I could have danced all night: Indianna Scorziello and some of the cast of My Fair Lady in what is a triumph for the Theatre Workshop Coulsdon
FIRST NIGHT REVIEW: The classic Lerner and Loewe musical can be a challenge to stage even for the biggest theatre companies on the West End or Broadway. In Coulsdon this week, the local community centre is staging ‘a lavish, fast-paced show… full of heart and soul’ , says KEN TOWL
Musical theatre is a serious business.
Lerner and Loewe’s songs for My Fair Lady are witty, wordy and poignant. Based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, the musical therefore has well-developed characters who are also mouthpieces for political satire. There is much for the actors to play with here.
In the summer, at Theatre Workshop Coulsdon’s production of Animal Farm, Richard Lloyd, as lead villain Napoleon, convinced as a “strong leader”. As the director of My Fair Lady, Lloyd has put his stamp on a lavish, fast-paced show that is full of heart and soul. He is ably aided by Francesca Auletta in charge of “movement and choreography”, in a very physical and demanding production.
The bar is set high early on with the performance of Dan Carr, as Henry Higgins, of “Why Can’t the English?”, setting up the character as a man who is all brain and no heart. A man, we learn, who believes that the lower classes have no soul.
Palpable chemistry: Indianna Scorziello as Eliza and Dan Carr as Higgins
All this is about to change with the arrival in his life of flower girl Eliza Doolittle, and if Carr has set the bar high, Indianna Scorziello raises it. Her performance of “Wouldn’t it be Loverly?” is, indeed, loverly. The first night audience’s response was a realisation that we were in for for something special.
The chemistry between Scorziello as Eliza and Carr as Higgins is palpable, to the extent that when he sings, “I’d be equally as willing for a dentist to be drilling as let a woman in my life” we start to believe that the man protests too much.
Likewise, when Eliza sings “Just You Wait, Henry Higgins” there is as much promise as there is threat in her words.
We watch them bond over vowels, as the Covent Garden flower girl becomes the Mayfair Lady. If these Higgins and Eliza can’t get on, this will be a tragedy rather than a musical comedy.
I’m getting married in the morning: Paul Ford (centre) gets the laughs as Alfred Doolittle
And of course, it is a comedy, and this production leans as heavily into the laughs as it does the social satire. Colonel Hugh Pickering, Professor Higgins’ friend, is the kinder, more socially adept foil that Henry needs to keep him grounded. Mike Brown’s portrayal is subtly funny, with hidden depth. There are occasional hints of something behind the smart happy façade. A petticoat, perhaps?
Heart and humanity: Anya Destiney (centre) and the housemaids chorus
Another character who brings heart and humanity to the Higgins household is Mrs Pearce, played by the redoubtable Anya Destiney, who manages to bring layers of depth to the role, deftly skipping between commonsense and comic send up. Her singing is fun, too.
Leader of the laughs department, though, is Paul Ford as Eliza’s father, Alfred, a self-declared member of the “undeserving poor”, who eventually prospers “with a little bit of luck”. Ford’s in-yer-face cor-blimey-guvnor performance works well as a raucous live-for-the-moment counterpoint to the tribulations of his daughter, who wonders what will happen to her after Higgins’s human experiment is over.
His reluctant acceptance of “middle-class morality” and consequent exhortations to “Get Me To The Church On Time” set the right comic tone.
One of the songs from the show is “Poor Henry Higgins” but perhaps there should be a “Poor Freddie Eynsford-Hill”, Eliza’s unsuitable suitor. While he is besotted with her, and out of desperation, she considers him as potential husband material, we can see that this relationship is going nowhere. Scorziello makes it clear that Eliza is as repulsed by the hapless Freddie as she is captivated by the apparently heartless Henry.
Poor Freddie indeed, left to hang around on the street where she lives and pine. “On The Street Where You Live” is a tricky one to pull off and Aldo Piscina manages to wring enough emotion out of it so that we can empathise with a character that otherwise in this production is played as a clown.
Overall, the cast is strong. But this is a triumph for Scorziello.
A proper duchess she is: Indianna Scorziello as the flower girl transformed
The audience seemed to clap and cheer just a little bit louder at the end of numbers like “The Rain In Spain” and “I Could Have Danced All Night”. When Scorziello entered the stage at the Embassy Ball in a sparkling white dress, done up like a duchess, there was an audible collective intake of breath from the audience, just as when a bride enters her wedding venue.
As Professor Higgins said, “By George! She’s got it!”
Musical theatre demands, of course, musicians, and a word should go, too, to the septet who provided just the right amount of oomph to complement the acting and choreography on the stage and propel the numbers along. Mark Taylor’s piano led and Katherine Lemieux’s clarinet added texture, but they were all good, and, quite rightly, the audience showed their appreciation.
My Fair Lady is playing today and from Wednesday at the Coulsdon Community Centre, Barrie Close (off Chipstead Valley Road, CR5 3BX). At the time of going to press, tickets were available for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday all at 7.45pm, but the matinees on Saturday and Sunday have sold out.
Read more by Ken Towl
- Intriguing secret societies offer more than conspiracy theories
- Keeping in the LOOP can get us from Coulsdon to Banstead
- Our journey through Beaujolais provided a nouveau experience
- Visit Croydon Art Space to help brighten grey days of winter
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, as featured on Google News Showcase, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
I saw the show on Saturday and agree with every word of Ken’s excellent review.
I have been going to Theatre Workshop Coulsdon’s shows for thirty years or more (they are such a nice, friendly, talented group) but I definitely think that this is the most entertaining one yet. Catch it if you can!