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ACT ONE
Eliza Doolittle is a poor flower girl selling her flowers outside the Covent Garden Opera House one cold wet night. She is warned by a bystander that a gentleman standing behind a pillar is taking note of her every word. Worried, Eliza protests that she has done nothing wrong, whereupon the gentleman, Professor Higgins, a phonetics expert, comes forward and tells her to be quiet. He surprises everyone by identifying where they come from by their accents. One of the subjects is Colonel Pickering, another language expert who by chance has made passage from India to meet him. Higgins bemoans the poor use the English make of language (Why can't the English) and suggests it is only her poor command of English that keeps Eliza a lowly street corner flower girl. He idly boasts that in six months he could pass her off as a duchess or get her a position in a flower shop which demands even better English. The rain stops and the crowd disperses, Higgins throwing some money into Eliza's basket as he departs. Eliza joins her friends in the square, dreaming of what it would be like to have a better life (Wouldn't it be Loverley). Elsewhere, at the 'Red Lion', Eliza's father Alfred is carousing with his chums (With a little bit of luck), Eliza arrives and he borrows half a crown from her to continue his reverie. The following morning, Higgins is discussing life and relationships with Pickering in his study at his home in Wimpole Street (I'm an Ordinary Man). Eliza arrives, she has been thinking about what Higgins said about a job in a flower shop and has come to pay for elocution lessons. Pickering reminds Higgins of his boast and offers to pay for the lessons himself if Higgins can make good on it. Higgins accepts and Eliza is put into the care of his housekeeper to be scrubbed clean. Time passes during which Higgins has been driving Eliza very hard on her lessons. After he leaves the room following an arduous session she tirades against him (Just You Wait). Then, having heard of Eliza's new living arrangements from his friends at the 'Red Lion' (With a little bit of Luck - reprise), Alfred arrives to claim his rights. Higgins, outraged at first, is won over by his down to earth moralising and pays him five pounds. Higgins tells his housekeeper to reply to an American thilanthropist who has been requesting him to lecture on morals that the most original moralist in England is Alfred Doolittle, a common dustman. Over the ensuing months Eliza continues her lessons, making little progress until Higgins unwittingly inspires her to greater effort and a jubilant breakthrough (The Rain in Spain). Higgins and Pickering retire to bed but Eliza is too excited by the events of the evening to sleep (I Could Have Danced All Night). Higgins feels Eliza is ready to be tested in polite society. He takes her to his mothers box at Ascot to meet her society friends. The racegoers are excited watching the opening race (The Ascot Gavotte). Eliza, looking very beautiful in the dress Higgins and Pickering have bought for her, makes a good impression, particularly on Freddy Eynsford-Hill, the son of one of Mrs Higgins friends. Later that day, Freddy is loitering on Wimpole Street hoping to see Eliza again (On the Street Where You Live), but she doesn't want to see anyone. Eliza's education continues until eventually she is ready for the final test at the Embassy ball.
ACT TWO
Higgins and Colonel Pickering arrive at the Embassy ball. Moments later, Eliza is announced and there is a hush as she enters the room. The Queen of Transylvania is enchanted by her and invites Eliza to dance with her son, the crown prince (The Embassy Waltz). The Queen instructs her advisor, Zoltan Karpathy, a former student of Higgins to find out more about her. He dances with Eliza and returns to the Queen to declare she is a fraud! After the ball, back in his study Higgins regales the servants with the events of the evening. Karpathy told the Queen her English was too good so she must be foreign, and despite expect coaching he could tell that she in fact was born in his native Hungary, and of royal blood. She was, without question, a Hungarian Princess. Pickering and the servants congratulate Higgins on the succes (You Did It). Eliza meanwhile shrinks in a corner, no-one acknowledges her part in this. After everyone else has retired she argues with Higgins over what will become of her and throws his slippers at him. Later that night she packs her belongings and leaves. Outside the house, she bumps into the lovelorn Freddie (On the Street Where You Live - reprise), he speaks of the letters he has written professing his love for her but she tells him actions speak louder than words (Show Me). Eliza and Freddie take a cab to Covent Garden Market. Eliza wanders around the square but her former friends don't recognise her now that she is a lady (Wouldn't it be Loverley - reprise). Her father arrives, dressed as a toff. The American millionaire Higgins recommended him to has bequethed him a large annual stipend on condition he lectures to his Moral League. Doolittle bemoans the loss of his carefree days and the fact that, now he is respectable, Eliza's stepmother wants to be so too and they are to be married in the morning (Get Me to the Church on Time). Everyone leaves. In the morning Higgins discovers Eliza has left, he does not understand women, why can't they be more like men (A Hymn to Him). He goes to his mothers house for advice only to find Eliza there. He demands she return with him but Eliza is stronger now, she doesn't need him (Without You). Higgins is distraught, he did not realise how much Eliza had come to mean to him (I've Grown Accustomed to her Face). Back in his study Higgins forlornly listens to the recordings he made of Eliza. The recordings stop and Eliza's voice from behind Higgins speaks the words she spoke on her first arrival "A washed me face and hands before I come, I did". A smile grows on Higgins face before, regaining his composure, "Eliza, where the devil are my slippers?"
This was a superbly staged production of the classic musical. The complex and varied sets sliding on and off mechanically so that scene changes were accomplished in seconds without any breaks in the performance. The set for Higgins study was especially impressive. This consists of two side walls dominated by tiers of laden bookshelves which, along with the furniture, slid on to from the sides. The back wall was lowered from above, and consisted of a balcony above accessed by a spiral stairway, and below an opening to the hallway beyond.
The dancing had a strong balletic influence explained by having Matthew Bourne as the choreography and staging director. The music is of course well known thanks to the popular film version and this version in no suffered in comparison.
Christopher Casenove was excellent in the role of Professor Higgins. My primary concern beforehand had been that any production of 'My Fair Lady' would ring hollow without the great Rex Harrison in that role but such concerns were soon quieted. Casenove played the role very much in the style of Harrison, so much so in fact that it was possible at times to imagine it was him, and the dextrous lyrics gave him seemingly no problem. Amy Nuttall as Eliza Doolittle sang beautifully and acted with a wonderful comic talent. Her performance in the comic Ascot scene was far funnier than Audrey Hebburn in the film version, her timing and comic mannerisms being absolutely perfect. Her outfit in that scene was absolutely stunning which only added to the comic disparity between her manners and appearance. Stephen Moore played the slightly ditzy Colonel Pickering with great aplomb whilst Gareth Hale showed there is more to his talent than just comedy in the role of Alfred Doolittle. Stephen Carlile's rendition of 'On the Street Where You Live' was masterful and second only to Amy Nuttall's 'Wouldn't it be Loverley' as the high spot of the show. Judith Harris gave a stately performance as Mrs Higgins (played in the film by the Gladys Cooper from these pages). The remainder of the cast gave ample support.
"Wouldn't it be Loverley" if this 50th Anniversary revival, "with a little bit of luck", lived up to the excellence of the original. If that is what the producers were striving for, I can only say resoundingly that "you did it". The musical treat of the year so far.