My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw`s Pygmalion, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. It tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower seller whose aspirations are to work in a flower shop. With this in mind and after a “chance” meeting with Professor Higgins she decides to take speech lessons from him. Higgins relishes the opportunity, and, so confident in his own abilities to be able to teach her, has a bet with Colonel Pickering that he can pass her off as a lady.

Eliza Doolittle was played by Susie Romaniuk. Susie oozed confidence- from the moment she set foot onstage, to Curtain down Susie WAS Eliza Doolittle. This was a “loverly” performance, her transformation from “prisoner of the gutter” flower girl to lady fit for the Embassy Ball was, quite simply, exquisite. Whilst this conversion took place over a period of weeks, and was very well done, Susie`s transformation in the scene where Higgins and Pickering are flushed with their own success, was outstanding. Her unmitigated joy at the start of the scene, descending almost to despair by the end of it was mesmerising to watch. Well done.

Susie was well supported by Andy Whittle as Henry Higgins. Andy`s Higgins was played with the dry humour the part demands, and although slightly less vulnerable and slightly more bitter than other Higgins`s I have seen, his interpretation suited the role of an upper class man with no regard for anyone`s feelings but his own- the slight bitterness enhancing the part, and making you wonder what had happened to make him so.

Andy`s Higgins was equally matched by David Liptrott, playing Colonel Pickering. David had a great stage presence with a really good sense of comedy, timing and every inch the gentleman- his demeanour towards Eliza in some scenes being the antithesis of Higgins`s. Great characterisation. The scenes with all three were a joy to watch.

Eliza`s father, Alfred P Doolittle was ebulliently played by Matthew Boardman- likeable throughout, and happy to scrounge a drink or two, Matthew played it with a swagger and cheeky charm. Alfred and his friends Jamie and Harry, played by Dave Eddowes and Karl Roe made the most of their musical numbers and looked as though they were really enjoying them.

Andrew Thompson made a very good Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Convincingly both foppish and wet at the same time, coming into his own in the song, “On the street where you live”.

Other performances of note were Irene Melling as housekeeper Mrs Pearce, Geoff Houghton as Professor Zoltan Karpathy, Karen Fay as Mrs Eynsford Hill and Meryl Bull as the frustrated, long suffering mother of Henry.

The chorus supported the principals with gusto, both vocally and physically. All chorus numbers were enjoyable to watch and executed with style, harmonies were heard, as were solo lines. My only criticism, and more an observation really, whilst I do realise that children would have frequented the streets at the time (and also bring in more audience), this is a long show and there were a few tired nippers up there. I am not normally one to pontificate about costumes, but these were really good, Eliza`s Ascot and Embassy Ball costumes were stunning.

Staging was good, with generally swift scene changes to move the production along. Lighting and sound were good, and in keeping with their settings.

Orchestra were well balanced, and ably led by Anna Eddowes-Scott, chorus and principals had obviously been worked hard- and it showed.

Choreography and Direction by Vanessa Whittle were really good- again, a lot of time had been dedicated to both tasks, and the results were there for all to see.

Vanessa has every right to be proud of this production, and everyone involved in it.

My Fair Lady is a long show, in fact a really long show- especially with its reprises of virtually every song. This, in my experience is one of the reasons that the show is slowly falling off the radar for some amateur companies.  You could remove the reprises I guess, but would the show lose the essence of what it is- and that, when done well is damn good entertainment!

Thank you Lancaster Red Rose, for your invite, and your hospitality.

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