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Posted: 6/26/14

LTGI Opens ‘My Fair Lady’

 

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“My Fair Lady,” long considered the “greatest musical of all time,” will return to the Laredo stage after a 50 year absence when the Laredo Theater Guild International (LTGI) opens the finale of its fifth season at TAMIU’s Center for the Fine and Performing Arts (CFPA) Theater.

My Fair Lady” begins its general run Friday, July 18 through Sunday, July 27. It will debut with a an Ascot Gala Premiere on Thursday July 17, with a special catered reception sponsored by Women’s City Club of Laredo and the Fernando A. Salinas Charitable Trust, Javier Santos Trustee in the following the show.

Tickets for the Ascot Gala Premiere are $50, which includes the post-show catered reception, with proceeds toward LTGI programs and scholarships. Tickets for the rest of the run are $20 for general admission and $15 for students and seniors (65+) with valid ID, with 8 pm curtain on weekdays (no show Monday) and Saturdays and 3 p.m. on Sundays. All tickets are available for advance purchase at Blue Top located at 101 Hillside Rd #11; at Primped, The Style Bar, 7718 McPherson Road Suite #1, and at the TAMIU Bookstore, as well as at the box office one hour prior to each show, assuming the show is not sold out.

Producer Arciniega noted the show’s history for Laredo audiences.

“The last time My Fair Lady was produced in Laredo was almost 50 years ago when former LTGI Board member, the late Sam Johnson, produced and directed it starring Hortense Offerle and Stanley Keilson, with Elmo Lopez, Sr. as conductor of the orchestra. That performance inaugurated the Laredo Civic Center Auditorium. In honor of that and of them, we are going all out with the most sumptuous costumes and stage sets that we have ever displayed, and a cast of Laredo musical theater favorites to thrill our theatergoers," Arciniega said.

The much revered Broadway musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion is set in Edwardian London. It focuses on Henry Higgins, an arrogant, self-centered professor of phonetics who decides on a bet to prove his theories of linguistics by transforming the speech, appearance, and manner of a rough Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a refined young lady that others assume to be “of royal blood.”

My Fair Lady, starred Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews in 1956, but remains within Broadway’s top 20 longest running musicals of all time. The motion picture starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn premiered 50 years ago in 1964, and is a global film favorite today.

LTGI and producer Joe Arciniega have gathered Laredo’s top production talents, with Veronica Ramirez (Cinderella) as director, LPO maestro Brendan Townsend as musical director and conductor of the live orchestra, Cristina Greco as choreographer, Dr. Joe Crabtree as choral director, Vernon Carroll as technical Director, Teena Arciniega as costumer and Telissa Lueckenotte Molano as stage set designer. All lend their talents to make this a grand musical spectacle like LTGI’s past musical triumphs Hairspray, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, and Annie.

Starring are Kristelle Martin (Cinderella) in the title role as Eliza Doolittle, Vernon Carroll as Colonel Pickering, John Maxstadt as Alfred P. Doolittle, and returning to the stage as a performer in a musical for the first time since 2010’s The Sound of Music, Joe Arciniega as Professor Henry Higgins.

Also in the cast are Dawn Kellerman, Armando Elizondo, Carllyn Walker, Daniel Castillo, Margaret Medellin, Irma Reyes, Cindy Stewart, Cecilia Castillo, Hector Rios, Joseph Carnes, Karol Batey, Ricky Castillon, Gayle Akers Rodriguez, Leti Cantu, Brian Manning, Margo Paz, Margaret Sharp, Martin Beckelhymer, Bianca Ibarra, Michael Gonzalez, Alejandro Mejia, Yarisely Benero, Andrea Briones, Sofia Briones, Kathryn Carroll, Rebecka English, Rodolfo Gonzalez, Debbie Hernandez, Kelsey Jimerson, Ruby Marcelo, Angel Ortiz, and Mauricio Vargas.

According to director Veronica Ramirez, “My Fair Lady is the perfect combination of songs, dances and heart-warming scenes. Each and every character has an intricate part and a job to do to bring Shaw’s masterful story to its delightful conclusion.”

For more information call LTGI at (956) 319-8610, email LTGI at laredotheaterguild@gmail.com, or visit LTGI on the web at www.laredotheaterguild.com or on Facebook.


Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu