Uma Thurman and Hugh Jackman Could Have Danced All Night at the Broadway Opening of My Fair Lady
Uma Thurman and Hugh Jackman Could Have Danced All Night at the Broadway Opening of My Fair Lady
On any given night, New Yorkers can spread their wings and do a thousand things, but on Thursday, the place to be was at Lincoln Center for the Broadway opening of My Fair Lady. Uma Thurman, Hugh Jackman, and Isabella Rossellini were among those who gathered at the Vivian Beaumont Theater for a first look at the revival of Lerner and Loewe’s 1956 musical adaption of George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 stage play Pygmalion and found themselves on the damp and dreary streets of London, where we first meet Professor Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle.
Directed by Bartlett Sher and led by Lauren Ambrose and Harry Hadden-Paton, the show had all of the classic charm of the original, but with an acute awareness of the world we live in today. Higgins is still the same priggish 40-something phonetician, but Doolittle is no longer a Cockney flower girl of about 19—rather, she’s a woman closer to the professor’s age, which Hadden-Paton explained was part of a larger casting decision. “It puts us as equals,” he later told Vogue after the show. “By getting rid of the creepy old guy kind of thing, it makes it much more interesting and less about something that was not helpful for the plot.” Then again, the costumes (wonderfully designed by Charlotte Palmer-Lane) were as transformative as ever. “They make you stand up straight, like you’re in the period,” he added.
Come intermission, themed refreshments were served at the theater bar, which was appropriately set with a pair of silver gramophones (and the My Fair Lady soundtrack on classic vinyl). While Doolittle inspired a vodka-and-elderflower blend with a splash of pomegranate and honey, Higgins’s tastes were fashioned into a Jameson Irish whiskey mixed with orange marmalade and summer blackberry bitters. The same was served at the after-party at the Grand Promenade at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall. It may not have been the Embassy Ball, but it certainly made guests feel a bit like royalty, particularly when rubbing elbows with the show’s star, Ambrose. The American actress looked every inch the English rose in a marigold Erdem dress dotted with lilacs—a nod, of course, to Doolittle’s dream of becoming a lady in a flower shop. “The ascot dress gives me so much information on how to place the scene, and the hat is beyond amazing,” Ambrose said. “To be a part of the most important transformation in Eliza’s life is incredible. I just love her more and more every show we do.”
Her dress felt all the more fitting next to the number of rather chic party guests who also dressed the part. Think belle epoque looks (and a few sharp gents) with dazzlingly beautiful lace gowns and three-piece suits. After dining on a decadent spread of beetroot, orange, and carrot salad; sugar snap peas and spring greens in a lemon truffle vinaigrette; and grilled chicken with wild mushrooms, shallots, and herbs, everyone could have danced all night. And that’s just what they did!
