Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House, September 22
9/10
Someone said to me, “Not My Fair Lady, again!” But when it’s this good, 10 years seems rather too long between elocution lessons. It still makes most other musicals seem trashy, with their cartoon characters, simplistic stories and limp or overwrought songs.
Nor could Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick’s Loewe (music) ever replicate such mastery. But then they never again had such robust raw material as George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.
The pressure on whomever plays Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins is frightening, given the many brilliant performances, beginning with Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison in 1956. Claire Lyon and Nathaniel Parker duly won us anew.
Lyon has wanted to play Eliza all her life, and unsuccessfully auditioned for the 2016 incarnation of this production, which, directed by Julie Andrews and produced by John Frost and Opera Australia, was conceived to replicate the original Broadway designs. Now Karen Johnson Mortimer replicates Andrews’ direction.
Lyons’ performance is a victory for all who don’t give up, and a lesson for all directors and producers. She’s some 18 years older than Eliza’s supposed to be, yet she’s so right for the part that this discrepancy is swept away – other than for allowing her to present an Eliza who’s a little more knowing; a little less the ingenue.
Lyon blossomed more after the opening scene, blossomed yet more when she mastered “the rain in Spain”, and still more when she tapped into the inner steel to stand up to Higgins’ bullying. All Elizas must own our hearts, and Lyon’s performance enchants as she effortless blends comedy, elegance and singing with a beautifully rounded soprano voice.
The trick with playing Higgins is for the actor to charm us into forgiving his tyranny towards Eliza, as he elevates her from a flower-girl to gentlewoman, just to win a bet. If that charm is not in place, why does Eliza fall for him, given her treatment?
Nathaniel Parker’s being two decades older than Higgins’ putative age of 40 makes a fatherly dimension now cloud the phenomenally nuanced frisson of allure between Higgins and Eliza. Nonetheless, he’s splendid at being bumptious, intelligent and emotionally asinine. His delivery of the fizzing lyrics was supreme in You Did It and Hymn to Him, although he undersold some of the delicious lines in I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.
Reg Livermore, Tony Llewellyn-Jones and Robyn Nevin reprise their roles as Alfred Doolittle, Colonel Pickering and Mrs Higgins to sterling effect, with Livermore somehow evading the passing years.
The recreations of Oliver Smith’s sets and Cecil Beaton’s costumes are also stars, as are the songs, of course, realised with intricate detail by the orchestra under David Young. The ensemble looks transcendent in the Ascot scene (with choreography by Christopher Gattelli), as the English stiff upper lip migrates to stiff upper bodies. You’d be mad to miss it.
Until October 31.
https://opera.org.au/productions/my-fair-lady-sydney/