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'My Fair Lady' goes back to original text in updated shows at Citizens Bank Opera House in Boston

'My Fair Lady' goes back to original text in updated shows at Citizens Bank Opera House in Boston
'My Fair Lady' goes back to original text in updated shows at Citizens Bank Opera House in Boston 03:11

BOSTON - Boston audiences are seeing My Fair Lady through modern eyes.

You may remember the classic musical as a romance between Eliza, the flower girl, and the perfectly posh Professor Henry Higgins. But the actors on the national tour say this production goes back to the original text and puts the spotlight on something deeper.

Actress Madeline Powell told WBZ-TV her Eliza Doolittle is determined to better herself and knows she needs Higgins' help to make it happen. And unlike Professor Higgins' of the past, actor Jonathan Grunert said his character doesn't see Eliza as someone in need of rescuing.

"There's a mutual fascination and eventually a mutual respect between the two characters," he told WBZ. 

"There is never meant to be any romantic love between the two of them, though there is a lot of love that they feel," Powell said.

Andover native Blair Beasley, who plays Mrs. Clara Eynsford-Hill, is also in the cast. She's thrilled to share this updated production with Boston audiences.

"You can take a classic piece of theater and modernize it in a way that is still relatable to, you know, how our world is currently functioning," she told WBZ. 

My Fair Lady runs at the Citizens Bank Opera House in Boston through April 30th.

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