My Fair Lady

Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke, 3rd-14th November 2009

Show synopsis
Henry Higgins, an arrogant, irascible professor of phonetics, boasts to fellow linguist Colonel Pickering that he can train any woman to speak so properly that he could pass her off as a duchess. Pickering is intrigued by Higgins's boast and wagers that Higgins cannot make good on his claim. Higgins takes on the challenge. He chooses as his subject Eliza Doolittle, a poor girl with a strong Cockney accent whom he encounters selling flowers in Covent Garden. An intensive makeover of Eliza's speech, manners and dress begins in preparation for her appearance at the Embassy Ball.

Complicating matters is Eliza's father, Alfred P. Doolittle, a cheerfully amoral and drink-loving dustman. He shows up to extract money from Higgins, claiming that Higgins is compromising Eliza's virtue. Higgins is impressed by the man's natural gift for language and his brazen lack of moral values ("Can't afford 'em!"). So he flippantly recommends Doolittle to an American millionaire who is seeking a lecturer on moral values. In the end, Doolittle gets a surprise bequest of four thousand pounds a year from the millionaire. This raises him uncomfortably into middle-class respectability.

Meanwhile, Eliza endures speech tutoring, endlessly repeating phrases like "In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen” (to demonstrate that "h"s must be aspirated) and "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" (to practice the "long a" phoneme). Just as things seem hopeless, she suddenly "gets it" after Higgins eloquently speaks of the glory of the English language. Thereafter her pronunciation is transformed into that of impeccable upper class English. For her first public try-out, Higgins takes her to Ascot Racecourse. There she makes a good impression with her polite manners but shocks everyone by her vulgar Cockney attitudes and slang (thus establishing one of the show's themes: good elocution is only "skin deep"). But she captures the heart of an eager young man named Freddy Eynsford-Hill.

The final test requires Eliza to pass as a lady at the Embassy Ball. She does this admirably, even fooling a rival of Higgins, a Hungarian phonetician named Zoltan Karpathy, into believing that Eliza was "born Hungarian." After the ball, Higgins's ungrateful boasting about his triumph and his pleasure that the experiment is now over leave Eliza feeling used and abandoned. She walks out on Higgins, leaving the clueless professor mystified by her ingratitude. But Higgins soon realizes his feelings for her: he has "grown accustomed to her face." When Eliza tentatively returns to him, the musical ends on an ambiguous moment of possible reconciliation between teacher and pupil.

Ticket prices and performance dates
Don’t forget our great group rate: buy 10 get one free. Plus, you can reserve tickets for your group but not pay for them until the end of September!

Concessions

Box office
Tickets may be purchased from the Anvil Arts box office (tel: 01256 844244).

Other information
Link to Wikipedia entry.

For specific details about the show, including the audition dates, rehearsal schedule and cast list click here.