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

★★★★

“It is the sharp wit and intelligence of the language that sustains the piece and cushions it from the risk of being labelled dated”

Oliver Goldsmith’s period comedy, “She Stoops to Conquer”, was first performed in London a quarter of a millennium ago, but is still very much alive among today’s canon of revivals. Initially titled ‘Mistakes of a Night’ it is indeed a comedy of errors. Goldsmith himself dubbed it a ‘laughing comedy’ while others referred to it as a ‘comedy of manners’ or a ‘romantic comedy’. The stress is repeatedly on the word ‘comedy’ – as the laughs from the audience at Tom Littler’s festive revival testify.

It is the sharp wit and intelligence of the language that sustains the piece and cushions it from the risk of being labelled dated. Littler’s production shifts it from the eighteenth century into a 1930s country manor deep in the heart of P. G. Wodehouse land. Tucked away in the English countryside we find Mr and Mrs Hardcastle; the former relishing the quiet, old-fashioned lifestyle while his wife longs to untuck herself and see the new things happening up in the big city. Instead, the city comes to them in the form of two raffish slickers – Charles Marlow and George Hastings. Marlow has been invited as a prospective match for the Hardcastle’s daughter, Kate, while Hastings is in tow to pursue Kate’s cousin Constance, who in turn is being reluctantly matched by Mrs Hardcastle to her prankster son Tony. Courtesy of Tony’s mischievousness, the two gents arrive mistaking the country house for an inn.

The main butt of the satire is class divide, emphasised by the way the characters treat one another depending on the (often mistaken) perception of their social standing. The text calls for a heightened degree of acting, which the formidable cast deliver without ever overdoing it. Greta Scacchi pitches just the right amount of affectation into her flame haired Mrs Hardcastle, as gaudy as the baubles with which she adorns the Christmas tree. Scacchi manages to parody and show off her privilege simultaneously, with a cut glass accent in need of a good polishing. David Horovitch is the perfect foil as her bumbling crank of a husband, delightfully and playfully outraged at the slightest threat to his authority and standing. Tanya Reynolds, as Kate, effectively has a dual role, spending much of the time pretending to be the lowly barmaid she is mistaken for. A comic talent, showcased in a glorious scene where she tries on various accents for her alter ego. Guy Hughes is a real find as Tony, the one who instigates all the misunderstandings. His veil of bumpkin buffoonery shields an intelligent rascal, but one with a good heart.

But the one everybody is looking out for is Freddie Fox. One moment eloquently flirtatious, the next a nervous, tongue-tied wreck. A lithe performance, Fox effortlessly switches between the two sides of Marlow, eking out the hypocrisy of the class system but – more strikingly – drawing out the laughs from an audience that hangs on his every word and nuance. Robert Mountford’s Hastings and Sabrina Bartlett’s Constance add a delightful extra layer of farce as the ‘will-they-won’t-they’ couple. Bartlett, in particular, lighting up the stage with her presence.

The performances and, of course, Goldsmith’s script are what drive this comedy through what would otherwise be a fairly safe revival. Anett Black and Neil Irish’s setting has the comfortable warmth of a well-heeled family Christmas, transforming not entirely successfully into the local pub. And we get the feeling sometimes that the sense of privilege is enjoyed too much rather than lampooned. But these sentiments are quickly knocked aside by the stream of laughs. Sometimes gentle, sometimes farcical. The festive setting might be a touch opportunist, but it is bang on target, and we leave the auditorium uplifted and ready to embrace the joys of Christmas.

Tag Archives: Francesca Ellis

MY FAIR LADY

★★★★

The Mill at Sonning

MY FAIR LADY

The Mill at Sonning

★★★★

“a wonderfully stylish presentation, and an absolute joy”