My Fair Lady

What a lovely sensory greeting from the lavender seller. The cast of police, shoe shine, programme sellers in costume and, of course, a raffle seller. Movement and interaction with the audience arriving, soon set the tone of the evening for a performance of a popular musical by a popular, talented company. A story of a cockney girl, Eliza, taken from the street by Henry Higgins, who wins his bet with Colonel Pickering when she takes society by storm. He does forget that Eliza is a person with feelings, but of course all ends well.

The 14 piece orchestra under the baton of Leigh Mason took us off to the action with a very fast overture. I loved the grouping on stage throughout, especially chorus numbers and Henry’s household staff. The choreography team introduced rousing dancing, small very effective head movements, slow motion freezes with individuals freezing in turn.

The Covent Garden scene and “Wouldn’t it be Loverly” was lovely. Nice singing voice of Eliza (Esme Sallnow). Dialogue rather quiet at times, but Esme managed this very demanding part well. Henry Higgins (Christopher Sims) appeared as rather an unfeeling intellectual which well deserved Eliza’s rendition of “Just You Wait ‘Enry ‘Iggins”. Again, a good performance – we saw his true colours in “I’ve Grown Accustomed to her Face”. Colonel Pickering (John Clifford) supported Eliza and Henry and it was nice to see him moving well in later scenes. Mrs Pearce (Alison Ravenscroft) gave an excellent performance and the household staff gave a lovely rendition of “Poor Professor Higgins”.

And then there was Alfred Doolittle (Bill Hughes). What a character. He was suitably common and sang to the audience. He did, of course, scrub up well for “Get Me to the Church on Time”. He and his ‘mates’ were a formidable sight, another great chorus number. Freddie Eynsford-Hill (Graham Kelly) was young and suitably excited and obviously it was love at first sight with Eliza. He Sang “On the Street Where You live” with feeling.

Costumes for all the scenes were excellent and in period. The Ascot scene was with traditional black & white and stunning. Very cleverly choreographed again when couples walked from the stage through the audience thereby distracting us all from yet another slick scene change.

Henry’s study desk was set in front of the proscenium arch with the rest being set cleverly by using the consistent levels which enabled railings for street scenes to inter-change with pictures and props suggesting the study. Levels were used again with effect to give guests at the Embassy Ball a strong entrance.

How Llangollen manage to accommodate so many cast on their small stage is commendable. It rarely looks over-crowded and the space is always used well. A show can be so enhanced by back stage crew, lighting and members of the wardrobe team and this was the case with this show.

A lovely show which the audience and ourselves certainly enjoyed.

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