Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
My Fur Lady
Comedy revue, premiered at Moyse Hall of McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, February 7, 1957, as part of the annual Red and White Revue at the University. It went on to become a pan-Canadian smash hit playing, notably, at the Avon Theatre, Stratford (though not as part of the Stratford Festival) and the Royal Alexandra Theatre. The title is a takeoff on the Lerner & Loewe musical, My Fair Lady, which was a huge success on Broadway at the time.
It was produced by James Domville, directed and choreographed by Olivia and Brian Macdonald with a book by Timothy Porteous, Donald MacSween, Erik Wang with words by Timothy Porteous and additional dialogue by Jim Lotz; most of the music was by James Domville with additional music by Galt MacDermot and Harry Garber; musical direction and orchestration was by Ed. Assaly, technical direction by Beverly Bartram, sets by Nathalie Crawford and Sheila McCormick, costumes by Audrey Eccles and Janet Cross, lighting by David Butler. It was stage managed by David Farley, with make-up by Sylvia Shaw and props by Patricia Henderson. It featured Lionel Segal, Ted Higgins, Jerry Portner, John MacLeod, Jim Huggessen, Ann Golden, Nancy Bacal, Douglas Robertson, Judy Tarlo, David Langstroth, Gerry Williams, Elisabeth Heseltine, Margaret Deanesly, Peter Duffield, Danny Trevick, Nadia Pavlychenko, Sheila McCormick, Diane Matheson, Lawrence Cohen, Graham Wright, David Millman, Ted Higgins, Peter Duffield, Jerry Portner, Bob Amaron, Lionel Segal, Pierre Perron, Ray Sawchuk, Zena Shane, Diane Matheson, Alex Schaffer and Erik Wang as well as dancers and chorus.
The four originators of the work (MacSween, Domville, Wang, Porteous) were law students.
Called, by one reporter, "a timely, sometimes racy and nearly always funny spoof of national self-consciousness..." the work satirized everything (and as it toured nation-wide, it took on new political issues and personalities) within a loose framework, such as an Inuit princess looking for a husband and a Governor General dealing with Ottawa politics and the joining, to the nation, of the princess's independent principality, which featured songs "The DEW Line Drag," "Teach Me How to Think Canadian," 'Honey, Don't be Highbrow," "Royal Victoria Rag," "A True Canadian Romance", and dances.
By the time the work went on its national tour in the summer of 1957, the producers were claiming that it had played to more people (20,000) than any other English-language work in the history of Montreal.
Profile by Gaetan Charlebois. Information provided by Ian Easterbrook.
Last updated 2018-08-14
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The Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia web site was originally conceived and developed in 1996 by Gaetan Charlebois—theatre critic, playwright, and actor.
