My Fair Lady

Based on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, the story of the flower girl Eliza Doolittle’s transformation under the tutelage of Henry Higgins is a familiar story. In this MGR production Kimberly Doreen Burns and Will Erat made Lerner and Loewe proud.

The standards - Wouldn’t It Be Loverly; I Could Have Danced All Night; The Rain in Spain; On the Street Where You Live - were delivered with exceptional voice.

Nevertheless Gary Marachek stole the show with his masterful characterization as Eliza’s father Alfred P. Doolittle.

The play may have gone a little too long for those seniors in attendance. But My Fair Lady is still good-time theatre.

Other shows of this season:
Kiss Me Kate
9 to 5
Cabaret
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Nunsense

Week Thirty-One - 21 to Go

The Parker family has passed the Spenser mantel to Ace Atkins. This novel proves their decision to be a wise one. Not only does Atkins continue Spenser’s crisp dialogue but he also puts Hawk back in the action.

Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks in 2012

Birding - Montezuma

Van Spoor Road

The day got off to a splendid start. Walking up to the observation deck at Martens Tract a distinct "fitz-bew" was coming from the grasses to the North. There was a willow flycatcher singing its heart out.

At the end of Van Spoor Road there was a lot of activity. The Ring-billed Gulls were joined in the water by American Coots and Moorhens (aka Common Gallinule). On the telephone wires were a Kingfisher and a Bank Swallow.

There were numerous Monarch butterflies about today, including this one seen from the car window on Towpath Road.

A green frog was sunny itself near the observation deck at South Spring Pool. Walking further down the South Spring Pool trail came upon three Lesser Yellowlegs and a Kingfisher.

Joan sent out a search plane to signal come home so I heeded the advice and concluded a great of birding.

Week Thirty - 22 to Go

Gratuitous nonsense. An infantile exercise in sophomoric humor. A bird flipping monkey named Carl as a major character, really.

Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks in 2012

Week Twenty-Nine - 23 to Go

Psychological thriller in the English tradition. Superb plotting and in-depth personalities. Yorke may not be every reader's cup of tea, but she is good at what she does.

Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks in 2012

Week Twenty-Eight - 24 to Go

Yancey takes a stab at giving his detective, Teddy Ruzak, first a Monk persona then a Rockford facade. His mystery fails on both accounts.

Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks in 2012

9 to 5

The second show of the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse's 2012 season Dolly Parton and Patricia Resnick's "9 to 5" played to a delighted packed house.  Refrains from show's title track could be heard through the cool Owasco Lake breeze as we approached our car in the parking lot.

The three central characters, Judy Bernly (Lindsie VanWinkle), Violet Newstead (Marci Reid) and Doralee Rhodes (Shayla Osborn), were superb. But the sets of this production also play a central role in bringing the audience into the office conflict.

This was summer theatre at its best.

Other shows of this season:
Kiss Me Kate
My Fair Lady
Cabaret
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Nunsense

Week Twenty-Seven - 25 to Go

It’s Lucas Davenport. Read it and be entertained.

Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks in 2012