Robert Sean Leonard is Magnificent as Henry Higgins in "Pygmalion" at the Williamstown Theater Festival, Mass
Roberta Brown, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Aug 7, 2013 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
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On my first visit to the Williamstown Theatre Festival in southwestern Massachusetts, I was privileged to Robert Sean Leonard and Heather Lind in "Pygmalion" last Wednesday night. July 24. This entertaining play is scheduled from July 17th through the 27th, as a series of presentations that is being held all summer.
First, after that long road trip, I must say that whoever invented the GPS should be knighted. It wasn't difficult to find the theatre, but surely I would have been lost somewhere in the Berkshire mountains today if it weren't for having a system available. About the Berkshires - it is breathtakingly beautiful up there. No wonder people travel for hundreds of miles just to look at the foliage there in the fall. In mid summer it literally looks like a picture postcard, as if someone had been paid to landscape the trees.
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the theatre is located on a college campus, that of Williams College. It seems that independently operated theatres, such as those in New York, tend to nickel and dime you for programs, overpriced intermission food, and even parking. Here, there is one price, the programs are freely given, and there is free parking, although it was limited. There was also real food in the lobby, not junk food, and not overpriced. The theatre itself has two auditoriums, and it is beautiful, with full sized window walls revealing the students, locals, and visitors in the bright, elegantly decorated lobby, and there were banners all around advertising the summer long Festival. There is also a sitting area with tables in front of the building, and many early arrivers were there enjoying the early evening weather.
Ok, about the play. I came to see Robert Sean Leonard portray Henry Higgins, but I am so familiar with the play itself, I probably would go to a performance without his being there. I have had a printed copy of the actual play by George Bernard Shaw for many years, and it is one of the few that I have read without having to do it as a school assignment. I also have a copy of the movie My Fair Lady, an extremely popular musical version of the story, and my personal all time favorite movie. Not only that, a few years ago, I was able to see the excellent movie version of Pygmalion with Leslie Howard (who played Ashley in Gone With the Wind) as Higgins, and Wendy Hiller (a newcomer who won an Oscar nomination, with Howard, for her performance) as Eliza Doolittle. ( the whole movie is on youtube ) So, as I expected, I found myself saying the lines in the play in my mind as they were spoken.
The ingenuity of the set designers was really notable. There were only three sets, one in front of a church in Covent Garden. which we saw in the opening scene, one of Henry Higgins' Wimpole Street home, and one of Mother Higgins' home. They didn't show the Ascot race scene that was in the movie, or the Ambassador's Ball, but conversation made up for those scenes.
The play started somewhat slowly, but it increased in vitality, as the relationship between Higgins and Eliza developed. Because Pygmalion is closer to what was written by Shaw than My Fair Lady, it was much easier to see that their conversations were the main vehicle that Shaw used to express the message that he wanted to convey in the play, about the unfairness of judging people on the basis of their dialect, and also that morality is also unfairly attributed to economic station rather than behavior.
The basic philosophical setting of the play was established in the first scene, when Higgins began to identify the homes of the people on the church steps based on their dialect. Much of what Shaw wrote about that subject later became lyrics to the first song in the musical movie "Why Can't The English (Teach Their Children How To Speak)?" In a way, the music of that movie intruded into my mind a number of times during the play, and that scene, when Higgins had to express the same thought in prose as Shaw wrote it rather than as lyrics, is one of them.
Later, when Higgins tried, with some difficulty to express that he would miss Eliza if she left him, Robert said it this way: "I've grown accustomed to your...voice", which came from Shaw, but the short pause seemed like an acknowledgement of the last song in the musical, "I've Grown Accustomed To Your Face." Recalling that scene at that point, the way that Robert expressed Higgins' feelings was with a gentleness that neither Leslie Howard nor Rex Harrison showed - the words sounded almost like a marriage proposal. "I can't turn your soul on. Leave me those feelings; and you can take away the voice and the face. They are not you." That last part - "leave me those feelings..." - wasn't in My Fair Lady, and it wasn't even in the Leslie Howard movie - that was pure Shaw.
Robert and Heather seemed to clearly understand Shaw's basic message, and their verbal exchanges were well phrased in a way that helped the audience to also understand it. Their ability to skillfully play off of each other was wonderful to see. They stalked around each other, moving from one end of the stage to the other, like two prize fighters in a ring. It seemed like they could have danced all night! Movies with cameras don't always allow for that kind of perspective, letting the viewer watch what both are doing at the same time on opposite sides of a scene, seeing one take the center stage while letting the other step back, then exchanging positions. The story and the theme became the stars of the play, rather than any individuals.
At one point, Heather, playing Eliza, paused and turned to the audience as she said: "The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated." Those are clearly Shaw's feelings put into a few words, and Heather wanted to make sure that everybody got them.
To the author's credit, the secondary characters each had their place in the limelight. Maureen Anderman, who is well celebrated on stage, film, and TV, played Mrs. Higgins, who, until Eliza, was one of the few women in Henry's life who could handle him. Mrs. Pearce, Higgins' housekeeper, was played by Caitlin O'Connell, and that character was a lot more bossy, again showing that Higgins responds well to that kind of woman. Paxton Whitehead, who played the distinguished gentleman, Colonel Pickering, was the only other actor who I have seen before, on TV's The West Wing.
The character who seems to more of another vehicle for delivering Shaw's message than anyone else, other than Higgins and Eliza, is Alfred Doolittle, Eliza's father. One has to be an outgoing ham of an actor to play this role of an alcoholic dustman with incredible intelligence, humor and eloquence, and Don Lee Sparks did exactly that. He kind of took over the scenes in which he appeared, and he drew more laughs from the audience than anyone else. I took the opportunity to tell him that when I ran into him after the play, and although I didn't know his name until later, I am not going to forget it.
It is remarkable that there is something very personal about the interaction of actors and audience in a play that you don't get to experience with movies or TV. Because of it, each performance is slightly different.
For instance, in that conversation after the ball, after they got back to Higgins' house, when the tearful Eliza was dressed up in that beautiful dress, Robert as Higgins was suggesting some things that she could do, now that her lessons were over, and he suggested that she could marry, because when she is herself, she actually looks attractive, and then he said "Well not now - now, you look like the very Devil!" -- and for some reason, the audience thought that was the funniest thing, and they bust out laughing. I think it was about how he delivered that line. Likely, he did not do that every time, or, not every audience would pick that up as a very funny thing to say. And he said it with a British accent, which he did very well, for a fellow who was born and raised in New Jersey.
And may I get a little shallow and say that Robert looked particularly nice that evening, in a brown suit much like the one that Rex Harrison and Leslie Howard both wore most of the time in their respective portrayals of Henry Higgins. But when he was dressed for the ball, he looked magnificent - he wore a white fitted vest that reminded me of how magnificent he looked as Claudio in the 1993 Shakespeare movie, Much Ado About Nothing. My goodness, that was 20 years ago, this year!
I didn't get to meet Robert Sean Leonard, and I couldn't find any of the other actors, either. My intention was to ask him to autograph my copy of House M.D. Season Four, for which he should have gotten an Emmy for any one of several episodes there. Despite that, going to this play was well worth the effort.
One more thing: Some reviews have revealed that this presentation ended the play in a way differently from any other presentation. This is true, and it is a bit of a shock, I think. I won't say here how it ended, but it is certainly plausible.
Published by Roberta Brown
Roberta has spent many years in educational settings - first working with college professors and students, continuing education, grant technical assistance for an NSF grant for young scholars, and more

