Brisbane review – My Fair Lady: Eliza’s a hit with the audience!

By Lilian Harrington

Production: My Fair Lady

Book and Lyrics: Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe

Company: Villanova Players

Location: The Ron Hurley Theatre 28 Tallowood St., Seven Hills. Qld.4170

Season: 29 November-8 December 

 Bookings info@villanovaplayers.com or phone: 0423 920 832

Villanova Players have presented the timeless and ever popular musical, My Fair Lady, as their final production for 2024. Whether it was the music, the songs, the costumes, or the fun of hearing the cockney accent being spoken in an unguarded manner, or just the buzz of the large cast involved, Lerner and Lowe’s long time musical certainly drew a good audience in a toe tapping style. To see the crowd of seasoned community theatre goers, enjoying some of the well- known tunes and enjoying their favourite costumed characters on stage on a very wet Sunday afternoon was amazing!

Based on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, My Fair Lady tells the story of an uneducated, girl, from the English lower class. Her life changes when young Eliza Doolittle encounters Professor Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering, while selling her flowers. Struck by her Cockney accent, Higgins takes out a wager with Pickering, that he can change this “baggage” (Eliza) into a lady with a polished English accent in six months! Encouraged by Pickering, who has recently returned from service in India, they encourage Eliza to become a live- in language student at the professor’s address; Higgins works intensively with her to help her improve her speaking and communication skills, her mannerisms and her sense of style.  She is prepared for her first test at the Ascot Races, where she conducts herself admirably, until she is noticed by Freddy Eynsford-Hill, a young man who is bedazzled by her. To everyone’s astonishment, she accepts Freddy’s bet on horse No: 7, and forgetting her new status, she encourages her horse to the line in her broad Cockney accent!

After this debacle Higgins prepares Eliza for a special London Ball, where she’ll meet royalty and people from the upper class. She is the centre of attention when she dances and speaks so well and the sceptics can’t fault her. She has won the bet for Higgins! However, he’s been blind to Eliza’s feelings. Eliza needs to know where she stands, now that she no longer fits into the lower class or her own family.

Director Jacqueline Kerr has assembled a large cast , which included some very talented performers such as: Eliza Doolittle,( Amelia Burton),  Alfred P. Doolittle,(John Evans), Professor Higgins,  (Andrew Alley),  Colonel Pickering, (Barry Howarth) and  Freddy Eynsford-Hill(Nicholas Sayers), and some less experienced cast; while this casting allowed new members from  the community to come forward, it also meant that at times some of this inexperience showed.

Under the direction of Jacqueline Kerr, the set design was carefully planned and constructed by Lucy Moxon and her team; it consisted of flats on rollers, which could be rearranged to create scene changes, simply by unfolding the flat at each scene change. This simplified the complicated scene settings required in the show and helped the production to flow smoothly, and marry with important music and light cues; it complimented details such as the special attention given to props, costuming, and the hand-crafted hats by Alison Clark Without an orchestra, the cast were cued by the sound technician, through an effective recorded music accompaniment, which supported the stunning and talented: Eliza, (Amelia Burton), Professor Higgins (Andrew Alley), and the delightful Alfred P. Doolittle (John Evans), who nailed his Cockney character, along with other ensemble  members; this production has proved a winner for our local theatregoers.