Sometimes called "the perfect musical," My Fair Lady was staged on Broadway with a cast of thirty. If you pick up any book on staging regional productions, you will usually see the advice that the Lerner-and-Loewe classic is not something that can be mounted on a shoestring; that if you don't have the budget to afford all those actors and sets and costumes and especially a full orchestra, you shouldn't mess with My Fair Lady. And that always sounded like good advice to me.
But now I'm reading good reviews (like this one or this one) of a production in Florida that is being staged with ten (10) actors and only two musicians, both playing pianos. It's at the Palm Beach Playhouse in Jupiter, which was formerly known as the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater. When Burt's name was up there, it was famous for productions of widely-varying quality that ranged from Broadway-quality tryouts to sloppy vanity productions starring outta-work sitcom stars. Hearing that a ten-player My Fair Lady was being done in those halls made me shudder but apparently, it's pretty good and I'm sorry I can't get down there to take in a performance.
It's interesting to figure how the ten actors are deployed. The ones playing Higgins, Eliza, Doolittle, Pickering and Freddie only play those roles. Five other actors cover all the other parts, which means that the Ascot isn't particularly crowded and when Liza comes out at the ball, she impresses a pretty small assemblage. Still, I can see how it could be done, and I wish I could see how it is done. It's a touring company so maybe it'll tour in my direction.