Synopsis Shaw's dramatisation of a Cockney flower girl's metamorphosis into a lady is not only a delightful fantasy but also has much to say about social class, money, spiritual freedom and womens' independence. Its combination of ideas and social comment, together with its rich comic characterization, make it one of the most enduring and entertaining of English comedies. Henry Higgins, Professor of Linguistics and confirmed bachelor, wagers that within six months he will transform flower seller, Eliza Doolittle, into a lady who can take her place in high society. Shaw's masterpiece is both brilliantly funny and a devastating critique of the English class system. This play formed the basis of "My Fair Lady".
Pygmalion's story, Professor Henry Higgins betting he can coach Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle to be passed off as a Lady, has become all too familiar in recent years, not least thanks to the musical adaptation My Fair Lady.
Did this starry revival of Shaw's 1913 classic manage to sweet talk the critics?
Maxwell Cooter on Whatsonstage.com (three stars) – "Philip Prowse's ornate staging has the look and feel of a Victorian toy theatre; it’s opulent but there’s a coldness at the heart. Rupert Everett doesn’t look comfortable as Higgins…. in fact, he acts too young ... Shaw says that his irascibility should be tempered with good humour – there’s little sign of that in Everett. Eliza... struggles with the cockney vowels in the first scenes - many of her opening lines are inaudible… If she’s a struggle to be heard five rows from the front, who knows how she’ll sound up in the gods. Stephanie Cole... steals both of her scenes and gets most of the big laughs… and there’s a very solid Colonel Pickering from Peter Eyre. There's one aspect of the production that's very strange – there are two intervals in a not very long play ... Perhaps Chichester bar takings are down and they need to drum up extra business but at a time when two-hour shows are put on without a break, this smacks of self-indulgence."
Michael Billington in the Guardian (two stars) – "Shaw's miraculous play... has escaped from the shadow of the Lerner and Loewe musical ... This revival… strikes me as a coarse, strident affair that misses much of its psychological subtlety ... it is half-baked to suggest this is a play about performance... Rupert Everett's saturnine Higgins strikes a note of rasping anger from which he scarcely shifts ... The best performances come from the peripheral characters: there is a superb cameo from Stephanie Cole as Higgins' aristocratic mother ... It's a measure of the production's crudity that it ends with a full-blown staging of Eliza's marriage to Freddy Eynsford-Hill, to which Higgins responds with angry contempt. That's a far cry from the subtlety of Shaw's conclusion, in which Higgins' laughter camouflages the desolation of the artist abandoned by his own creation."
Ian Shuttleworth in the Financial Times (three stars) – "Philip Prowse’s production of Pygmalion… is all effect and little substance... Eliza Doolittle... has put a great deal of work into mastering the necessary accents, both Eliza’s original 'Lisson Grove lingo' and her later too-artificial elocution ... She even adjusts her vocal timbre... Prowse should have put some corresponding effort into ensuring that she is intelligible in the Festival Theatre’s. As Professor Henry Higgins, Rupert Everett ... is a comparatively one-note delivery, and he seldom seems to look anyone else in the eye; it is as if Everett is still mentally trying to get a fix on his performance... the production seems simply to be going through the motions ... and not even Shaw’s motions, as Prowse sees fit to add a final scene of his own which over-simplifies the ending as written."
Charles Spencer in the Telegraph (three stars) – "This is... one of the most humane of Shaw’s plays, bubbling with wit and warmth... Philip Prowse directs and designs an ostentatious production… He has also interpolated a final scene, undreamt of by Shaw, in which Eliza marries the amiable but brainless Freddie to Higgins’s palpable dismay. The play is indestructible, and though Rupert Everett seems too modern, too louche and not quite posh enough as Higgins, Honeysuckle Weeks is a delightful Eliza ... There are splendid supporting performances from Peter Eyre who proves the perfect Pickering, plummy, pink-faced, and kindly; from Phil Davis as an unusually fierce and bitter but still entertaining Doolittle; and a delicious star turn from Stephanie Cole as Higgins’s mother who deservedly treats her intelligent but emotionally illiterate son as a child. Nevertheless one would have welcomed a director less perverse than Prowse, who bizarrely burdens this short play with two intervals.
Fiona Mountford in the Evening Standard (three stars) – "One of the many lovely things about Pygmalion is the fact that it’s a largely indestructible play ... This certainly helps when director/designer Philip Prowse’s glossy show begins to stutter after the second of two momentum-sapping intervals... Everett, all too infrequently seen on our stages, proffers an appealing combination of confidence and disdain as a youthful-looking Henry Higgins... It’s a pity, then, that he often seems awkward, relying overmuch on a hangdog expression... Eliza... becomes less convincing the closer to her natural accent she advances. Elsewhere, there’s strong support from Stephanie Cole as a sharp-speaking Mrs Higgins and Peter Eyre as the Professor’s genial foil, Colonel Pickering."
Libby Purves in The Times (subscribers only) (four stars) – "Rupert Everett’s Higgins eschews the twinkly irascibility of Rex Harrison in the musical ... He is a real creation; fidgety, choleric, perfectionist, tactless, an equal-opportunity insulter ... It is an astringent antidote to the sugariness of the musical we know ... Phillip Prowse sets the production in Edwardian splendor, a vast Pollocks-toy-theatre proscenium outlined in lights for Covent Garden ... Everett is a hypnotic stage presence, a sullen moulting eagle ... Eliza is a slight problem; the pavement shrillness nicely replaced by sweet comedic primness in her famous tea-party conversation ... Their odd impossible sexual tension is played out in a static, seated colloquy from opposite sides of the area... I came away thinking how many of Shaw’s preoccupations are dated, and yet how strong the human story."
