THEATER REVIEW:

More than a half-century ago, composers Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe decided to take George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” and add a few song and dance numbers. The result was a Broadway classic.

Over the decades, the result of that ’50s collaboration — “My Fair Lady” — has become one of the most beloved musicals of all time, and has been revived and spruced up for each new generation of theatergoers. The 1964 movie version won the Best Picture Oscar, along with a statuette for Rex Harrison, who reprised his Broadway role as Professor Henry Higgins.

Now, after a considerable absence from local stages, “My Fair Lady” has returned, winding up a two-week engagement this weekend at the O.C. Performing Artscenter. It’s a joyous occasion, punctuated by some of the finest individual performances in memory.

In most cases, the actress playing Eliza Doolittle, the Cockney “squashed cabbage leaf” transformed into the belle of the ball, is the show’s focal point. And — though Lisa O’Hare is excellent in this role — the spotlight gravitates toward Christopher Cazenove as the martinet dialectician Higgins.

Cazenove dominates the stage with a wall-rattling voice and a leonine growl, adding an aura of physical menace to what previously has been primarily intellectual superiority. His “I’m an Ordinary Man” and “A Hymn to Him” numbers resonate with the primal force of this superior character. An outstanding performance.

O’Hare has some stellar moments, and her “Show Me” and “Without You” solos reflect a freshly realized independence. Her only drawback is a tendency to display a touch of class before it’s required — such as her demure rendering of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?”

You can search the revivals of this musical from now to doomsday and not find a more outstanding Alfred P. Doolittle than Tim Jerome, who amplifies what already is a dominant comic character. Realizing this, director Trevor Nunn and choreographer Matthew Bourne have bolstered Jerome’s two signature numbers — “With a Little Bit of Luck” and “Get Me to the Church on Time” — with an all-stops-out choral embellishment. And you may be forgiven in the first for recalling the old Gene Kelly movie “It’s Always Fair Weather.”

Another superior talent is Justin Bohon as Eliza’s besotted suitor Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Bohon delivers magnificently in his signature number, “On the Street Where You Live,” with some awe-inspiring vocalizing. Walter Charles deftly underplays Higgins’ partner in deception, Colonel Pickering.

Back in 1964, Audrey Hepburn’s Eliza was voiced by the brilliant singer Marni Nixon. Well, she’s back with the show in 2008, this time ironically as Higgins’ mother — a non-singing role. Marnee Hollis capably fills the no-nonsense role of Higgins’ housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce (filling in for Barbara Marineau at the reviewed performance).

Anthony Ward’s huge settings glide in and out of the action effortlessly. Christine Rowland’s costumes are elegant, though the funereal garb for the Ascot race is puzzling, as this sequence normally is played out in all white.

“My Fair Lady” has long since earned its place in the musical theater hall of fame. Productions such as the excellent one at the Center serve to illustrate just what all the fuss has been about.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “My Fair Lady”

WHERE: Orange County Performing Artscenter, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

WHEN: Closing performances 7:30 p.m. today and Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday

COST: $20 to $75

CALL: (714) 556-2787

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews appear Thursdays.