MY FAIR LADY

The Mill at Sonning

★★★★

“a wonderfully stylish presentation, and an absolute joy”

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s “My Fair Lady”, the musical based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play “Pygmalion”, by sheer default, could run into problems with today’s audience. The overt misogyny, magnified by the class divide, cannot be avoided without tearing up the book and starting from scratch. Joseph Pitcher’s intimate staging at the Mill at Sonning doesn’t do that. Instead, it creates an atmosphere of impending change. Set against a backdrop of Edwardian unrest, suffragette action, labour strikes and protest it gives Eliza Doolittle a solid context. The rebel in her almost cuts the puppet strings she dances to. I say almost – this adaptation still sticks faithfully to the compromises of Shaw’s (and Lerner and Loewe’s) ending.

Soundbites and snatches of modern broadcasts introduce the narrative – the Spice Girls’ declaration of Girl Power, Margaret Thatcher’s inaugural public address – before spooling back to the dawn of the twentieth century, Emmeline Pankhurst and women’s right to vote. Although this is never thoroughly followed through, it sets the tone before settling into a lavish, albeit traditional, telling of the story.

Simbi Akande, sultry yet fiery and gamine as Eliza, makes her voice heard amid the bustle of Covent Garden’s flower market. The barrow boys and buskers whirl around her with their accordions, fiddles and banjos. Backed by Nick Tudor’s four-piece band, the music (fabulously orchestrated by Charlie Ingles) is deliciously rich and varied, frequently whisking us back to the golden age of Hollywood musicals. The choreography (Joseph Pitcher and Alex Christian) is a masterclass in adapting to a limited space while appearing to be on a West End stage, while the exceptionally talented, all-singing, all-dancing ensemble flesh out the various locations with their slick and varied routines. Even the scene changes are seamlessly woven into the movement, as furniture and props waltz in and out of view, led by their leading partners.

Up close, we get a focused look at the two disparate worlds of Eliza Doolittle’s and that of the privileged, emotionally detached professor Henry Higgins. Nadim Naaman captures Higgins’ blind self-belief with authentic accuracy. Ignorant rather than innocent, he nevertheless reveals a crack in the solid wall that has imprisoned his emotions. The class divide may still be unsubtly characterised and cartoonish, but there is a chemistry between Akande and Naaman that suggests that Eliza is more than just an experiment for Higgins.

Even though we are witnessing a bygone era, the humour resonates without bruising modern sensibilities. Eliza’s early elocution lessons elicit lots of laughs. Mark Moraghan is wonderful as Eliza’s dustbin man father, willing to sell himself, and his daughter, for social advancement but horrified by his new middle-class life. His “Get Me to the Church on Time” is a musical highlight. And it is the music we are really here for, which is full of highlights. Akande is earthy yet plaintive for “Wouldn’t It Be Lovely”, and defiantly raw during “Just You Wait”. Both are reprised in Act Two with a different slant, aching and vulnerable, but still not beaten down. Alfie Blackwell, as foppish, potential love interest Freddy, gives a moving, inebriated “On the Street Where You Live”. There is a fine mix of emotion and flamboyance in all the musical numbers, with Ingles’ arrangements ingeniously punctuated with fluctuations and pauses to let the narrative shine through. The up-tempo, ensemble routines are a delight, while the slower numbers (“Without You” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” especially) show us the softer, more vulnerable side to the leading characters.

There is a moment in the second act – following “You Did It”, the duet performed by Higgins and Jo Servi’s charismatic and commanding yet sympathetic Colonel Pickering – that encapsulates the mood of this interpretation of the show. Akande brilliantly conveys – partly through stillness and silence – the questions that bubble away inside Eliza Doolittle. ‘Where do I come from?’, ‘Where is my due credit?’, ‘What is my place in this world?’ are written in her eyes. This unspoken anguish adds texture to the songs and layers to the text. A shame the conclusion can’t be tweaked, though. The feminist slant doesn’t disguise the flaws. Nor does it detract, whatsoever, from the overall, understated lavishness of the production. This is a wonderfully stylish presentation, and an absolute joy. A real feast for the senses. Especially with the pre-show meal. It does make for quite a late night, though. But, hey, no matter. “I Could Have Danced All Night”.

