While I love the classics of musical theatre I also have a soft spot in my heart for new works and try to be forgiving of flaws to companies brave enough to take them on. This week we even have a US premiere here in Utah with Flowers for Mrs Harris at The Ruth. While this is far from a perfect show I appreciate the homage to the French New Wave particularly the work of filmmaker Jacques Demy as well as designers like Givenchy, Chanel and of course Christian Dior.

Many will be familiar with the feature films Mrs Harris Goes to Paris which has been adapted into movies 3 times most famously in 1958 with Angela Lansbury and recently in 2022 starring Lesley Manville. It’s a sweet story about a cleaning lady in 1957 who saves money to buy a dress from Christian Dior- the flowers dresses to be more specific. It’s the kind of simple mature women-focused stories we don’t often get these days and worthy of your time.

The production at The Ruth features Dianna Graham as Ada Harris and the first act of the musical is her 3 year quest to save the $520 needed to purchase a Dior gown. After years of loneliness she wants to have “Something to Come Home to.” We all need our goals and what I find so endearing about the story is she is rewarded with not just the dress at the end of it but a whole community of friends that feed off of her goal-setting and positive spirit.

The music has more in common with an opera than traditional musical theatre. The dialogue is minimal and the songs aren’t melodic in the way we usually see in American musicals. Like I said, it reminds me a lot of Demy and his films like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg or The Young Girls of Rochefort. It is on the plodding side at times but I still find it overall worthwhile and interesting.

The production at The Ruth is helmed by director Barta Heiner and most importantly she gets the fashion and atmosphere right. Dennis Wright is phenomenal with his costumes and the models that they have wearing the dresses look like professional models. It’s very impressive (I wondered if they’d use the ballgowns from Cinderella but these all looked new.) The accents were also excellent throughout both British and French.

I saw the show opening night and I hope they are able to work on the sound mix as the music track is frequently too loud for the singers hurting the overall immersion in the story. I also wish a character named Pamela hadn’t been in the musical as she is unbelievably selfish not really fitting the tone of the piece but I realize The Ruth can’t do anything about that. Almost all of the actors play multiple roles, both French and English counterparts and I can only imagine how challenging that is to pull off.

Like I said, I know Flowers for Mrs Harris won’t be for everyone but I enjoyed it and appreciate The Ruth trying something new. It is playing through November 15th and tickets can be purchased here.

Flowers for Mrs Harris features music and lyrics by Richard Taylor and a book by Rachel Wagstaff based on the book Mrs ‘Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico.

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