Reinterpreted ‘My Fair Lady’ centers women’s voices

By Sarah Buttikofer

A reimagined My Fair Lady is coming to Penn State Centre Stage, and it is already sold out ahead of its April 23–25 run. The production is the result of a reinterpretation led by School of Theatre M.F.A. candidate Kelsey Robins, who is using the classic musical to shift perspective, center women’s voices and rethink how familiar stories are told on stage. The production is part of the School of Theatre’s 2026 Graduate Directing Festival.

Robins said her connection to My Fair Lady goes back years. She grew up with the show and has seen multiple productions over time, all directed by men. That experience shaped how she began to think about the musical and what she felt was being emphasized in performance. She said that over time she kept leaving productions with a similar impression about where the focus landed.

“I grew up loving the show and over my life have seen five different productions of it and all of them have been directed by men,” Robins said. “I kept on seeing these productions and leaving feeling like Henry Higgins was the main character.”

The production, which is part of her graduate directing work in musical theatre, takes a stripped-down, highly collaborative approach. Instead of a traditional large cast, it features eight performers who are all women and non-binary artists, each taking on multiple roles throughout the show. Robins described it as an ensemble-driven piece where performers constantly shift between characters, allowing the story to stay flexible and fast-moving.

“It is a really actor-driven, fast-paced, stripped-down, woman-centric version of a classic musical,” Robins said.

That casting choice is central to her concept. Rather than positioning the production as a rejection of the original material, Robins said it is about changing how audiences hear it. She explained that placing women and non-binary performers in all roles shifts how familiar dialogue and power dynamics register. She also noted that it draws attention to language and attitudes in the script that can otherwise go unexamined.

“One of the ways that I really noticed it coming into play is My Fair Lady, at least on its surface and often how it’s advertised, is like it is this story of Eliza Doolittle, this strong woman finding her place in the world,” Robins said.

Robins added that hearing the material spoken through a different cast changes how audiences perceive it.

“Getting to hear the show with this female and non-binary cast has really just shed some new light on the language,” Robins said.

At its core, Robins said the production engages with themes of class, gender and power, and how those ideas continue to resonate today. She hopes the work encourages audiences to think more broadly about representation in musical theatre and whose stories are most often centered.

“I hope the conversation leaving the production is a conversation about the power and strength of women’s voices, and stories of other voices that are less represented,” Robins said.

Robins described her directing process as collaborative and conversational. She said she enters rehearsals with research and ideas, but sees the work as something that must be shaped with the entire company rather than dictated from the top down. She emphasized building the production through ongoing dialogue with actors and designers, allowing the piece to evolve in the room.

“I fundamentally believe that the show that we create is a show that can only be created with the specific group of people that we’re working with,” Robins said.

She also highlighted her interest in theatricality itself, focusing on what stage performance can do that other forms of storytelling cannot.

Robins said the process has helped her grow as a director, especially in balancing preparation with collaboration. She described learning how to integrate input from others while still maintaining a cohesive vision, and how to move between conceptual ideas and practical staging decisions.

“I have gotten much more confident in my ability to receive what actors and other collaborators are bringing and work to weave them together with my own ideas,” Robins said.

Although this is not her final M.F.A. project, Robins said it represents an important step in her development and reflects a direction she plans to continue exploring. She pointed to earlier work directing an all-women production of 1776 as part of that trajectory, and said she is committed to centering women’s stories in both new and existing works.

Photo, left to right: Anna Garcia, Katie Walsh, Sophie Page, Livi De Maio