Book and Lyrics: Alan Jay Lerner
Music: Frederick Loewe
Director: Nikolai Foster
My Fair Lady needs little introduction, and it’s a story that has been a long time in the making. Alan J. Lerner 
and Frederick Loewe adapted the well-known musical from George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion—and Shaw himself took the idea from a 2000-year-old story by Ovid, which may itself have even older roots and has inspired many retellings in various forms. It’s a show packed with glorious music and well-loved songs and a great choice as a Christmas musical.
In this Made at Curve production, director Nikolai Foster brings his own interpretation to the piece and it’s one that is broadly traditional in its approach, though with one or two interesting directorial decisions – but more of that later.
This is a sumptuous production, in sharp contrast to last year’s stripped-back Evita, with a set and costumes designed by Michael Taylor, and lighting by Mark Henderson, that are a positive joy. We have the soaring pillars of the Opera House, then the iron arches of the market using the vast Curve stage to its fullest extent and creating a feeling of space and bustle, then in a moment it’s transformed into a cosy and incredibly detailed study. The brilliant lights of the Embassy Ball contrast with the cold, grey Covent Garden morning, and colours are used to enhance the mood from time to time when we find ourselves with an almost empty stage. It’s marvellous.
At its heart, it’s a piece about the contrast between classes, between privilege and underprivilege with a moral message about how hard it can be to escape poverty, and it’s a message that comes across well. Higgins’ character sits somewhere between the two classes – he clearly isn’t part of the working class but he doesn’t really fit in with the upper-class circles frequented by his mother either, and David Seadon-Young hits the mark. This is a far more personable Higgins than you often find, far more human and less uptight, and as the plot progresses he increasingly becomes a man you can empathise with. Despite his earlier behaviour, you can feel the affection he has developed for Eliza and he comes across as truly broken when she leaves. Of course, unlike the famous movie version, Higgins does actually sing his songs here and Seadon-Young does so very well.
Molly Lynch is a triumph as Eliza Doolittle. Not always entirely comfortable with the top notes in her vocal performance, nonetheless she puts her numbers across beautifully and gives us a character we can admire and feel for. From a poor flower seller with some spirit, she develops into a young woman who’s taking back control of her destiny. Steve Furst gives us a nicely comic Alfred P. Doolittle with a pacy delivery of his big numbers With a Little Bit of Luck and Get Me to the Church on Time, surrounded by spectacular choreography from Joanna Goodwin who has given the dances a fresh, non-traditional feel. Minal Patel brings some amusing and tender touches to his Colonel Pickering.
Djavan Van de Fliert is an endearing Freddy Eynsford-Hill, in great voice for his On the Street Where you Live, and Cathy Tyson gives us a nicely-judged Mrs Higgins, irritated with her son and showing kindness towards a young woman in need regardless of her background There’s a suitably exuberant performance from Damian Buhagiar as Zoltan Karpathy, with Mrs Pearce (Sarah Moyle) seemingly far more like a friend than a housekeeper in this less-formal Higgins household.
At its deepest level, the question remains – how much agency should Eliza have, and how much does she get? Is this a piece about two privileged men using an underprivileged young woman as part of a bet – as Mrs Higgins says, “You’re a pretty pair of babies playing with your live doll”? The original Lerner script leaves the ending ambiguous, and the recent Bartlett Sher production gave Eliza control by looking back towards the original Shaw play. Here Nikolai Foster has given us his own interpretation of Eliza taking charge of her destiny. It’s an interpretation that will undoubtedly seriously divide opinion, and you have to wonder whether it’s misjudged after what’s been a pretty traditional take on the show.
Leave aside that controversial moment right at the end, and what you have is a triumphant and ultimately feel-good retelling of the classic musical, one that’s bound to provide the Curve with another Christmas hit.
Runs until 4 January 2025
The Reviews Hub Score
Sumptuous
