The Empty Space Theater put on the well-known musical “My Fair Lady” to an enthusiastic crowd on Oct. 5. The musical, directed by Ron Warren, Kelsey Morrow, and choreographed by Jennifer Skiby Plunkett, runs Fridays and Saturdays at   8 p.m. until Oct. 20. 

“My Fair Lady” is a musical based on the play “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw. The plot revolves around a young street peddler with a strong British accent and a language instructor who is absolutely appalled by the way Eliza speaks. He takes her off of the streets and into his lavish home after making a bet with his friend that he can pass her off as a duchess within six months. 

The play starts off with flower peddler Eliza Doolittle (Tessa Ogles) as she tries to sell flowers to the rich people that walk by. She catches the attention of both Colonel Pickling (Ron Warren), a rich socialite, and Henry Higgins (Tevin Joslen), a language instructor. The two men end up discovering that they’ve been pen pals for months.

The second scene features Eliza’s father, Alfie Doolittle (Perrin Swanson) and his friends (Victoria Lusk and Victoria Olmos) as they come up with a successful plan to get money from his daughter. 

Afterward, Eliza goes to the home of Henry Higgins to make a deal with him for language lessons to help her accent. Pickling voices that he doesn’t think Higgins can do it, leading to the six-month bet mentioned above. Higgins throws out all of Eliza’s clothes, buys her new ones, and gives her a home as he teaches her.

The next few scenes involve great musical number revolving around Eliza re-learning English. At the end of these scenes, she has a formal sounding accent and is ready to be taken into the public. The first attempt is at a racetrack for horses where Higgins’ mom (Cathy Henry) frequents. It is there that she shocks the socialites and captures the eye of a young man named Freddie (Alex Mitts).

After deeming the racetrack a semi-success, Higgins and Pickling take Eliza to a royal ball where she passes as a duchess, even fooling the queen of Transylvania (Marti Hoyt) and convincing Zoltan Karpathy (Pete Keys), a native Hungarian, that she is a Hungarian princess. 

After the ball, Higgins and Pickling are extremely happy with their success, but Eliza finds herself in a state of worry. She feels as if she is losing her home now that the bet is over. Higgins, who can’t understand why Eliza is so paranoid now that she has a good accent, ends up fighting with her and causing her to leave. It is then revealed that he is in love with her. He later confronts her, only to be met with rejection. The play ends on an ominous note as Picking, Higgins, and his secretary Mrs. Pearce (Julie Gaines) listen to a recording of Eliza’s old accent.