My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is one of the most popular musicals of all time and was elegantly brought to the stage by Bridgnorth Musical Theatre Company.

Lerner and Loewe’s stage adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion is in my opinion, a classic that deserves its place alongside the more contemporary pieces of musical theatre, which are so often performed these days. The show itself needs to glide effortlessly from one well-loved song to the next whilst maintaining a good pace to bring it in at just under 3 hours.

Congratulations to each and every one of the production crew for the staging of this show with its 17 scene changes, numerous properties, lighting cues and abundance of costume changes.  Lighting overall was good, although I am still to be convinced over the ‘moving’ spots used during the song ‘I’m an Ordinary Man’, which I felt were distracting. Scene changes were slick and helped to maintain the pace of the production. The show was staged well under the direction of Rik Pover-Shaw, with a good use of misdirection to detract from the scene changes in the use of two smaller thrust stages and overall use of the full set.

I have to mention the quality of costumes from Charades Theatrical Costume Hire, which were of a particularly high standard. The cast had ensured that their costumes were completed with appropriate footwear, gloves and accessories. The attention to detail was excellent.

Personally I am not a great fan of recorded music being used in musicals but being able to hear a full orchestral score beautifully balanced against the vocals of the cast, along with some clear vocal harmonies, did change my opinion on this occasion. Well done to those in charge of the sound. It was however strange from an audience’s point of view to see the Musical Director in such a prominent position in the auditorium with just a laptop and head set.

Melanie Cuthbert (Musical Director) had used her extensive experience in directing other musical endeavours to ensure that she got the very best from the cast and I look forward to seeing how the company continues to grow going forward under her instruction.

The principle cast of Eliza, Higgins and Pickering are no strangers to the stage and their combined wealth of experiences made this an easy and comfortable show to watch.

Laura Davies as Eliza Doolittle was a delight to watch and hear, both as the cockney flower girl with her ‘Aaaooowwww’ and songs such as ‘Wouldn’t it be Loverly’ and ‘Just you Wait’ to the refined young lady with ‘The Rain in Spain’ and ‘I Could have Danced all Night’.

Tim Brown played Professor Henry Higgins and was simply perfect for the role. He had good characterisation and a great command over the difficult dialogue. I particularly liked ‘Hymn to Him’, which although performed at great speed was clear and well articulated down to every syllable he uttered.

Colonel Huge Pickering played by Nicholas Sullivan was a lovely contrast to Higgins being quintessentially the English eccentric. Again dialogue and approach to his characterisation was spot on.

Karl Thompson played Freddy Eynsford-Hill and sang ‘On the Street Where You Live’ with a rich and smooth vocal.

Jessica Miller as Mrs Pearce was lovely to watch and her sustained Scottish accent really added to the role making her more of a central character within the household.

In the role of Alfred P Doolittle was Phil Turner who for his first major role was just wonderful and appeared at ease with the dialogue, large musical numbers and plenty of dancing. The musical number of  ‘Get Me to the Church on Time’ was fun, energetic and creative supported by Simon McCormick as Harry, Paul Stennings as Jamie and the entire chorus.

Of course it isn’t possible to mention every character in this production although everyone deserves it, as everyone had their individual parts to play.

Paul Turner as the Bartender and Barbara Preece as Mrs Hopkins however both deserve to be recognised for taking on their supportive roles and creating brilliant characters.

This was a joyous production with good pace that had me tapping my feet and singing quie

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