Seattle Shakespeare Company’s “Pygmalion” opens with a song from the 1964 movie version of “My Fair Lady”, cut off by playwright George Bernard Shaw (A. Bryan Humphrey) striding onstage shaking his head in annoyance. This opening not only sets the playful tone maintained throughout this delightful production under the direction of veteran director/actor Jeff Steitzer; it immediately dispels the notion that “Pygmalion” is merely a non-musical version of the Lerner and Loewe musical that it inspired. The addition of Shaw as a character also provides the opportunity to give voice to the beautifully written descriptions of setting and character that make reading a Shaw play not unlike reading a novel or short story.
This witty and acerbic play concerns stuffy phonetics professor Henry Higgins (Mark Anders), who undertakes a wager to pass off Cockney flower seller Eliza Dolittle (Jennifer Lee Taylor) as a duchess merely by modifying her manner of speech. “Pygmalion” harks back to a tale from Ovid’s Metamorphases. The sculptor Pygmalion falls in love with his own creation, a beautiful statue he names Galatea. The goddess Venus brings Galatea to life, Pygmalion and Galatea marry, and all ends happily. In Shaw’s version, classism, sexism, narcissism and other -ism’s prevent this opinionated Pygmalion (Higgins) from recognizing that Eliza is anything more than a Galatea molded by his sole efforts. Higgins’s subsequent clashes with Eliza and just about everyone else result in some of the wittiest repartee in the English theater.
Radiant Jennifer Lee Taylor’s Eliza displays an impressive mastery of dialect and manner as she makes her convincing transformation from gutter snipe to lady. Taylor also brings a vulnerable sweetness to the role. Mark Anders’s Henry Higgins delights as enfant terrible Professor Henry Higgins, boyishly tossing his hair and body about while arguing with all comers. R. Hamilton Wright as gentlemanly Colonel Pickering, the co-sponsor of Eliza’s transformation, has a wonderful bickering chemistry with Anders. Stealing nearly every scene in which she appears is Jeanne Paulsen as the commanding Mrs. Higgins who maintains a droll dignity while delivering put downs of petulant son Henry.
The overall excellent cast includes other standouts. A. Bryan Humphrey doubles as Shaw and, in a great comic turn, Eliza’s father Alfred Doolittle, handily switching accent and deportment along with costume. Trick Danneker and Amy Hill are charmingly clueless as upper class twit siblings Freddy and Clara Eynsford-Hill.
High production values add to the charm of this “Pygmalion.” Deane Middleton’s costumes are appropriately period and gorgeous. Jason Phillips’s scenic design takes advantage of the larger Intiman Theater (as opposed to the Center House Theater that is usually home to Seattle Shakespeare.) Beautiful faux marble floors and columns hark back to the original Greek myth while remaining in keeping with the Victorian furnishings. Projections on the backdrop add period details; the objects roll on screen with a Monty Python-esque playfulness in keeping with the attitude of fun maintained throughout this production.
Seattle Shakespeare’s “Pygmalion” plays through March 11 at the Intiman Playhouse.
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