East Kilbride Light Opera Club

My Fair Lady - 1992

Index

History

My Fair Lady - Synopsis

cover of programme Probably the greatest musical ever - awaited with fervent anticipation before its New York opening in 1956, graced by the starriest of casts, greeted with rapturous notices, "My Fair Lady" became a classic of theatre history from its very first performance. Somehow Alan Lerner and Frederick Loewe contrived to create a perfect musical out of a flawless play - an achievement unmatched before or since. They retained the plot, characters and many of the lines of Shaw's "Pygmalion" and arrayed them with a sparkling score, every song of it a show-stopper.

"Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?" asks Henry Higgins. And he sets out to prove that by teaching a common flower-girl to speak properly, he can pass her off anywhere as an English aristocrat. The flower-girl is Eliza Doolittle, whose father is an incorrigible dustman, one of the world's undeserving poor who, when he comes into money is forced to make an honest woman of Eliza's 'step-mother'. With assiduous work the arrogant Higgins does succeed in turning a rebellious guttersnipe into an elegant debutante. And then he finds he cannot do without her.

The lusty Cockney dances in Covent Garden, the languid gavotte of the gentry at Ascot, the glitter of the Embassy ball, the touching exaltation of "I could have danced all night" - these are now world-famous set-pieces that never lose their magic. Everyone, everywhere, has grown accustomed to her face, but no one, ever, could grow tired of My Fair Lady.

My Fair Lady - 1992
by arrangement with Musicscope Ltd. and Stage Musicals of New York

Music by Frederick Loewe
Adaptation & Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Based on "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw

Production Team
Producer - Jack Tait
Musical Director - S. Gordon Lang
Choreographer - Margaret Hay

Cast
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill - Elizabeth Conroy
Eliza Doolittle - Kate McGhee
Freddy Enysford-Hill - Mark Devine
Colonel Pickering - Tom Johnston
Henry Higgins - Colin Thomas
Bartender - Edward Peirce
Harry - Gordon Ferguson
Jamie - Bruce Griffin
Alfred P. Doolittle - John Stewart
Mrs. Pearce - Elaine Anderson
Butler - Peter King
Mrs. Hopkins - Claire Johnston
Maids - Carol Edison, Norma Fingland, Eileen Montgomery, Alison Stewart
Footmen - Jim Kirkpatrick, Robert McDermott, Douglas Muir
Mrs. Higgins - Elizabeth Rennie
Lord Boxington - Wilson Paterson
Ascot Stewards - Bruce Arthur, Bill Ginn
Embassy Footmen - Donald Corbett, Simon Dunkley
Zoltan Karpathy - Ken Lawton
Queen of Transylvania - Anne Kennedy
Prince Consort - Jim Maxwell

Cockneys, Costermongers, Lords and Ladies -

Hazel Armstrong, Morag Arthur, Diane Ballantyne, Dorothy Bedford, Alison Bennet, Gillian Dunker, Carol Edison, Norma Fingland, Anneliese Gannon, Wendy Hayes, Shona Jenkins, Claire Johnston, Anne Kennedy, Rona MacGregor, Margo McTaggart, Marylin Maxwell, Eileen Montgomery, Sandra Mooney, Pauline Moscardini, Jacqueline Robb, Alison Stewart, Linda Watson.

Bruce Arthur, John Cannon, lan Conroy, Donald Corbett, Robbie Crawford, Bill Crudge, Simon Dunkley, Gordon Ferguson, Bill Ginn, Bruce Griffin, Peter King, Robert Kirkham, Jim Kirkpartrick, Robert McDermott, Jim Maxwell, Alan Morton, Douglas Muir, Wilson Paterson, Edward Peirce, Martin Russell, Harry Sheridan, Bill Struthers, Bill Walker, Gilbert Wedgwood.

Dancers
Kim Crawford, Gillian Dickson, Lori McElroy, Dawn Smith, Gael Smith.

Stage Manager - William J Porter
Club Accompanist - Nan McKechnie
Lighting - Carrick McGhie
Property Mistress - Susan Struthers
Wardrobe Mistresses - Margaret McFadyen, Anna McGillivray
Leader of Orchestra - Andrew Wilson
Prompter - Frances Baird

Performance Details
2nd March - 7th March
The Village Theatre,
East Kilbride

Synopsis of Scenes

The place is London. The time 1912

Act I
Scene 1 Outside the Opera House, Covent Garden - A cold March night.
Scene 2 A tenement section, Tottenham Court Road - Immediately following.
Scene 3 Higgins' study - The following morning.
Scene 4 A tenement section, Tottenham Court Road - Three days later.
Scene 5 Higgins' study - Later that day.
Scene 6 Near the Race Meeting, Ascot - A July afternoon.
Scene 7 A club tent, Ascot - Immediately following.
Scene 8 Outside Higgins' house, Wimpole Street - Later that afternoon.
Scene 9 Higgins' study - Six weeks later.

Act II
Scene 1 The Transylvanian Embassy - Immediately following.
Scene 2 The Ballroom of the Embassy - Immediately following.
Scene 3 Higgins' study - 3 o'clock in the morning.
Scene 4 Outside Higgins' house, Wimpole Street - Immediately following.
Scene 5 Flower Market of Covent Garden - 5 o'clock that morning.
Scene 6 Upstairs hall of Higgins' house - 11 o'clock that morning.
Scene 7 The conservatory of Mrs. Higgins' house - Later that day.
Scene 8 Higgins' study - Immediately following.

Musical Synopsis

Act I
Overture and Opening Scene
"Why can't the English?" - Higgins
"Wouldn't it be Loverly?" - Eliza & Cockneys
"With a Little Bit of Luck" - Doolittle, Harry & Jamie
"I'm an Ordinary Man" - Higgins
Reprise: "With a Little Bit of Luck" - Doolittle & Ensemble
"Just You Wait" - Eliza
"Poor Professor Higgins" - Servants
"The Rain in Spain" - Eliza, Higgins & Pickering
"I could have Danced all Night" - Eliza, Mrs. Pearce & Maids
"Ascot Gavotte" - Ensemble
"On the Street where you Live" - Freddy

Act II
Entr'acte: The Embassy Waltz
"You Did It" - Higgins, Pickering & Servants
Reprise: "Just You Wait" - Eliza
Reprise: "On the Street where you Live" - Freddy
"Show Me" - Eliza & Freddy
Reprise: "Wouldn't it be Loverly?" - Eliza & Ensemble
"Get me to the Church on Time" - Doolittle & Ensemble
"A Hymn to Him" - Higgins
"Without You" - Eliza & Higgins
"I've Grown Accustomed to her Face" - Higgins