North Shore theater marks comeback with charming ‘Lady’

“We made it back,’’ Hanney declared.

Yes, and made it back in style, with a charming production of the classic Lerner and Loewe musical. This “My Fair Lady,’’ directed by Charles Repole, will not banish memories of the 1964 movie version with Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn — nothing could do that — but it furnishes some moments of its own that will live in fond remembrance.

Many of those moments involve the luminous Lisa O’Hare, who plays Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower girl who subjects herself to the gruff tutelage of phoneticist Henry Higgins (Charles Shaughnessy).

There is both delicacy and emotional heft to O’Hare’s portrayal. For instance, when Higgins irritably asks her why she has shown up at his London home, O’Hare pauses just long enough for us to register how much is riding on Eliza’s answer before replying, in a tone that communicates defiance, dignity, and fragile hope: “I want to be a lady in a flower shop.’’

The eye is drawn to O’Hare whether Eliza is dancing, lighting up with joy, or simply standing in wounded silence, and when she deploys her silvery voice in songs like “I Could Have Danced All Night’’ and “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,’’ the ear is captivated. (O’Hare won an Elliot Norton Award three years ago for her performance as Eliza in a touring production of “My Fair Lady.’’)

Shaughnessy, who played Maxwell Sheffield opposite Fran Drescher on CBS’s 1990s sitcom “The Nanny,’’ is a bit tepid at first. But his portrayal of Higgins gains in force and variety as the evening wears on. Employing the speak-sing style Harrison used, he ably puts across such tunes as “I’m An Ordinary Man’’ and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,’’ and Shaughnessy’s good looks lend plausibility to the notion (hard to credit with the scowling Harrison) that Eliza would fall for him.

The supporting cast is solid all the way around. Bill Dietrich brings a piratical flair to the conniving Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza’s father. Peter Cormican is amusing as bluff, good-hearted Colonel Pickering, and so are Cheryl McMahon as Higgins’s housekeeper, Sarah deLima as his mother, and the supple-voiced Hayden Tee as Freddy, Eliza’s ardent but dim suitor.

Don Aucoin can be reached at aucoin@globe.com.