My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is a well-known story, with its roots in the myth of Pygmalion and was transformed from stage into film in 1964 but remains very popular today so I was looking forward to seeing TADLOP’s performance of this beloved classic.

The story follows the transformation of Eliza Doolittle from common cockney flower girl to ‘Duchess’ at the hands of Professor Henry Higgins, who only undertook the task as part of a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering and results in lessons being learned by all involved.

I would like to start off by saying for the first time in my personal history of seeing TADLOP shows, the sound was spot on! There were no missed cues, no lost lines and the music to microphone level was almost perfect which made such a difference to the viewing experience. I’d also like to say how great it was to see such a strong male presence on the stage as I know finding men can be quite a struggle for TADLOP so often.

The character of Eliza Doolittle, played by Sian Kyle, can be quite a challenge to undertake as there is such a strong and iconic accent to maintain throughout the show which then later must be changed to a completely different accent and the challenge of quite a few big musical numbers and a lot of stage time. Sian took on this role with gusto and clearly gave it her all however there were moments where it felt like she was pushing a little too hard resulting in some of singing becoming more like shouting or turning pitchy and the accent sounding a little more Australian than cockney.

Professor Henry Higgins, played by Kurt Hassall, was very well acted and sung throughout. Kurt’s portrayal of the character was very believable, particularly when some of the more emotive scenes came in, his anger and frustration felt very real and Sian’s timing in her responses made all their arguments and feuds very realistic. There were a few times in the show where Kurt’s microphone could and maybe should have been turned down as he obviously has excellent projection and occasionally overpowered everyone else or just came over a little too loud in comparison to everyone else.

Colonel Pickering, played by Robin Cooper, was quite a fun character to watch, although upper class he seems quite sympathetic to the lower classes and often defended Eliza and cared for her in a way that Henry Higgins did not. The emotion in his character was put across really well by Robin and although he only really had one musical number, ‘The Rain in Spain’ it was definitely a memorable one and quite possibly my favourite in the show, to which I think a lot of the audience around me would have agreed.

The general staging of the show was good, the scenery was beautiful, and the costumes were fabulous, an extra special mention for the amazing hats at the end of the first half.

The chorus really brought the background of the different scenes to life and made every part of the stage interesting to look at.

 

 

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