Reader Reviews
My Fair Lady (Lyttelton (National Theatre), West End)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | In short Superb!! Great cast, director, sets, costume, dancing, lighting! One of the best shows currently in London. Go and see it, you won't reggret it!! - USER: Whatsonstage.com | 14 Jul 01 |
| Saw the show last night, and was captivated from start to finish. The production has all the detail and truth that one has come to expect from Trevor Nunn, and gives us some beautiful new moments, not just the large scale but also truly touching smaller ones. Jonathan Pryce is a triumph as Higgins...so entirely natural and real, his relationship with Eliza played in a more believable and affecting way than I have ever seen. McCutcheon too is impressive...maybe not on her top form vocally last night in "Danced all night" but making up for it with superb renditions of "Loverly" and "Without you".Her acting is terrific, vulnerable and fiesty by turns. Any scene involving her, Pryce or Nicholas Le Provost's marvellous Pickering is a particular delight, the comedy in this production perfectly played, as well as real depth shown in Higgins and Eliza's Act Two exchanges, culminating in Pryce's wonderful "I've grown accustomed...". Elsewhere, Waterman is irrepresible as Doolittle, despite a vocally rather weak "Little bit of luck"-otherwise a real showstopper with its imaginative new arrangements and choreography. He soon warms into the role though and is triumphant in his "Get me to the church on time". The entire cast is never less effective than the stellar principals, and production values are predictably high, with scenery moving Nunn's production seamlessly forward. Both the Director and Matthew Bourne have found so many new delights as well as enhancing the ones we know and love in what is, let's face it, a perfect musical. I'm looking forward to obtaining the cast recording of a cast which I don't feel could be bettered, and to seeing the show again when it reaches Drury Lane. - USER: Whatsonstage.com | 09 May 01 |
| Wed.25th April Kerry Ellis understudy for Alex Jay as understudy for Martine McCutcheon was called upon to play Eliza she did a brilliant job and had a packed theatre spellbound and behind her from the moment that Jonathon Pryce announced it to the audience. WELL DONE KERRY!!!! - USER: Whatsonstage.com | 28 Apr 01 |
| I am one of those tourists from the States that stood in queue for 3 hours to get day tickets while I was there. The show is not dreadful, but all those crazed fans of McCutcheon's will be heartbroken to know she won't be the princess of Broadway - if the production ever makes it here (which, after the Oklahoma problems, is doubtful). Although there were times she was the sweetest, most sympathetic Eliza I have seen, there were other moments when she played Eliza as a dimwit - and Eliza is anything but that. Jonathan Pryce pulled the show up, and gave an excellent performance. I would have preferred a bit more of the old music hall tradition for Alfred P. Doolittle, but that may be an endangered species. I thought Caroline Blakiston was elegant - just what Mrs. Higgins should be. But the final tableau (which the Times called "ambiguuos"!!!?????) was the biggest insult to a play since Liz Taylor's closing wink in Zefferelli's movie of "Taming of the Shrew". - USER: Whatsonstage.com | 13 Apr 01 |
| Having seen it again, I now feel cheated. Although the National have spent lavishly on the show, it feels trapped and constrained by the Lyttleton pros arch and has none of the grandeur and scale of Oklahoma or Carousel, or even Guys and Dolls. Alexandra Jay makes more than a fist of the role of Eliza, despite being only 18 and at least two dress sizes smaller than the "ill" Ms McScutcheon. Our Tifferneee, by the way, is clearly too well nourished for a flower seller if the flapping mauve fabric which enveloped the understudy like a tent is anything to go by ... but possibly her spell in hospital has removed whatever was causing the bumps in her clothing? Pryce and le Prevost make a splendid pair as Higgins and a fey gay Pickering (perhaps that's why he doesn't want to shag Eliza), and Dennis Waterman does good duty by Doolittle although he seems a bit breathless in some of the more energetically choreographed bits. Caroline Blakiston is as perfect a Mrs Higgins as I have ever seen (sorry, Anna Neagle) but there are some dreadful performances in the supporting cast including a hugely overweight and undertalented Patsy Rowlands who should never have been allowed anywhere near Mrs Pierce, and the usual suspects in the NT chorus mugging shamelessly in the cockernee numbers. Freddie is a dire part and the lad playing it does it no favours, although he showed promise last year in Pirates of Penzance at the Open Air in Regents Park. Perhaps he's not so good when you get him indoors? Look out, though, for Valerie Cutko as a fabulously physical raw-elbowed barmaid reminiscent of a young Miriam Karlin in the pub routine and dauntingly imperious Queen of Transylvania in the ball scene. - USER: Whatsonstage.com | 12 Apr 01 |
| Dull, boring and very safe - take a good book! - USER: Whatsonstage.com | 09 Apr 01 |
| Saw the understudy - excellent performance. When I booked the tickets I booked for the show and trusted the National to come up with the goods. They have done so. Real comedy and real 'feelings'. Brilliant dancers who should get more attention and good choral singing. Sets a bit wobbly (a lamp actually crashed down tonight) I wonder why they made the costumes so like the film's? Miss Jay made up to look exactly like Hepburn in white dress. Are there no other colours in the wardrobe? But overall well worth the effort - go! I will go again later in the run. - USER: Whatsonstage.com | 01 Apr 01 |
| It left me speechless. i thought it was wonderful. - USER: Whatsonstage.com | 22 Mar 01 |
| I am not an Eastenders fan and wondered at the casting of Martine McCutcheon, and Dennis Waterman. However, having seen the show I thought they were both outstanding. McCutcheon's voice is a revelation and Waterman achieves the (almost) impossible and surpasses Stanley Holloway. The set is breathtaking and I hope Matthew Bourne's choreography will inspire many non-dance fans to buy tickets for Adventures in Motion Pictures. Given the amount of sniping which has been aimed at the National over its recent "popular" productions I hope this show of tremendous quality - and some bravery in casting outside the normal Arts Council clique - silences the more tediously pretentious critics. How can it be a "National" Theatre if it isn't allowed to stage the kind of shows most people want to watch? - USER: Whatsonstage.com | 19 Mar 01 |
| This is a puppet show: McCutcheon is as manipulated by the National's magnificent staging machine as Liza is by Higgins. She looks the part, but - to misquote Dorothy Parker twice - she shakes her voice at the audience like a tiny fist, AND runs the 'whole gamut of emotions from A to B ...' Her many EastEnders admirers will love her, of course, but other theatregoers - including the many tourists who bolster the National's audiences - will wonder at the casting. - USER: Whatsonstage.com | 18 Mar 01 |
| Gorgeous, sumptious and full of charm. Martine McCutcheon is a star following in the footsteps of Julie Andrews and Audrey Hepburn, she was radiant last night with magical qualities and a gorgeous voice. Jonathan Price grew into the role and was excellant as the professor, with support from a strong cast including Denis Waterman,Nicholas Le Prevost, a lovely JillMartin, and Patsy Rowlands. Its a show not to miss, and will run and run and run for years ................. - USER: Whatsonstage.com | 07 Mar 01 |
