrews Rogers, and it’s really quite the standout for the energy and precision with which it powers through all the music.

Madeline Powell as Eliza

Based on the ancient Greek myth of a sculptor whose work comes to life, later adapted by George Bernard Shaw in his play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady the musical dates back to 1956, where Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews enshrined forever the roles of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle. He, the overbearing, super-sexist professor of linguistics and she, the disheveled flower girl from the streets of London that Higgins takes under his wing on a bet that he can turn her into a lady.

This revival, directed by Bartlett Sher, takes the original and, while staying mostly true to the storyline and faithful to the music, attempts to update it a bit for modern audiences. While Eliza in the original is mostly a hapless protegee under the thumb of Higgins, this Eliza has more agency and is more willing to call him out for his piggishness — and priggishness.

The last time a touring production of My Fair Lady came through the Denver Center, my wife and I walked away awed by the experience of what is indeed the quintessential big, classic musical. This version, while big, bold and well done in nearly every way, didn’t strike us quite the same. For one, Jonathan Grunert, who plays Higgins, is simply too young for the part. Great voice and a fine actor to be sure, but the dynamic of an older, confirmed bachelor falling under the charms of a young woman he so recently saw as barely human just didn’t gel.

As Eliza, Madeline Powell manages the transition from gutter snipe to duchess with finesse. But in the attempt to make her more of a strong-minded, modern women unwilling to bend to Higgins’ ultimate overtures, their chemistry and the element of rom-com is weakened significantly. If that’s what you’re expecting from this My Fair Lady, you might be disappointed even as the twist ending may ring a bit more true than the original.

But fear not: Quibbles aside, all the pieces are there to land this one with a bang. The big numbers are as majesterial as ever, with the big show-stopper being “Get Me to the Church On Time” with Eliza’s mercenary father, Alfred (Michael Hegarty). And, except for the aforementioned number which has some bawdy takes, it’s a pretty clean show — a good one to bring younger theatre-goers to if you’d like to introduce them to a true gem from the Golden Age of the big musical.