My Fair Lady

First performed in the UK in 1958, My Fair Lady has long been a favourite of amateur companies up and down the country. Tonight, in the Byre Theatre, SAMS offered an enjoyable performance, unfortunately a rather gentlemen-light chorus didn’t achieve full justice for some of the many memorable chorus numbers in the show. That aside, however, a generally young cast were well used in choreographer Donna Reilly’s energetic production numbers – “Get Me To The Church On Time” being a case in point.

Director, Kris Mordente, has obviously worked hard with both chorus and principals, however, small things niggled, for example when Pickering describes Eliza’s hair to Scotland Yard as “Brown, brown, brown!” when it obviously is not!

Principal-wise the Company were fortunate to have Alice Gold and Roy Verner as Eliza and Higgins. Alice, demonstrating well the profound difference between Eliza the flower-girl and Eliza the lady. Colonel Pickering (Andrew Johnson) and Freddy Eynsford-Hill (Colin Sutherland) both found good interaction with their fellow-principals.  My favourite character of the evening, however, was Alfred P Doolittle (Alan Tricker). I have always been of the opinion that the performer, as well as the Director, has to understand the character, and Alan obviously has done just that. In this way, every bit of humour (and there is so much in My Fair Lady) can be brought to the fore.

As is the norm with SAMS productions, the orchestra is hidden away in the scene dock, which cannot make it easy to connect with the performers, albeit a waist-up relay of the MD appears on a monitor at the rear of the auditorium. Nevertheless, MD Lynn Smith did well in keeping her cast under strict control.

Sets by John Urquhart worked well and kept the already relatively small performance space as unrestricted as possible.

Sound balance at the top of the show was, initially, felt to be band-heavy, however, this was sorted out in the first few numbers, allowing the remainder of the performance to be of good balance.

Well done SAMS, and thank you for inviting me along to your show!

Looking forward to your next production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and hoping you can encourage more gents along to join your ranks!

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