My Fair Lady - London Coliseum / UK & Ireland Tour

It is, but I think it's a wonderful show....

Found this very interesting Quora comment re: the fabulous 2001 West End production at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. I am not vouching for it's authenticity.

Sidebar; I loved this production so, so much. I saw it three times. First time I saw Jo Riding and Pryce, second time Anthony Andrews and Kerry Ellis, third time Alex Jennings and Katie Knight-Adams. Pryce and Knight-Adams were the best I saw. Saw Dennis Waterman and Russ Abbott and an understudy whose name I've forgotten. Michael Xavier was on too for at least one of them!

Anyway, here is the source of the original post;


www.quora.com/Have-you-ever-met-a-celebrity-and-found-they-were-much-kinder-or-ruder-than-you-expected



**REMINDER, NOT MY OPINION OR CONTENT**


In the winter when filming was scarce I used to work in West End Theatre. The most star studded production I worked on was My Fair Lady at the wonderful Theatre Royal Drury Lane - a star itself.


This is Denis Waterman, he played Alfred Doolittle. Probably not that well known outside the UK, he's a big part of growing up here in the 70s and 80s especially for anyone who ever dreamt of being a copper.

He had his dressing room turned into a pub ‘The Waterman Arms’ a pub sign swinging outside his door, a deep wooden bar with working pumps and optics, leather benches, marketing mirrors, stools and board games.

Many of the cast and crew used to hang out there and Denis held court, he's a spastic fountain of the funniest and most disgusting stories you've ever heard. Denis and I couldn't be more different people socially - I was still transitioning into a civilian - but he always made a bit of time for me, always showed me respect and invited me in. When he needed a bit of help we all jumped to. They were great times.

One day in the Waterman's Arms the leading man Johnathon Pryce came in.


As I worked in the flys (in the roof) I hadn't yet met him so I went over and introduced myself. He stared right through me while twisting the cap off a bottle of Vodka. He let the cap fall to the ground and crushed it with his foot. Then ostentatiously turned around and started talking to someone else.

“Oi! PRYCE! don’t be a C*** talk to the man!” shouts Denis across the pub.

JP didn’t know what to do, he stumbled an apology and tried to make small talk. Avoided me for the rest of the run. When I left to join the police after 9/11 Denis sought me out and we had a fantastic chat about how messed up the world was.


This is Martine McCutcheon she played Eliza Doolittle. Again probably not that well known outside the UK. She allowed to me to see the hideous nature of bullying in celebrity stardom. She had to quit the show before her time because of a combination of poor health, and quite frankly appalling tabloid attacks.

On her day when she was well enough to do the show, she was quite simply the best Eliza Ive seen. After a dozen or so shows you only turn up for your ques. But when Martine was on I regularly used to watch the whole thing. Backstage she was probably closer to the crew than the cast - she didn't always get a lot of support from her co-star, in fact he was downright mean to her.

Lovely lady, remembered everyones names, genuine in her crew and cast as family approach. I have no doubt if her health hadn't given way and some people had prioritised her well being over their own she would be one of the biggest stars around.


Kerry Ellis was a young well regarded swing on My Fair Lady, she had learnt all the female supporting roles and would fill in wherever needed. Most of what she did was way in the back, one of many just doing her turn and learning her craft. She was third understudy to Eliza, watched all the rehearsals, learnt her lines but never actually performed the role. She was only going to get that chance if Martine, her understudy Alexandra Jay and one other swing got sick.

One day that happened. With just three hours rough run-through with the seasoned cast she took to the stage. They hadn't even got round to making her a wig, so she was the first to do it as a blonde and a couple of lines of dialogue had to be amended. Nobody expected her to shine, she was very young, unprepared and was going out there to lead the big ticket on the West End. If she just got to the end of the show her stock was gonna rocket.

She completely blew us away. Other than Martine who originated the role, she was by far the best Eliza - cocky, loud, humble, fearful, angry and coming at it from a totally different angle, where Martine played vulnerability, Kerry went with a young girl completely lost at sea. When the curtain came down we were all applauding her backstage which I had never seen before.

By the time she came off stage she looked like she’d been hit by a truck, by the time she reached her dressing room she was fighting off job offers. She could have asked for money, her own dressing room anything, but she went back to the main cast dressing room and was a swing again the next show. Because that was what she’d signed up for. She stayed with the show until normal cast change and then went off looking for her big role.

I worked with her on that when she originated Meat in We Will Rock You, she had her own dressing room for sure and was the talk of the town, but she saw me and bounced over to say hello when I arrived. A player of substance. She has since become the leading light in West End theatre and I’ve never heard a bad word about her

Yeah pretty sure I said this already 😂

I hope that, since it’s a limited run, they get Lauren Ambrose to revisit her Eliza. It was a magnificent, definitive performance. However, certain people would go mad if Eliza wasn’t played by a British actress.

I agree it should be a British actress as we have a grest pool of British talent it doesn't make sense to bring in someone from USA. Plus the audience this show will attract would never have heard of her, me included.
I imagine it will be a "name".

I think Louise Dearman would be brilliant at this.

She’s not really a name, but I’d love Ellie Laugharne to do Eliza again. She’s mostly an opera singer, meaning her voice is wonderful; but I was pleasantly surprised with her portrayal in the Grange festival production, which could be even better with Bart Sher’s direction.

Patricia Hodge is replacing Diana Rigg as Mrs Pumphrey in All Creatures Great and Small so would be neat if she replaced her as Mrs Higgin in MFL.

Buckley would be great but wrong timing given Cabaret sadly.

If Zoe Wanamaker's performance in Constellations is anything to go by, I'd be booking one of her days off if she was cast. Felicity Kendal, however, would be fabulous.

Unless they keep with the way they cast it on Broadway and do cast someone who's almost 40...

When this was in pre-production for Broadway, it was rumoured that Henry Higgins was going to be played by Colin Firth, obviously this never happened, but still why not Colin for the West End. I would also thought Hugh Bonneville would be great in the role.