My Fair Lady

Photo Credit: Alan Martin/AMSI

Reviewed by: Patricia Connor on 21 Feb 2018
Venue: Little Theatre - Southport
Date: 7 - 10 Feb 2018
Type of Production:  Musical
Book, Lyrics & Music by Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Leowe

Directed by Les Gomersall
Musical Director Adam Dutch
Choreographer Jenny Birch

The very British musical My Fair Lady is arguably one of the best loved shows of all time and includes some of the most well-known songs of the musical theatre. It is based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion and a book by Alan Jay Lerner who also wrote the lyrics for the show with the music score written by Frederick Loewe. The story as we all know is about a cockney flower seller called Eliza Doolittle who takes speech lessons from phoneticist Professor Henry Higgins, to improve the way she speaks,so she will be able to work in a flower shop instead of selling flowers in the street, but Higgins has other plans and bets that he can make her presentable to Edwardian London’s high society and pass her off as a lady at the Embassy Ball. The original Broadway and London shows starred Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins and Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle
Directed by Les Gomersall who also found time to give a superb performance as Alfred P Doolittle a role which suited his comedic talent very well, and with Choreography by Jenny Birch and Musical Direction from Adam Dutch this was a very enjoyable production performed by a very talented group of people. All the cast worked together with lots of energy acting and singing very well with the principle cast producing some lovely interpretations of the iconic characters that-we know so well. They included Beth Milligan who was very comfortable in the demanding central role of Eliza Doolittle singing and acting delightfully with lots of confidence. Beth was very well complimented by a secure performance from Gary Simpson in the other demanding role of pompous phonetics Professor Henry Higgins who performed his wordy script and songs enjoyably while Steve Pritchard who took over the role of Colonel Pickering at very short notice coped very well and was very much the military gentleman. James Henderson made a very good love-struck Freddy Eynsford-Hill singing "On the Street Where You Live”, very well, and Marie Orr had some nice comedy touches in the role of Henry’s mother Mrs Higgins. Sue Palmer was stern but also understanding as Higgins’s housekeeper Mrs Pearce, and there were also some very enjoyable performances and good characterisations from the cast in the supporting roles such as Tom McMullan as Harry, and John Delahunty as Jamie who along with Harry Gascoigne and Chris Rimmer gave us some very good harmony singing.

Other supporting roles included Denise Marsters as Mrs Eynsford-Hill and Don Ridland as Professor Zoltan Karpathy.The ladies and gentlemen of the chorus supported the principal cast excellently and appeared to enjoy themselves immensely performing the songs and the effective, energetic yet appropriate choreography expertly with lots of gusto. They also produced some very good pictures on the stage especially in the stunning Ascot scene. Dialogue was very clear and could be followed easily and also the pace of the action was just right.

However, just a small point some of the action in the study took place towards the back of the set and it was a little hard to see what was happening at times. The orchestra played well supporting the cast performing on the stage without ever taking over or overshadowing them.
Scenery props and technical input were very effective and along with some lovely very striking costumes added to the overall success of the production. Well done to all the backstage and technical crew, we should never underestimate their contribution to the success of a production.
There was something for everyone to enjoy in this very entertaining show, congratulations and well done to everybody involved, thank you very much for inviting us we had a lovely evening.