Stage: My Fair Lady – Playhouse Opera, Durban
(Season ends March 16)
REVIEW BY BILLY SUTER
EVERYTHING you have heard about Pieter Toerien and Cape Town Opera’s latest touring musical spectacle is true – My Fair Lady is a triumph and an endless delight that has been well-deserved of standing ovations at all venues it has played in recent months.
This is a handsome, richly realised, fresh and bright production of a Lerner and Loewe classic that sees this ‘old gal’ of a show lent new verve and humour by director Steven Stead, and which boasts great attention to detail in magnificent sets, many on a revolving stage, designed by Durban’s Greg King.
It is no surprise that both Stead and King, of the KickstArt theatre company, have now been nominated for the Cape’s Fleur du Cap awards for their work on this evergreen musical, as have the show’s lead performers, Leah Mari and Craig Urbani, and supporting players, Adrienne Pearce and Graham Hopkins.
The show is also up for Fleur du Cap awards for best production, costumes and lighting design. Award-winners will be named on March 23.
Mari, last seen in Durban as a standout, sassy Marta in KickstArt’s South African premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, alternated the principal role of slowly blossoming, Cockney flowergirl Eliza Doolittle with Brittany Smith during My Fair Lady’s Cape Town and Johannesburg tours. However, for the short Durban season, presented by The Playhouse Company, Mari is in the role fulltime, and she makes a perfect Eliza, who grapples with class, identity and the power of language as she undergoes etiquette and voice training with an arrogant Henry Higgins.
Mari offers a performance rich with nuance and depth. And that voice – this 23-year-old is blessed with powerful pipes and is destined for greatness. I have not felt so excited about a rising South African musical theatre talent since Jonathan Roxmouth first took early strides on stage.
As for the seasoned and versatile Urbani, he is in his element in a role that allows full flex to his acting muscle. His Henry Higgins, the rude and robust linguist, is one of the most credible and enjoyable I have seen. Urbani is hilarious in unexpected little asides, spot-on with his enunciation, in terrific voice throughout and also endears with moments of poignancy towards the show’s finale.
I also greatly enjoyed Graham Hopkins’s Colonel Pickering, who bets Higgins he can’t turn Eliza into a lady. Hopkins attacks the role with relish and, under Stead’s careful direction, makes this character a lot more fun than I ever recall him being.
Another standout is a bearded and jolly Mark Richardson as Eliza’s pub-crawling and conniving father. Megan Spencer as Higgins’s housekeeper, Mrs Pearce, is also of note, while Sandi Dlangalala is in beautiful voice with On the Street Where You Live, as debonair Freddy Eynsford-Hill, who falls for Eliza.
The large ensemble cast is a tight unit, impressive with wonderful vocals and performing Duane Alexander’s deft choreography, making this My Fair Lady a constant crowd-pleaser.
The production was enjoying its 80th performance when it opened in Durban last night to a hearty standing ovation. Great to note that the run has almost sold out, with only a handful of seats left for the Durban season.
With a little bit of luck you might still be able to land a ticket. You’ll be missing out if you don’t.
.....SoSuterBill..... 