Eddie Curry has very little trouble multi-tasking when it comes to directing and playing a role simultaneously in the Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre production of “My Fair Lady.”
“Most of my work as a director, when doing double-duty, is done in the pre-production phase,” said Curry, who has performed the dual chore in previous productions of “Mary Poppins” and “The Addams Family.”
“The only problem it presents is making sure as an actor, I am not overstepping my place too often trying to be the director,” Curry said. “I am pretty active in blocking rehearsals early on, but eventually I attempt to take off the directing hat and trust those around me to polish the show during the final phase of the rehearsal process.
“I would like to say that I am just such a brilliant artist, that I can do this by myself, but double-duty is only made possible because I surround myself with really talented people who make me look good. Ron Morgan is my choreographer and co-director. Tech week runs smoothly because of him, and the super organizational skills of our stage manager for the show, Elizabeth Stark.’’
Based on George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Lowe, “My Fair Lady” runs through May 14 at the northwestside Indy dinner theater. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor and phoneticist Henry Higgins so that she can pass as a lady.
Curry was not involved with the last time B&B presented “My Fair Lady” in 1997, but played the role of Jamie in a previous production in 1990. This time around he plays Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza’s smooth-talking father. Is there a little of Alfred in Curry?
“Yes,” he confessed. “Alfie could talk his way into or out of just about anything. It’s his affable charm. I have had a bit of success with that myself.”
For tickets, visit beefandboards.com.
