'My Fair Lady' is a lover-ly production

She could have danced all night. So appealing is Rachel Moulton's Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady" at Northport's Engeman Theater, we'd stick around just to watch her. That is, after Henry Higgins - a suave Thomas Hammond - cures the erstwhile flower girl of her Cockney whine.

Adapted from George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion," the musical overcame obstacles in an era - "Lady" made her Broadway debut in 1956 - that demanded romance. Although Lerner and Loewe flirted with a love connection between the professor and his flower-girl project, not so much as a peck passes between them.

Higgins takes on Eliza as his student-ward after she shows up at his house seeking elocution lessons that would advance her ambitions beyond that of a street hawker. Higgins is about to dismiss her when Colonel Pickering, a fellow linguist, proposes a wager. He challenges Higgins to pass the wench off as a lady at the Embassy Ball.

Through months of lessons, Higgins discovers he's "Grown Accustomed to Her Face," a number that's forever been spoken to music after Rex Harrison famously threatened not to go on if required to sing. Hammond follows suit with convincingly tender, if sexist, regard for his "creation."

As Pickering, John Little fulfills our expectations of an English gentleman, while Peggy Scott upholds the standards of a lady in dual roles. Gary Troy as Eliza's wayward dad threatens to steal the show in the boisterous "With a Little Bit of Luck" and riotous "Get Me to the Church on Time." Sam Pinkerton brays his "On the Street Where You Live" devotion to Eliza with impressive lung power.

The ensemble shows off its Sunday best in "Ascot Gavotte," which sets up Eliza's howling one-liner.

But this show belongs to Moulton once she nails the note that tops "I Could Have Danced All Night" after Eliza masters the broad vowels in "The Rain in Spain" while she and her mentor exchange fleeting glances during their flamenco turn.

Director Alan Souza keeps the long first act moving apace, ending not with a ballroom grand entrance but with Eliza and Higgins departing arm-in-arm into Cory Pattak's lighting fade. Adam Koch's two-tiered set handily doubles as London exteriors and Higgins' home. Eliza's bejeweled ball gown, which helps her pass for royalty, highlights Deborah Caney's costuming.

This "Lady" is fair, indeed.

WHAT "My Fair Lady," the classic musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe

WHEN | WHERE Tomorrow and Friday nights at 8, Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m., additional performances 8 p.m. Wednesdays starting Oct. 13, at the John W. Engeman Theater at Northport, 250 Main St. through Oct. 31

INFO $60; engemantheater.com, 631-261-2900