My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady, based on Shaw’s original stage play Pygmalion, is regarded as a classic and is a favourite musical for many.  It is well known for its beautiful costumes, sets and music and that is exactly what we were treated to in this production.

The opening scene was particularly well directed and choreographed with plenty of variation in lighting and movement to hold the audience’s interest before a single note had been sung.  Although My Fair Lady is a lengthy show, it had a good pace throughout with scene changes handled smoothly by the stage crew.  The director really brought out the best in the cast and highlighted what a truly wonderful piece of theatre My Fair Lady is.

Professor Higgins was outstanding.  His dialogue, which is substantial, was delivered flawlessly and he gave a very believable portrayal of this rather condescending, conceited man.   Lerner and Loewe’s music for Higgins is extremely difficult but there was a perfect balance between performing the songs in a Rex Harrison style and letting us enjoy a fine singing voice.

Eliza Doolittle gave a very strong performance with lovely vocals, movement and acting.   Eliza Doolittle is a very well-known character and, of course, everyone has their own idea of how the part should be played.  Personally I would have liked to have seen her a bit more down to earth and rougher in the opening scenes to make her later transformation all the more remarkable. 

Alfred Doolittle had a lot of fun with the part, although again I would have liked to have seen more evidence of the dirt and grime which would go hand in hand with his job as a dustman. However, his portrayal was very strong with a good singing voice, excellent performance skills and comic timing. 

A stand out moment for me was the mad Hungarian, Zoltan Karpathy.  He was hilarious in this cameo part and seemed to relish the opportunity to bring this larger than life character to the stage.

The choreography was generally excellent and very well executed.  A particular highlight was the couple in the ballroom scene who performed a delightful waltz. 

The singing from everyone was excellent, with some very nice harmonies from the chorus. The orchestra played this memorable score beautifully and was well balanced with the cast. There was a good energy throughout and it was obvious that the whole cast were enjoying singing and dancing to these much loved tunes.  

Costumes, hair and make-up were uniformly excellent and evoked the period magnificently.

The ending for both the play and the musical is often left quite ambiguous, but I liked the suggestion in this production that Eliza and Higgins do end up together. 

All in all this was a very accomplished and enjoyable production from everyone involved.  

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