Shaw's best known play makes for an interesting contrast with Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, shown at the matinee before this. Both works were written within a few years of each other by Irish socialists but Shaw's drawing room comedy seems a million miles away from Tressell's milieu.
Director/designer Philip Prowse's ornate staging has the look and feel of a Victorian toy theatre; it’s opulent but there’s a coldness at the heart.
Rupert Everett doesn’t look comfortable as Higgins. He's older than Shaw’s description, but he acts younger – in fact, he acts too young, looking like he’s been expecting the call to play Hamlet rather than a phonetics professor.
His Higgins is rich in petulance and sulkiness. Shaw says that his irascibility should be tempered with good humour – there’s little sign of that in Everett. The final scene with him dressed in black, brooding silently as Eliza marries Freddie, looks for all the world like Hamlet, except that Eliza thrusts a bunch of violets in his hand, rather than Yorick's skull.
Honeysuckle Weeks does her best with Eliza, but struggles with the cockney vowels in the first scenes - many of her opening lines are inaudible. She comes more into her own in Mrs Higgins' soiree, traversing the stage with her dainty but measured tread, even though her voice is again too small. If she’s a struggle to be heard five rows from the front, who knows how she’ll sound up in the gods.
There’s some good work from the rest of the cast, however. Stephanie Cole as Higgins' exasperated mother steals both of her scenes and gets most of the big laughs. She's almost matched by Phil Davis' Doolittle, revelling in the word play of the Cockney moralist, and there’s a very solid Colonel Pickering from Peter Eyre.
There's one aspect of the production that's very strange – there are two intervals in a not very long play (under 100 minutes of running time), and that's after Prowse has taken out the ballroom scene and the Nepomuk character. Perhaps Chichester bar takings are down and they need to drum up extra business but at a time when two-hour shows are put on without a break, this smacks of self-indulgence.
this ssssssssssssssssssssssuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss cjust saying this sucks sucks sucks sucks - heatyher
08 May 12
Oh dear, how could a director of Philip Prowse's undoubted ability achieve so little with Shaw's least flawed play? Either actors or audience or both were frequently reduced to watching a tennis match between characters on opposite ends of the stage or were distracted by totally unneccesary movement. Here was an attempt to update a masterpiece which failed due to the weakness of its two leads but was thankfully saved, in part, by the professional abilities of some of the surrounding cast. In particular credit is due to Peter Eyre as Pickering and Phil Davis as Doolittle. - Ian
25 Aug 10
Thank heavens for Peter Eyre's Pickering, who you could listen to all night, Susie Blake who was a superb Mrs Pearce and Phill Davis who was a joy to watch, despite being directed to look as if he was at Wimbledon for one scene. As for the Higgins and Eliza couldn't have cared two hoots about them - neither had anything to endear them to the audience at all and the latter was unitelligible throughout the first scene and whenever she turned her back. And if you are going to leave in the line about Higgins' boots for heavens sake give him a pair rather than black lace up shoes!
iza so leads ouclb' e have cared two hoot sabout then - Diane
25 Aug 10
As a mere stay-at-home mum and infrequent theatre-goer, I thoroughly enjoyed my evening up in the Gods watching Pygmalion.
My £13 ticket provided me with a fantastic two and a half hours of entertainment; funny, energetic, audible.
Reading the many reviews of this production online, I am beginning to understand how being in show business can make one crazy....some people are too hard to please. Chill out and enjoy life! I thought Rupert's Higgins was amazing, Phil Davis too. Thanks for a great evening.
What a pity CFT is STILL such a closed shop after all these years-80% of the audience over 60 and wearing tweed. - Multigravida
15 Aug 10
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I found this an imaginative and entertaining version of Shaw's play. Philip Prowse is anything but a dull director/designer as witness the number of actors who love working with him. Everett may be a touch charmless compared to the Rex Harrison style of playing Higgins but he's plausibly arrogant and self-centred. Honeysuckle Weeks has clearly grown into the role since the early reviews and was perfectly audible to me some two-thirds of the way back. In the tea party scene she was hilarious and got a deserved exit ovation. Ms.Cole and Messrs Davis and Eyre are superb. - George Morris
04 Aug 10
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After seeing the earlier production this year of Pygmalion at the Exchange Theatre in Manchester this one was a pale comparison. The reviews must have encouraged the cast to shout their way through act one and the two intervals were not required. Stephanie Cole and Suzie Blake were both excellent in their roles. The staging of the final scene spoken between the two leads from either side of the stage was boring and like the production as a whole lacked any emotional depth. - Michael Penn
01 Aug 10
Agree very much with Maxwell Cooter's review. After a good blustery opening scene, Henry Higgins shrank into a two-dimensional character, and it was essentially the rounded performances of Mrs Pearce, Colonel Pickering and Henry's mother that kept him alfoat. Eliza Doolittle - admittedly a huge challenge to portray an evolving character (or accent, at least) - remained a charitcature. In the final analysis, Shaw's attempts to intertwine a older tale with his soap-boxing on language and society fail to make a solid base for the production, which is then played as a comedy and little else. (Seen on 31 July.) - Linnet
See also Minerva Studio. [Each summer a musical beats at the heart of the Festival, surrounded by world premieres as well as brand-new productions of classic dramas and comedies, all of the highest quality. Set in the beautiful surroundings of Oaklands Park, Chichester Festival Theatre is one of the UK's flagship theatres and has an enviable reputation for excellence. Four of Festival 2010?s ten productions went on to have lives beyond Chichester, touring nationally and/or transferring to the West End. Artistic Director: Jonathan Church Executive Director: Alan Finch
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