“Remember, that's your handkerchief and that's your sleeve. And don't confuse the one with the other if you want to become a lady in a shop.”
Thus iterates the phonetics professor Henry Higgins to Eliza Doolittle, a flower salesgirl who just wants to abandon her Cockney accent so she would be taken seriously in London society. Despite her ornate hats and good intentions, the second Doolittle opens her mouth to speak, all around her immediately view her as a lowlife and refuse to give her the time of day. This is ultimately the reason why she turns to Higgins for help in the first few scenes of the long-running Broadway production My Fair Lady, the musical featured in the 2013 Dolphin Show.
Communication seniors Louis Schermerhorn and Rachel Birnbaum are the two executive producers spearheading this year’s installment of the largest student-run show in the country. When they received their positions last April, the first thing they did was set about to find a show, taking into account the history and legacy of the Dolphin Show. By May, they decided to produce My Fair Lady.
“We ultimately decided to produce My Fair Lady because we wanted to embrace the space we have in Cahn,” Schermerhorn says. “It’s a show that couldn’t be done anywhere else.”
Schermerhorn, who as a sophomore produced his first student show, a four-character play, says his favorite part about producing a show on the scale of My Fair Lady is bringing so many different people together for a common purpose. “All the audience sees is the show,” Schermerhorn says. “But what I love is being part of the complication and the frenzy that it takes to put together a two-hour entertainment piece.”
Over the summer, Schermerhorn and Birnbaum began coordinating with the design, marketing and business teams. Everything the audience can see onstage was finalized by November, but to do so, Schermerhorn says, required a conversation that took months to acquire artistic agreement.
In the midst of all the show’s signature upbeat brass interludes and various Cockney accents, the audience can expect to be mesmerized by the relationship between Eliza and Henry Higgins, the professor aiming to teach her how to speak like a lady. Their relationship departs from the classic love story and into an unexplainable compelling that reflects the major tenets of the Dolphin Show’s tradition of bringing the Northwestern community together.
“It’s amazing to be part of a show that, in its essence, delves into all the ways we can touch each other,” Schermerhorn says. “Just like Eliza and Henry, all of us working on the show have enjoyed being part of each other’s lives even though we aren’t really able to explain what it is or how it is that we touch each other. What a great job I have, as someone who is interested in the human relationship side of things.”
One of Northwestern’s favorite traditions, the Dolphin Show continues to demonstrate its ability to bring together the student body not only through its programming but also through its philanthropic efforts. At each performance, the Dolphin Show will be auctioning off hats, costumes and other showpieces to raise money for Communication sophomore Josie Nordman, whose family is hard at work raising money for a life-saving lung transplant.
This inter-community support reflects the pride and passion of the Northwestern theater department.
“For this weekend, we’re just about the love of theater,” Schermerhorn says. “I just love theater myself, and I’m excited for people to come out and see theater that they love and have a good time.”
My Fair Lady will run for 5 performances from Friday, Jan. 25 to Saturday, Feb. 2. Tickets cost $25 for the general public, $20 for seniors and Northwestern faculty and staff and $10 for students and youth.