"She's so deliciously low. So horribly dirty."

Professor Henry Higgins has accepted a new project this month at Pentacle Theatre: taking a braying cockney flower girl and raising her up to the heights of society by means of proper English speech. He means not just to improve her vowel pronunciation, but to sculpt an entirely new woman out of soiled gutter clay. All his troublesome lessons, the ones he teaches and the ones he learns, are put forth for Salem’s entertainment by director Geri Lyne Greeno-Sanders.

Heather Dunkin Schwartz plays Eliza Doolittle. Schwartz is a Pentacle gem, seeming to appear in as many plays as they can fit her in. She has both the singing voice of an opera diva and the ability to loudly express herself without opening her mouth. Her wide-eyed Eliza captures the sympathy and support of the audience from her first unintelligible caterwaul in the opening scene.

Jeff Sanders, another Pentacle favorite, plays Henry Higgins. Sanders is not a professional singer, but he is a fine actor. He's gifted in comedic timing, and has a great deal of fun with the sniping character he performs. His fun is ours; he is quite skilled at infecting an audience with the enjoyment he is experiencing.

The cast also features Art James as Higgin’s comrade, the sweet and stuffy Colonel Pickering, and Tom Wrosch as Eliza’s delightfully amoral father Alfred. Wrosch has the difficult job of portraying the drunkard who sells his daughter for five pounds to a stranger as an endearing cad, instead of a disturbing creep. He succeeds, for the most part, by means of roaring, good-natured bluster.

Tony Zandol’s stage design is a return to what Pentacle does best, minimalist elegance with plenty of open space for the audience's imagination to fill.

If there was anything wrong with Pentacle’s production, it was within their noble intention of providing live music to accompany the actors. Two pianos, played by Jerry Bull and John Livingstone, sit on either side of the stage. I cannot say what the result was for audience members sitting directly in front of the stage, but in the wings, the pianos did not mesh with each other or with the singers. With the exception of the powerful voice of Ms. Schwartz, the music overwhelmed the players. This was especially true, unfortunately, of lead actor Sanders, whose strength of voice did not match his strength of performance.

I have seen the famous film of this play many times, with its immortal stars Harrison and Hepburn. But I must say, until viewing Pentacle’s rendition, I did not realize "My Fair Lady" was a musical comedy. Higgins and Eliza are written as rather abrasive, almost dreadful characters. However, Sanders and Schwartz, both natural comedians, manage to make them entirely loveable and very funny. The theatre sparkled with well deserved laughter throughout the entire three and a half hours.