MY FAIR LADY

By Diana Simmonds

September 8 2016

MY FAIR LADY, Gordon Frost Organisation and Opera Australia at the Joan Sutherland Opera Theatre, 6 September-5 November 2016. Melbourne season to follow in 2017. Photography by Jeff Busby: above Anna O’Byrne, Robyn Nevin and Alex Jennings; right O’Byrne and Jennings. 

Unless you’ve been asleep for the past few months you’ll know that this 60th anniversary production of the Lerner and Loewe musical theatre classic is the latest collaboration between the Frost company and OA. The anniversary is of the show’s triumphant debut in New York before its epic run at Drury Lane in London when a young Julie Andrews, as the cockney heroine Eliza Doolittle, began what became a brilliant (and so far endless) international career. 

And now, in what has to be one of the more far-fetched fairy-tales of showbiz, the legendary performer is back – as Dame Julie and minus her three octave pipes – as the director of the piece, to the delight of the cast, if their public avowals are to be believed. (The cutest has to be that not only is she a joy to work with but she smells nice. You don’t hear that every day. Take note all you less than fragrant director types.)

My Fair Lady – based on GB Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion – is one of the grand-mummies of musical theatre from back when a show had to be jam packed with memorable tunes and witty lyrics – rather than one or two derivative ditties. And these numbers are shared around a cast of principals and company of singer-dancers that are required to be top notch if it’s to be successfully realised.

As Dame Julie noted at the very beginning of her involvement, this production is anchored by that rare beast, a serious orchestra. And, from the opening minutes of the overture the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, under musical theatre maestro Guy Simpson, let you know this is the real thing as they precis such unforgettables as “I Could Have Danced All Night”, “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly”, “On The Street Where You Live” – and on an on. 

Building on such rock solid foundations, Andrews has incorporated fabled elements of the original in Cecil Beaton’s glorious costumes, Oliver Smith’s set designs and even the delightful painted backcloths that reek of grease paint and old-time theatrics.

Casting is one of this show’s strongest elements and the choices here are very good. Having won an Olivier award for the role in 2004, UK star Alex Jennings is the world’s current No.1 pick for Henry Higgins and from his first mellifluous utterance it’s obvious why. There’s a nod to Rex Harrison but Jennings’ professor of phonetics is less the prickly misogynist and more an oddball who is probably “on the spectrum" but rather attractive nevertheless.

As Eliza, the flower seller soon to be transformed into a well spoken young lady and mistaken for a princess, Anna O’Byrne has a uniquely terrifying task. Not only is it one of the genre’s more demanding singing and acting roles, but also, she has to do it for the woman who has been indelibly linked with Eliza for sixty years. 

Happily, on opening night O’Byrne showed no signs of that pressure: she journeyed from grubby strumpet to bejewelled young lady with intelligence and conviction; and a fine grasp of the songs rounded off a convincing performance.

In the more than usually vital supporting roles, the legendary Reg Livermore sparkles as Eliza’s ne’er-do-well dad. He’s as nimble and at ease with Christopher Gattelli’s choreography as the young blokes less than half his age. Tony Llewellyn Jones is splendid as Higgins’ partner in elocution, Col. Pickering, and as he plays it as more buff than buffer he’s therefore the perfect foil for Alex Jennings.

Another legend, in the person of Robyn Nevin, appears virtually on the hour mark and unsurprisingly it’s an electrifying moment. As Mrs Higgins, imperious social butterfly and exasperated mother of the professor, Nevin is hilarious and commanding: perfect casting.

Deirdre Rubinstein is a contrastingly motherly – if also exasperated – presence as the long-suffering chatelaine of the professor’s Wimpole Street residence, while David Whitney’s turn as Zoltan Karpathy, the pest from Budapest, is a gem of over-scented menace.

Mark Vincent, as Freddy Eynsford-Hill, is required to do little more than look handsome and fall for Eliza, but he also has custody of one of the most glorious romantic ballads ever written in “The Street Where You Live”. The past winner of Australia’s Got Talent needs acting and singing lessons to really convince: maybe this long run will give him the opportunity for both.

All things being equal – and in this production they mostly are – My Fair Lady is a grand piece of musical theatre history. It’s musically and visually sumptuous and with George Bernard Shaw’s politics combining with the lush musicality and wit of Lerner and Loewe, it satisfies on virtually every level. 

Without tampering with what made it a hit in the first place, the fragrant director and her olfactorily-sensitised crew of musical theatre experts have fashioned a fresh and energetic box office smash without frightening the old war horse. It’s quite the feat and selling like hot cakes. Recommended.