This was published 7 years ago
My Fair Lady review: Julie Andrews delivers bloomin' lovely anniversary show
By Jason Blake
MY FAIR LADY
Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House, September 6. Until November 4.
★★★★
Overseen by the fabled 1956 Broadway production's Eliza Doolittle – Dame Julie Andrews – this 60th anniversary staging of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's My Fair Lady is a fabulous museum exhibit.
Anna O'Byrne, Robyn Nevin and Alex Jennings in My Fair Lady.Credit: Jeff Busby
Those interested in sumptuous acts of re-creation will find it hard to fault.
The set is a replica of 10-time Tony winner Oliver Smith's original design for New York's Mark Hellinger Theatre, supervised by Smith associate Rosaria Sinisi.
Cecil Beaton's former assistant John David Ridge went back to Beaton's original drawings for the show's iconic costumes.
Anna O'Byrne as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Credit: Janie Barrett
Richard Pilbrow's lighting is a salute to Broadway legend Abe Feder, made with technology Feder could only have dreamed of.
An orchestra of 32 musicians from the ranks of the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, under musical director Guy Simpson, unleash the full colour in Loewe's score.
The show's pace is stately by modern standards, though choreographer Christopher Gattelli creates marvellous stage pictures in the almost still life of Ascot Gavotte and in the joyous motion of Get Me to the Church on Time.
The playing style is respectful of the production's heritage and allows the book's Shavian gems to sparkle. Squint and you can even believe it's the late Rex Harrison up there, so close is British actor Alex Jennings's portrayal of Henry Higgins.
Anna O'Byrne brings a flinty edge to flower girl Eliza Doolittle early on, a harshness that, in combination with streaks of dirt and filthy skirts, ages her by a decade or more. Eliza's emergence as Higgins' experimental social butterfly is made the more striking when those years melt away.
Once transformed, O'Byrne's fine voice carries emotion to the back of the hall, exemplified in a ringing, exuberant I Could Have Danced All Night. She demonstrates fine comic touch, too, when the temporarily uncorked Eliza brings Ascot to a halt with her "move yer bloomin' arse".
Reg Livermore who plays Alfred P Doolittle in My Fair Lady at the Sydney Opera House. 1st September 2016 Photo: Janie BarrettCredit: Janie Barrett
Jennings demonstrates complete mastery as Professor Higgins. His diction and clarity is outstanding, his timing impeccable. It seems more Harrison's Higgins than his own, at times, but his crisp energy and charisma lifts the portrayal far above the level of impersonation.
A warmly imperious Robyn Nevin makes her brief appearances as Mrs Higgins memorable. Tony Llewellyn-Jones is an appealing and adroit comic foil as Colonel Pickering. Deidre Rubenstein (housekeeper Mrs Pearce) and David Whitney (the imposter-seeking Zoltan Karpathy) offer excellent support.
Reg Livermore is a delightfully rascally Alfred P. Doolittle. He might lack the bruiser's heft of Stanley Holloway, who actually looked like he could give his daughter a walloping, but he can light up the stage with rat cunning and infectious joie de vivre.
Supported by Paul Whiteley and James Lee as drinking pals Jamie and Harry, With a Little Bit of Luck pops perfectly and from that point on, Livermore has the audience wrapped around his dustman's dirty finger.