My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s play ‘Pygmalion’ and made into a musical by Lerner & Loewe. Director Kay Rowan has a good cast with this production, and the music is safe in the hands of Chris Gardner as Musical Director. Christine White has done some good chorus movement and dancing. The set is simple and works well on the small stage and the set changes, although there are lots, went very smoothly. The costumes are also good especially the Ascot scene where everyone looked great in the black & white.

My Fair Lady needs strong leads as it can be a wordy musical, the main story taking place in Higgins’ study over the course of a few months as Eliza learns to talk like a lady. Eliza Doolittle is in the capable hands of Jane Gray. You could definitely see the transformation from flower girl to lady, and her singing was very strong. There are some nice moments between the main characters and they all worked well together. Peter Francis is good in his role of Henry Higgins and is supported by Jim Woods as Colonel Pickering and there are some great moments between them and they keep up the pace.

Ellis Nicholls plays Alfred P Doolittle (Eliza’s father) and is a very likeable character. I particularly liked his ‘I’m getting married in the morning’ number. Joy Newman was nice as Mrs Pearce the housekeeper, and Diane Bradbury was just right as Mrs Higgins. Darren White took on the role of the love struck Freddy Eynsford-Hill.

There are lots of smaller roles - too many to mention - and everyone played their part well and all seemed to be having a good time. The Covent Garden scenes are well sung, and the Ascot Gavotte was great and had the right amount of elegance.  We really enjoyed the show.
 

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