As anticipated, the Marion Music Hall production of Our Fair Lady sold hundreds of tickets over the course of the Elizabeth Taber Gala Weekend of October 2-4, celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Marion Music Hall.
The musical play celebrated the life and contributions of Elizabeth Taber, arguably the most influential figure in Marion’s history, who founded Tabor Academy and much of the town’s most prominent historical architectural buildings.
Barbara Gee, who wrote the book and arranged the music for the show, based the music compositions on the original production My Fair Lady.
Eric Bosworth, Kimberly Teves, and Carl Denney of the musical group “The Occasion Singers” lent their talents to the production as well, under the musical direction of Cassandra Morgan. Teves played Taber and Bosworth narrated the performance.
The 175 theater seats for both Friday and Saturday night shows sold out, and there were only ten empty chairs during the Sunday matinee, said Marion Music Hall Advisory Committee member Tinker Saltonstall, which, historically, is no easy accomplishment.
“In this town, that’s quite remarkable,’ said Saltonstall. “We’re all people who love to go to bed when the sun goes down.”
Saltonstall said for years she organized Tabor Academy events such as concerts and lectures and it was often like “pulling teeth” to get people to attend, she said.
“This play really was a draw and everybody was captivated,” said Saltonstall. “Not just by the story and the history of it, but also the profound idea that Elizabeth Taber had the vision to provide all of these amenities to the Town of Marion. In her day and in her age, that really was a remarkable thing.”
Taber, born Elizabeth Pitcher in Marion in 1791, was a school teacher until she moved to Acushnet in 1824 with her clock maker husband Stephen Taber. She bore three children, all of whom died before their fifth birthday, and was widowed when she returned to Marion in 1870, determined to use the wealth she amassed through several wise financial investments to improve the morale and atmosphere of her beloved hometown after the Civil War.
Her first contribution was the building and establishment of the Elizabeth Taber Library and Natural History Museum. In 1876, she founded Tabor Academy in what is now the Marion Town House.
She continued on to build the Union Hall and the Congregational Chapel for a Sunday school and a place for women to practice their craft making.
Her final contribution before her death in 1888 was the Marion Music Hall, a place the townspeople could use as a hub for the town’s cultural, musical, and committee activities.
“That’s what we were inspired by initially,” said Saltonstall. To honor the woman who gave the town its Music Hall in the same spirit for which “Marion’s Fairy Godmother” intended its use – with a musical interpretation of the life of a woman who forever changed the future of Marion.
By Jean Perry
