MY FAIR LADY.
London
MY FAIR LADY
by Alan Jay Lerner , music by Frederick Loewe
Theatre Royal Drury Lane
Mon-Sat 7.30 Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm
Runs 3hr 10min One interval
TICKETS 0870 890 1109
Review Timothy Ramsden 20 May 2002
New leads keep this show dancing all night.Alex Jennings' Henry Higgins is a creature of pure reason. Even shouting at Eliza to sit down and shut up his hands fly in an open-palmed gesture suggesting everyone will benefit from being calm for a few moments. His voice, in every tone and cadence, seeks agreement; his facial features likewise.
It's as well Jennings is so likeable. He's not just fighting Eliza's spontaneously combustible temperament, but taking on the might of the entire Drury Lane audience. In Lerner and Loewe's intelligent trivialisation of Pygmalion (aptly, their title refers to her while Shaw's pointed up him) all sympathies are with the defiantly individual, much put-upon Eliza.
This is partly because she suffers more than enough from the toffs in Wimpole Street (affably comic though Malcolm Sinclair is, keeping the character well out of Higgins' shadow, his Pickering becomes as negligent of Eliza as does his friend, if more genially so). Nor just because most of the best tunes are kept in her family.
Joanna Riding is perfection in the part. It's a fair bet there's never been a better Eliza in the show's history. From the start, technique and characterisation seamlessly match. 'Wouldn't it be luvverly' contains both dream and excitement, the words delivered with relaxed emphasis, giving her fantasies substance, without losing the melodic phrasing.
It's not only the musical moments. While all surround Higgins centre-stage after his triumph at the Embassy ball, Eliza's loneliness, ending in ironical contemplation of one of the gramophones where the Professor captures disembodied voices, is impressed vividly on the scene.
Nunn's inventive production, helped along by Bourne's choreography, creates a wryly subdued Ascot with choric equine caperings, and follows Dennis Waterman's splenetic dustman a working-class 'enery 'iggins if ever there was one - from his first metal-bashing set-piece (Alfred P. Doolittle and the Noisy neighbours in 'Little Bit of Luck') to his stag-night pub-crawl 'Get Me to the Church on Time'.
With quality playing from Dilys Laye and Caroline Blakiston reminding what the National can bring to such a show, this remains a top-quality West End ticket.
Eliza Doolittle: Joanna Riding
Freddy Eynsford-Hill: Peter Prentice
Mrs Eynsford-Hill: Jill Martin
Clara Eynsford-Hill/Servant: Sarah Moyle
Colonel Hugh Pickering: Malcolm Sinclair
A Bystander: Christopher Howell
A Hoxton Man/George: Mark Frendo
A Selsey Man/Zoltan Karpathy: Nathan Harmer
Professor Henry Higgins: Alex Jennings
First Costermonger/Lord Boxington: David Shaw-Parker
Second Costermonger/Servant/Footman: David Burrows
Third Costermonger/Servant: Michael Cotton
Fourth Costermonger: Mark Joslin
Alfred P. Doolittle: Dennis Waterman
Jamie: John Stacey
Harry: Terry Kelly
Mrs Pearce: Dilys Laye
Mrs Hopkins: Ann Emery
Butler: Stephen Watts
Servants: Katherine Barnes, Daniele Coombe, Caroline Cohen
Mrs Higgins: Caroline Blakiston
Lady Boxington/Servant: Shirley Jameson
Sir Reginald Tarrington: Christopher Howell
Flower Girl: Nikki Shaw
Queen of Transylvania: Kate Dyson
Prince of Transylvania: Kasper Cornish
Mrs Higgins' Maid: Madelaine Brennan
Director: Trevor Nunn
Designer: Anthony Ward
Lighting: David Hersey
Sound: Paul Groothuis
Choreography/Musical Staging: Matthew Bourne
Musical Director: Stephen Brooker
Musical supervisor: David White
Dance arranger: Chris Walker
2002-05-21 14:48:45