My Fair Lady

The well-known iconic musical 'My Fair Lady’ is based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from Professor Henry Higgins, a phoneticist, so that she may pass as a lady.

‘Eliza Doolittle’ played by Beth Smith fully embraced both aspects of the characterisation from Cockney flower girl to cultured lady with some very amusing interludes in between. Her accent was good throughout and with a voice to match Beth held the audience’s attention and was a match for some of the more experienced actors along- side.

The other central role, of ‘Professor Higgins’ was played with great presence by Andrew Bartlett, proving more than capable of coping with the wonderful lyrics and music. A bachelor through and through the realisation that he was more attached to Eliza than first he thought was well performed.

Higgins’ visitor from India, ‘Colonel Pickering’ (Andy Brown) agrees to stand the cost of the ‘experiment’ if it is successful. Pickering is a good foil for Higgins and Andy plays the gentlemanly role well, never forgetting to treat Eliza the flower girl as a lady and also in reminding Higgins to ‘be reasonable’.

Meanwhile Eliza’s dustman Father, ‘Alfred P Doolittle’ gets to hear that Eliza has moved in with Higgins and although not overly concerned for her welfare, wonders what might be in it for him! Tam Weir played ‘Doolittle’ for all it is worth with humour, power and timing, the highlight being the well choreographed  ‘Get me to the Church on Time’ in Act 2.

The iconic Ascot Gavotte scene at the races fulfilled expectation with the company beautifully dressed and poised. Eliza is introduced to Mrs Higgins, an excellent and stylish performance by Anne Lane. All the dialogue moved at an excellent pace throughout but I thought the sequences with Mrs Higgins, Henry Higgins and Eliza in the garden of Mrs Higgins’ house were delivered with perfection.

In the Ascot racing party, a young ‘Freddy Eynsford –Hill’ is immediately smitten by Eliza and Frankie Blincoe-Deval captured his innocence perfectly and sang well – a very pleasing performance. Others provide great support including Teresa Bufton as ‘Mrs Pearce’, whose inclusion in a reprise of ‘A Hymn to Him’ provided the opportunity for some animated expressions; James Cowlishaw as the devilish ‘Prof. Zoltan Karpathy’, and Jan Miller-Weir as ‘Mrs Eynsford –Hill’ . 

The sets were stunning and were changed with a minimum of fuss and the costumes were superb. There were some slight intermittent problems with the sound and the orchestra supported the singing well. The end result was a well- directed production by Glynis Smith who was deservedly presented with her 40 year long service award by Ian G Cox the Regional Councillor, following the performance.

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