Bryce Pinkham didn’t want to miss seeing Lisa O'Hare in My Fair Lady, so he found a novel way to make sure he’d have the best seat in the house: He signed on to do the show with her.
“I have no problem telling you that part of the reason I’m here is to watch her do this role,” Pinkham says, and when he got the call about playing Freddy in the Lyric Opera’s My Fair Lady in Chicago, he told O’Hare straightaway. “He called me and said we might be working together in April,” she recounts. “We had a lengthy talk about the show. I’m fascinated to see his Freddy. I think there might be more of a genuine dilemma choosing between Henry and Freddy this time.” Though O’Hare has played Eliza before, on both the U.K. and U.S. tours of the show, she’s excited to take on the role again. “It arguably launched my career. I learned who I was as an actor working on this show. I think I could do it until I die and never get bored of it.”
The pair met sharing the stage in the surprise Broadway hit, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, where O’Hare played Sibella to Pinkham’s Monty. “We just had such an amazing experience together. I feel like those people are family to me,” he says. “And it’s always nice to go into battle with a former war buddy.” Since then, they’ve developed a great appreciation for each other both onstage and off. “I love how brave Bryce is,” O’Hare says, when asked what she loves about performing with him. “It always excites me to work with him. He’s also an extremely generous actor, and those are two things I value immensely.” Pinkham has plenty of praise for O’Hare in return. “My favorite part about Lisa as an actor is her passion for the character. The best actors put their characters before themselves. She’s going to look under every rock and uncover all the colors to be found in Eliza.”
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They only have a few weeks together to rehearse the show before their first performance on April 28th, so coming into the process with a bond already established has been a huge asset. “It’s much easier, because there’s a shorthand that we have as friends. She knows what to expect from me in the rehearsal room,” Pinkham says, and O’Hare agrees. “We get advice from each other. We can speak honestly about the play and I think that’s incredibly important.” She also sees some similarities between My Fair Lady and Gentleman’s Guide. “As Sibella and Monty, in the beginning, Bryce sort of follows me around,” she explains. “Here, he’s basically doing the same thing. We need to find our next show where you just follow me around!” Pinkham suggests Around the World in 80 Days or The Music Man. “We joke about it, but I’ll happily come up with something else for us to do,” he says. “It’s just amazing to have someone you can trust with the parts of your soul you’re letting them have a peek at.”
Take a look inside rehearsals with Pinkham and O’Hare:
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