MY FAIR LADY

The Mill at Sonning

Reviewed on 28th November 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Pamela Raith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE SHADOW IN THE MIRROR | ★★★ | September 2025

WHITE CHRISTMAS | ★★★★ | December 2024

BEDROOM FARCE | ★★★★ | August 2024

THREE MEN IN A BOAT | ★★★ | June 2024

CALENDAR GIRLS | ★★★★ | April 2024

MY FAIR LADY

★★★

“The music is the highlight, even though it often feels it belongs to another story.”

Marie Curie, née Maria Salomea Sklodowska, is remembered for her discovery of radium and polonium (the latter named after her native Poland); and for her huge contribution to finding treatments for cancer. The latter is what she is generally celebrated for, along with the hospital and charity that bear her name. Less is probably known about her years of obsessive scientific research and the opposition and misogyny she faced while trying to get her name onto the periodic table. The science goes over most people’s heads, whereas the enduring image is of Marie, buttoned up to the neck in black, gazing unsmiling into the camera.

An unlikely subject for a musical. But composer Jongyoon Choi and librettist Seeun Choun obviously decided to give it a go. After making the finals of the ‘Glocal Musical Live’ competition in Korea it secured funding and eventually premiered in Seoul in 2018. Apparently, Tom Ramsay’s English adaptation (with lyrics translated by Emma Fraser) marks the first time a Korean musical is staged in English.

There are elements to this musical that would have many a physicist scratching their head. Its essence is not instantly discoverable despite condensing Marie’s story into a one act musical. It concentrates on her relocation to Paris, charting her struggle to fit into a man’s world. The narrative follows her research and discoveries, the adverse and tragic effects of these discoveries and the subsequent battles against corporate baddies. The love interest is supplied by fellow scientist and husband, Pierre Curie, although it is a bit of a cold fusion. The passion is reserved for the chemical elements, with love songs titled ‘Radium Paradise’ (parts one and two no less). In fact, the show could have been called ‘Radium: The Musical’.

It opens at the end with Marie’s daughter, Irène (Lucy Young), reading her mother’s memoirs while Ailsa Davidson’s spectral, black-clad Marie watches. Davidson’s fine, pure voice sits well on the lush strings of the prologue as she guides the story back to the start. Rose Montgomery’s changeable set is with her every step of the way, from the train carriage as it pulls into Paris, to the laboratories and the factories. On the journey, Marie meets fellow Pole, Anne Kowalska (Chrissie Bhima), a lowly factory worker who later becomes the voice of justice and moral reasoning. It takes a while to get there, though, with the bulk of the show comprising a song cycle leading up to Marie’s discovery of radium.

The tone darkens when the destructive side of radium manifests itself. Initially used as luminous paint for watches and clock dials, the painters were instructed to lick their brushes to give them a fine point. It didn’t take long for this practice to lead to a sharp peak in the death rate among the workers. Covered up as a syphilis outbreak (did they really think they could get away with that?), the factory boss (Richard Meek) finds himself at loggerheads with Marie.

It is refreshing to see the story focus on a relatively short time span rather than attempting to create an epic chronicle of the woman’s life. It lends a human touch, steering the piece away from docudrama. Marie’s later years and achievements are glossed over during the finale. We might not learn a great deal that we already didn’t know but instead we are joyously swept along by Jongyoon Choi’s sumptuous score, rich in violins, cellos and clarinet. The music is the highlight, even though it often feels it belongs to another story. Choi’s compositions are indeed stirring, yet the lyrics and subject matter don’t always echo the passion.

The passion, however, is undeniable in the performances, and we also come away with some pertinent reminders of the historical struggle of women with a society against them. But despite the beauty of the score, and Emma Fraser’s arrangements, there is a sense that this story belongs more to the spoken word.

Tag Archives: Emma Fraser

MY FAIR LADY

★★★★

The Mill at Sonning

MY FAIR LADY

The Mill at Sonning

★★★★

“a wonderfully stylish presentation, and an absolute joy”