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An all new production from London of My Fair Lady is making its first stop in Singapore as part of its Asian tour.
The musical stars British actors Deborah Myers as Eliza Doolittle and Clive Carter (who played the Police Captain Biggin Hill in the movie "The Da Vinci Code") as Professor Higgins.
"For me it’s a dream role, something I wanted to play as a little girl… I grew up singing the songs – one of the first songs I sung when I was younger was ‘I could have danced all night’", recalls Myers.
Carter too says My Fair Lady was something he was destined to do. "The first time I played this role I was fourteen years old at school. So I was destined to do it."
He also adds, "The nice thing is this is the Singapore debut, because you’ve never had it here - it’s the first time ever, so it’s a great privilege to be the first to do it here".
My Fair Lady is an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's 1912 play Pygmalion, which also played successfully on Broadway between 1956 and 1962 and was later made famous by the 1964 film starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison.
The US$17m film was Warner Bros’ most expensive at the time, partially due to the fact that the studio had to pay US$5.5 million for film rights to the popular Broadway hit.
But it turned out to be one of the top five most successful films that year – winning numerous Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Harrison) and Best Director (George Cukor).
The tale is about a 'guttersnipe' Cockney flower girl heroine (Eliza), who is trained by a misogynistic, bachelor linguistics expert (Higgins) to speak properly within six months - the result of a daring challenge and bet.
During her elocution lessons, her unrepentant, calculating drunk father appears for handouts, and she makes an embarrassing first appearance at the opening day Ascot Races, but she catches the eye of high-born but poor Freddie Eynsford-Hill.
Although she experiences personal triumph within high society at the Embassy Ball, and wins her teacher's love, she storms off after being transformed - only to return by film's end.
In the stage musical version in Singapore, director Nikolai Foster puts the focus on the human element. "We’ve got incredible costumes, exquisite lighting…We’ve not got a 70 million pound set but what we have got is great actors and a human story".
And the theatre at the Esplanade has impressed the cast, with Myers commenting that it is "breathtaking", and Foster admitting "we’ve never played a theatre like this before".
Myers says she is not going to follow in the footsteps of Audrey Hepburn, joking "My waist isn’t quite as small as hers!", but rather make the role her own.
The actors believe that the talents of Alan Jay Lerner, who was responsible for the screenplay and co-wrote famous songs such as "The Rain in Spain," and "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" with Frederick (Fritz) Loewe, are enough to carry the musical alone.
My Fair Lady is showing at The Esplanade 5 – 18 January. - CNA/yy
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