My Fair Lady

The Show

Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady is an established ‘classic’ stage musical and, while first presented over 60 years ago, remains popular and still frequently performed by professional and amateur companies.

Of course, popularity and familiarity don’t mean it’s easy to present. Staging, casting, production and music all provide their own challenges, many of which TMMTC rose to admirably.

This was a production with its controversial elements. The director, Kate Felts, in her directorial debut with this long-established company, was not afraid to challenge our familiarity with the show by introducing a few thought-provoking innovations.

 

The staging & orchestration

While My Fair Lady’s combination of large-scale scenes and smaller settings can strain the facilities of theatres with limited staging capacity, the Melton stage seems a reasonable size. I felt at times, though, that in the ‘big’ scenes more use could have been made of the depth available while in the more intimate settings there was perhaps at times a degree of overcrowding.

Having said that, the scene where a good deal of the show’s action takes place gave the feel of a professional study and consulting room within a ‘large house’ setting, exactly as the plot requires. But I wonder if the central and dominating inclusion of the attractive Greek statues (helpfully explained in the colourful programme) was an embellishment too many.

Apart from the study, and the archway cloth in the ballroom scene, sets were minimalist and relied on stage furniture to set atmospheres. This at times meant that the scene, and the action, emerged from quite a dark background. Thanks largely to the colour of the costumes and the stage props, this worked effectively.

The well-known music was ably led by Musical Director Sandra Tebbutt, an experienced Leicestershire MD. The overture, introducing the lovely tunes to come and performed by a well-controlled Band, was actively illustrated by a busy London scene complete with ‘cockney’ stereotypes, a delightful ‘keystone cops’ policeman (Hadyn Green), and suffragettes. It was unfortunate that the suffragette leader’s speech was difficult to hear over the playing of the Overture, but visually we got the message.

Some shows rely heavily on the quality of dance. My Fair Lady is not primarily a dancing show, and it’s refreshing when a company provides musical movement on the strength of its own resources, without ‘importing’ an external dance troupe. Congratulations to Choreographer Victoria Adams for achieving this.

Costumes reflected the individual characters, both ensemble and principal, though I did feel that, at Ascot, Eliza was a little less well-served costume-wise than one or two of the lady aristocrats. Eliza’s appearance should ‘steal’ this scene.

Sound, lighting, scene changes and prop movements were all well-handled. Congratulations to Trevor Adams and James Pritchard and their teams for achieving the smooth and apparently problem-free stage management.

 

The cast

This show relies heavily on the central characters of Eliza Doolittle, Henry Higgins and Alfred Doolitle, Eliza’s dad.

As Professor Higgins, experienced actor Keran Turakhia gave a convincing portrayal of this interesting character. Focussing more, perhaps, on the ‘heavy’ side of Higgins’ character than the lighter side which audiences warm to, it was a confident, well-sung and well-received performance.

Georgie Bladon’s Eliza transitioned convincingly from uneducated, inarticulate flower-girl to sophisticated and confident lady. Her fine soprano voice coped well with the lovely songs delivered in both versions of her developing character.

Jason Wrightam was clearly at home in the role of Doolittle. His performance was accomplished and, with the strong support of Mark and Phil Hopkinson (Harry and Jamie), musically and visually entertaining. With the vocally-strong ensemble, ‘Get me to the church on time’ was one of the highlights of the show.

These three characters need the back-up of several important smaller parts. Strong performances came from Pete Etherington as a believable retired army officer Colonel Pickering, Amanda Jones as a dependable and sympathetic housekeeper Mrs Pearce, Jack Gamble’s convincingly-hapless but extremely tuneful Freddy Eynsford-Hill, and a very flamboyant Kaparthy (Ryan Green).

Good support was provided by Rachel Roberts in the role of Mrs Higgins, Amy Beale as Freddy’s mum, and Charlotte Broomfield as Georgia, the Covent Garden ‘pub landlady’.

Ensemble numbers were enthusiastically presented, adding colour and plenty of movement. The Ascot scene, while not the usual black, white & grey dominated, was effective and the synchronisation of the company’s reaction with the horses’ hooves perfectly timed.

 

The production

I’ve mentioned the approach to this production being innovative. In her director’s notes Kate Felts explained her aim to reflect aspects of Shaw’s Pygmalion, the musical’s inspiration, and the Greek mythology from which the play derived its theme. The inclusion of the attractive Greek Goddesses was a clever idea for showing the show’s classical origins. But placing them where they dominated an already crowded setting was perhaps an unnecessary distraction from the action around them. Congratulations, though, to Kate on having the enthusiasm and courage to mark her own director’s stamp on the production.

Overall a different and enjoyable show. Thank you to Dawn Partridge for the invitation to see the production, and for taking the time and trouble to meet up with my wife and me in the interval.

 

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