My Fair Lady - Opera North & Leeds Playhouse co-production

I was last week in Leeds but there was no show that day. 😞 This looks better than the ENO production.

Stunning performances, from all principals and chorus, and of course the wonderful Opera North Orchestra. A truly memorable production, nicely different to the only other production of My Fair Lady I’ve seen, many years ago, this was darker, not as pretty, but great to watch, witty, inspired, entertaining. I absolutely loved it . John Hopkins and Katie Bird were amazing .

Literally darker in terms of subdued colours for costumes and set, it’s not presented as the colourful, spectacular musical I remember (Denis Quilley, Liz Robertson, Manchester Opera House 1988) but rather as I expect the play Pygmalion might be presented . It worked for me, especially since the music and singing were allowed to take centre stage and be so memorable .

Making the most of the good weather and a break from the train strikes, I decided to make a trip across the Pennines for today's matinee. Despite the early start to get over to the Leeds Playhouse, it was definitely worth effort to watch this one and judging by the very response of the audience at cast bows, the good folk of Leeds also seemed to have a great time as well. Having only booked a few days ago, the selection of tickets wasn't that great so plumped for a £40 M5 ticket and despite being on the side, I felt it was a great seat for this show and nothing was really missed and thankfully I didn't spend a lot of the show seeing people's backs.

Director James Brining and his team have done a wonderful job on bringing this classic to the stage. With a 160 minute run time (Act 1- 90 minutes, 20 minute interval and a 50 min Act 2), it really is a well paced show and kept my attention throughout. Whilst the set design from Madeleine Boyd  filled the stage nicely, it wouldn't be one I would rave about for its visual appeal though I did like her costume designs. I was also surprised that the lighting design by Guy Hoare was pretty dark for the majority of the show (a bit more lighting in different colours would of been nice). The Ascot racing scene was cleverly done with a nice twist due to the size of the stage and certainly brought some humour to proceedings.

An absolutely brilliant cast has been assembled here. This afternoon we had Gillan Butterfield as Eliza (from the programme notes, she is doing all matinees) and Tim Ochala-Greenough as Professor Zoltan Karpathy. As the leads both Gillian and John Hopkins as HH really were a great pair and had wonderful on stage chemistry which allowed me to easily buy into their relationship. Gillan's Eliza's transformation from flower seller to high society lady was believable  and that last scene when the Prof realises what he has lost with Eliza really hit home.

Where this show was a massive win for me was with the musical aspect. The Opera North orchestra under the directorship of Garry Walker was great to listen to and backed by the brilliant vocal talent of both the main cast and the Opera North chorus really sent that classic Lerner and Loewe iconic score to another level and what the recent Coliseum / tour should of been. With great sound mixing today, I had no issues hearing both the cast and orchestra clearly. 

I'd definitely recommend catching this one in its last few shows. 

Rating = 4.5 stars

Tonight one of the manhole covers rocked as Hopkins stepped on it, then the cover fell right in. During I could have danced, the cast negotiated the hole, then they stopped the show for 15 minutes whilst they attached some additional strips of wood to support the cover. In the way of these things, the audience seemed to enjoy the novelty and applauded the stage crew, but it was nerve wracking for a while! Great performances though and very well received.

wish this had a much longer run so i could return! enjoyed it greatly, hardly missed the cuts, was thoroughly charmed.

- higgins and pickering (john hopkins and dean robinson) a veritable pair, beautiful vocals from john and delightful mannerisms and interactions from both! even when the spotlight was on eliza they were highly, amusingly, watchable
- eliza (katie bird) was full of fire and had a wonderful journey, and while i agree her operaticness wasn’t very in-character pre-transformation, it wasn’t that jarring as most of the company also sang in the same operatic manner. what she lacked in diction (only sometimes) she made up for in great sound
- absolutely FANTASTIC sound, where the opera north chorus joins in
- speaking of sound, of course the orchestra was DIVINE. 1 minute into the prologue had me grinning ear to ear and i never stopped
- also shout out to harry/hoxton man? (nicholas butterfield), his bass voice stood out beautifully
- the double storeyed set worked cleverly alongside the lighting and props (transformation from pub to wimpole street using the exact same facade was unexpectedly quite believable)
- ascot set piece was amusing (the little dog lol) but it did feel like it came from a completely different set of ideas
- the use of aisles to enter/exit the stage was fun! especially with eliza at the start of the show
- didn’t really notice the manholes serving much of a purpose but DID enjoy one of them becoming a flowerbed on which mrs higgins was working, and the collective ohh/aww from the audience when higgins stamped on those flowers 😂
- one TINY niggle was the occasional flubbed lyric and the singing/orchestra playing catch-up with each other even at the 3rd last show- appreciate it’s been a relatively short run however

though i’ll always have a soft spot for harry h-p and malcolm sinclair as well as the design from the bartlett sher production, this opera north production is an excellent one in its own right with the glorious orchestra and the company’s operatic sound. leeds playhouse an excellent, welcoming venue as well with lovely and helpful staff!

I was supposed to be going to the matinee today but I’ve got one of those persistent, hacking coughs which I’m not going inflict on anyone or sit trying to suppress for 3 hours. My friends are going and the LP have given me a credit for my ticket minus £1 admin fee which is very fair.

Last Saturday I could have gone to the theatre with our david . Yesterday I could have gone with BurlyBeaR . Neither were meant to be...though it will happen one day! You would have had serious cape envy, BB, so it's probably for the best that you recused yourself. There were some magnificent specimens on display during the opening Covent Garden scene.

The singing was glorious, as you would expect from the chorus of Opera North, who must enjoy letting their hair down at the Playhouse once a year. John Hopkins is unrecognisable from his time as Barnaby's sidekick in Midsomer Murders where, ironically, he spoke more like the people he despises in My Fair Lady. Dripping wet, he were, by the end.

I found the set more of a hindrance than help. The exterior of Alfred Doolittle's local should look very different to the interior of Henry Higgins' study, so why use the same set for both...and everything else? Although not an approach I have seen used before, the Ascot Gavotte scene was underwhelming, when it should be visually spectacular. The sketches were faint even from the front row. They must have been invisible from the back! To have real gutters, with actual running water, was clever. Even cleverer to have Higgins literally in the gutter at one point.

Best of all, there wasn't a pink cowboy hat to be seen anywhere! 😄