One of my favourite musicals is My Fair Lady, I simply love everything about it. So, I was delighted to find that Opera North were staging a production at the Leeds Playhouse.
Leeds Playhouse is an excellent venue, we've never been before, and the staging of My Fair Lady was exquisite. The stage, hard to describe as it isn't in the round, nor a thrust stage, but a sort of mix of the two, made it feel as if the actors were almost in the audience. This gave the performance an intimacy that isn't experienced on a more traditional stage. The scenery was both minimalist and very clever; moving seamlessly between a pub in Covent Garden, Professor Higgin's study, Ascot Races and many other scenes.
The acting, singing and dancing were superb. My Fair Lady is a long performance, 2 hours 45 minutes, but the audience was swept away and totally engrossed. We loved ever second!
There are so many stand-out moments for me, and so many songs I adore, that I find it hard to pick just a few. I think Eliza singing Just you wait, Henry Higgins, and Professor Higgins singing Why Can't the English...are two of my absolute favourites. My favourite moment must be when the Zoltan Karpathy, a Hungarian trained by Higgins, watches and listens, and declares "she was born Hungarian" and a princess, no less!
A superb evening's entertainment and one which prompted Chris to purchase the Blu-Ray edition of the original Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn musical.