Stepping into Julie Andrews or Audrey Hepburn’s shoes might make anyone quake in their boots, but not New York-based actress Aurora Florence.
The 24-year-old plays the well-loved role of Eliza Doolittle in the touring production of My Fair Lady, which opened on Tuesday at Marina Bay Sands’ MasterCard Theatre and runs till March 2.
“One of the things that I loved about Julie Andrews and Audrey Hepburn is that they brought so much of who they were to the role. That’s part of what makes it so endearing,” says Florence at a media preview yesterday. “I find ways to imagine how I would feel if I was in that situation.”
Andrews played the Cockney flower girl-turned- lady when the musical, based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1912 play Pygmalion, first opened on Broadway in 1956. And Hepburn immortalised Eliza on film in the 1964 screen adaptation.
The production in Singapore, directed by Jeffrey B. Moss, features a cast of 20 from the United States.
Florence auditioned for the role of Eliza in May 2011, a month before she graduated with a musical theatre degree from Brigham Young University. Her husband, Jeffrey Dickamore, had also been in the 2012 US tour of the musical, acting as the chauffeur.
Asked if her husband is anything like Eliza’s mentor and ultimately love interest, Professor Higgins, Florence says with a laugh: “He’s a passionate person and cares a lot about what he does. But he’s a little bit kinder than Henry is.”
Professor Higgins is played here by theatre actor Chris Carsten. “We have a lot of trust in each other on stage,” says Florence on her relationship with him. “That’s a huge part of having chemistry with a person, it’s about trusting that you can make a choice or be vulnerable and they’ll be there to support you.”
All set to play Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady
0 comments:
Post a Comment