Troupe Has Grand Farewell in ‘My Fair Lady’

Musical Theatre West ends its 22-year association with La Mirada Theatre in a blaze of melodic glory, staging a nearly perfect “My Fair Lady.” Director David Galligan sweeps aside cynical notions with Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s romantic fantasy.

As Eliza, Dale Kristien doesn’t have the dark, gamin elegance and vulnerability of the movie’s Audrey Hepburn and doesn’t at all resemble the illustration on the program cover, but her lovely voice is her own.

Soaring with crystal clarity, she exudes capable intelligence and gives Eliza a winning vibrancy. She’s an even match for George McDaniel’s Henry Higgins, who is more brusquely single-minded and less the overwhelming egomaniac than his movie counterpart, Rex Harrison.

Hank Wilson is credible as the gentler linguist, Colonel Pickering. Paul Green is suitably dreamy and callow as Freddy. Ian Abercrombie’s Alfred P. Doolittle is a lovable rapscallion--both lusty and likable. Kathy Davis gives Henry’s mother a sardonic glee in her son’s lovelorn woes.

Although Eliza’s grand ballroom gown looks too much like a wedding dress, Mela Hoyt-Hayden has rendered beautifully detailed costumes that contrast with the relative simplicity of Gary Wissmann’s set design.

Wissmann does allow for enough scholastic clutter in Higgins’ handsomely appointed study. The theatrical magic is accented by the energetic gymnastics of Lee Martino’s choreography.

The production is a fitting farewell to La Mirada, whose loss is another city’s gain.

The last six performances will be in Musical Theatre West’s other (and now only) venue--the Carpenter Performing Arts Center on the Cal State Long Beach campus.

BE THERE

“My Fair Lady,” La Mirada Theatre, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Through July 25. $20 to $35. (714) 521-4849. At Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Cal State Long Beach, July 29-31, 8 p.m.; July 31-Aug. 1, 2 p.m.; Aug. 1, 7 p.m. $30 to $35. (562) 985-7000. Ends Aug. 1. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.