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

MY FAIR LADY

Broken Wings

Theatre Royal Haymarket

Reviewed – 2nd August 2018

★★★

“there is sometimes a lack of variation to the musical numbers and as a result the show starts to suffer from trying to survive on a diet of power ballads”

“The Broken Wings”, Khalil Gibran’s poetic novel has inspired paintings and pop songs. It has been adapted into a film and now a musical – which is probably the most natural evolution for a novel rich in musical references and rhythmical text.

The tale follows Khalil Gibran, living in 1923 in New York, as he reflects on his life and his experiences in the Middle East as an eighteen-year-old who has returned to turn-of-the-century Beirut, after five years living in America, to complete his education and retrace his heritage. He falls in love with Selma Karamy, the daughter of a family friend. However, Selma is betrothed to another man; the nephew of the powerful Bishop whose eye is on the Karamy family fortune.

‘Broken Wings’ has sometimes been described as the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ of the Middle East, so it is fair to say that the young couple’s romance is doomed, as they fight to reconcile their love for one another in the face of the rules, traditions and expectations that their society lays on them.

Written by Nadim Naaman and Dana Al Fardan it is faithfully adapted from Khalil Gibran’s novel. Gibran’s views on love, marriage, children, joy, pain, death and loss are today all too familiar. They hang on the walls of homes and sit on bedside tables and are preached at weddings and funerals. Yet when it was first published in 1912 it was met with hostility in the eastern Mediterranean for its treatment of religious corruption, the rights of women and the pursuit of wealth over personal happiness. The musical successfully highlights the key social issues of the time, reminding us too that they are just as relevant today, over a century later.

Naaman guides us through the story with a speaking voice, rich and assured, while effortlessly sliding into song. His younger counterpart (Rob Houchen) shares the same quality but with an added purity that no doubt reflects the wide-eyed hope and stoicism of the teenage Gibran as the first waves of suffering lap around his ankles before the tide threatens to pull him under. Houchen is well matched by Nikita Johal’s Selma, whose versatility allows her to breathe tender notes before riding the crest of a crescendo with an ease that belies her slight physicality. The harmonies are strong, especially so when the full ensemble take to the stage.

Yet the real star is orchestrator and conductor, Joe Davison, who leads the nine strong band through the evening. A masterful musical director his baton is on the pulse throughout. The musical arrangements are haunting and quite beautiful. However, there is sometimes a lack of variation to the musical numbers and as a result the show starts to suffer from trying to survive on a diet of power ballads. The highlights, for me, occur when the melodic modes and influences of the East shine through. I was expecting more of this within the score.

This is a beautiful and well-crafted show; rich in atmosphere that is heightened further by Nic Farman’s sumptuous lighting. It is evocative and true to Gibran’s themes, yet like a postcard platitude that many of his words have become, it triggers the mind without really gripping the heart. Full of Eastern promise yet veiled by oversweet Western appropriation.

Tag Archives: Nadim Naaman

MY FAIR LADY

★★★★

The Mill at Sonning

MY FAIR LADY

The Mill at Sonning

★★★★

“a wonderfully stylish presentation, and an absolute joy”