Some have called it “the perfect musical”. An exaggeration? Not if success is the measure. My Fair Lady ran for a record-breaking 2,717 performances following its Broadway opening in March 1956; has been given an unprecedented number of stagings around the world; and, translated to the screen in 1964, became an Oscar- and Bafta-winning hit. Its seemingly universal appeal is partly explained by the beautifully balanced combination of Frederick Loewe’s melodies (including I Could Have Danced All Night and Get Me to the Church on Time) with Alan Jay Lerner’s vivid storyline, adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion – the 1913 play and its 1938 Oscar-winning film version (adapted by Shaw and others).
In this new co-production between Leeds Playhouse and Opera North, the story of Eliza, the “lowly” flower-seller who is tutored in “correct” English by celebrated linguist Henry Higgins until she is able to pass as a princess at an embassy ball, is as witty, magical and “loverly” as any audiences could wish and promises to be as popular as its predecessors.
