My Fair Lady review – an abso-bloomin’-lutely loverly musical

My Fair Lady review – an abso-bloomin’-lutely loverly musical

Leeds Playhouse
Opera North brings shimmering music to this gorgeous and crisply choreographed co-production, which preserves Shaw’s critique of the British class system

Some have called it “the perfect musical”. An exaggeration? Not if success is the measure. My Fair Lady ran for a record-breaking 2,717 performances following its Broadway opening in March 1956; has been given an unprecedented number of stagings around the world; and, translated to the screen in 1964, became an Oscar- and Bafta-winning hit. Its seemingly universal appeal is partly explained by the beautifully balanced combination of Frederick Loewe’s melodies (including I Could Have Danced All Night and Get Me to the Church on Time) with Alan Jay Lerner’s vivid storyline, adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion – the 1913 play and its 1938 Oscar-winning film version (adapted by Shaw and others).

In this new co-production between Leeds Playhouse and Opera North, the story of Eliza, the “lowly” flower-seller who is tutored in “correct” English by celebrated linguist Henry Higgins until she is able to pass as a princess at an embassy ball, is as witty, magical and “loverly” as any audiences could wish and promises to be as popular as its predecessors.

Continue reading…

Please follow and like us:
Pin Share