August 29, 2013

Something that has been consistent about "Falling Skies" is that each season begins with a time jump. Will that be true in season 4? On Wednesday, Aug. 28, Zap2it posted an interview with Noah Wyle that features some teasers, including just that.

After the last two seasons kicked off with time jumps of months, Wyle has revealed that we're not going to be missing out on seeing what happened for quite that long when season 4 begins: "The first episode is going to start about two weeks after the last one ended, so we're picking up with these characters pretty freshly." As season 3 ended, the 2nd Mass was back on the road, just like old times, leaving the Volm behind to deal with the Espheni in Boston (a much better deal than shipping off to Brazil like their former allies wanted to do with them) and Tom was reunited with Anne (Moon Bloodgood) and their daughter—their now seven-year-old daughter.

"Tom is still getting to know this new daughter of his, who he thought was six months old and looks very much like a seven year old," Wyle said. "And her growth rate will continue to be pretty accentuated." In the finale, Tom and Kadar (Robert Sean Leonard) did discuss Lexi's growth rate, and the scientist didn't know what to expect. Who would, though? It's not like they have another half-alien kid out there to study. This isn't like looking at the effects of the harnesses on the kids; this is taking things to a whole other level. After all, she de-bugged Lourdes of all those eyeworms with basically one touch when it took a painful, life-threatening procedure to de-bug Hal of just one.

Speaking of Tom and Anne, it sounds like they're going to have some problems coming up in the beginning of season 4. "There's a big thing that happens in the first episode that they have to get past," he explained. "Tom is on this linear track being Tom and Anne gets radically redefined as a character." There was something very different about Anne when we briefly saw her in the woods in "Brazil," and we're not so sure she can be trusted after spending all that time with the Espheni and coming back suddenly all smile-y about the daughter she was so wary of in the beginning of the season. When we spoke to Remi Aubuchon about the finale, he agreed that there is reason to be suspicious of Anne and Lexi. "I think if you look at that last scene between Tom and Kadar [фотка к статье из этой сцены, кстати ], there's a little hint that Kadar is not completely convinced that this is real, and he doesn't quite know how to give that news to Tom," the EP told us. "But it's very clear that there's something a little odd going on here."

The season 3 finale saw Maggie kill Karen (after Tom took her down with a shot himself), so what does that mean about the main big bad in season 4? "The big baddie of the season, he doesn't look as menacing as Jessy Schram did," the actor teased. "Now our bad guys can look like bad guys again." But with the 2nd Mass and the Volm both after the Espheni, how strong will the enemy really be in season 4?

Finally, season 4 is also going to focus more on the characters. "We're going to pull it back a bit and focus more on these characters and interpersonal conflict," Wyle explained, adding, "there's a couple big story lines that are going to run over the course of the season."

"Falling Skies" season 4 will air in the summer of 2014. What do you think of the latest spoilers? Head to the comments with what you want to see next summer from TNT's hit sci-fi series.