A Fabulous My Fair Lady with Freshly Minted Choreography
“Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible; and don’t sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon.”
Henry Higgins
There is always excitement around the musical for the year end at the wonderful Mill at Sonning and this year’s My Fair Lady is stellar. This very special theatre on the banks of the Thames is in a beautiful setting and the design of the productions always seems to me to be exceptional. From the flooring of a refined black and white central design to the merging at the edge of cobble stones, we have both ends of society reflected here. To the rear are large arched windows with Victorian iron work detailing.
The show starts in Covent Garden with the patrons at the opera merging with flower sellers and market traders. They think he’s a policeman because he is writing down every word the flower seller is speaking. He is Professor Henry Higgins (Nadim Naaman) an expert on English pronunciation and regional dialect and he is recording phonetically this woman’s egregious accent and expressions. He bumps into someone he has corresponded with, from India, Colonel Pickering (Jo Servi) and Higgins wagers that, with a few months tuition, he could pass the girl off as a duchess.
The full company scenes have lively choreography; some of the cast are actor-musicians adding to the authenticity of spontaneous choreography. As Eliza (Simbi Akande) dreams about her “room somewhere far away from the cold night air” two elegant male dancers in grey toppers and suits take centre stage to dance out her fantasies. Their graceful dance contrasts with the crowd enthusiasm for Alfred Doolittle (Mark Moraghan)’s “With a Little Bit of Luck” where all kinds of ad lib percussion instruments are found. These include dustbin lids as cymbals and the bins themselves as steel drums and the dance is wildly aerobic holding up stools and chairs.
The way Professor Higgins refers to Eliza would have him immediately cancelled and his titles probably taken away for there is his darkly misogynistic and class ridden attitude towards this working class woman. Did Shaw really ascribe to this view or was he being satirical? He is quoted in 1918, six years after the publication of Pygmalion, as considering marriage, “Do you know a reasonably healthy woman of about sixty, accustomed to plain vegetarian cookery, and able to read & write enough to forward letters while her husband is away? … No relatives, if possible. Must not be a lady. One who has never been in a theatre preferred. Separate rooms.”
The whole Higgins’ household of manservants and maids led by Mrs Pearce (Francesca Ellis) dance in lovely set pieces taking this show choreographically to another level. Higgins’ lessons leading up to “The Rain in Spain” are very funny because Simbi Akande as Eliza repeatedly doesn’t get her vowels right and she is deliciously common. The vowel training tuition comes together for “The Rain in Spain” and Ms Akande shows off her clear voice. It is no accident that she has played Maria Reynolds and Peggy Schuyler in Hamilton.
Her song “I Could Have Danced All Night” comes not after a ball room scene, but at home with Mrs Pearce who treats her like a human being, and is a highlight song. Then she is ready to go to Ascot and again meets the Eynsford-Hills. It is a clever idea that she manages to keep her plummy accent while reverting to her previous low-life sentence construction, “wot done her in”. The Ascot scenes have the men dancing as ponies and later are joined by women with lovely white frocks and twirling parasols, prancing with pony moves.
Act Two has the ball with the ultimate test for Eliza now in hired jewels and a beautiful diamond encrusted ball gown. The choreography here is ballroom; the rivalry with Zoltan Karpathy (Christopher Parkinson) a former student of Higgins.
We see Eliza’s leaving Higgins and getting involved in the Suffragettes’ marches. Like all those social experiments, nobody has thought through what happens next to subject of the study taken out of their milieu. What Shaw is often quoted as saying is, “The only way for a woman to provide for herself decently is for her to be good to some man that can afford to be good to her.”
The rest of Act Two concentrates on Alfred Doolittle’s wedding preparations after he is in receipt of £4,000 from the American Moral Re-armament Organiser’s will and the stag do sees showgirls and a turn from Sophie-Louise Dann, otherwise Mrs Higgins, now using her talents more fully as “Burlington Bertie from Bow”. We have the ambiguous ending between Eliza and Henry Higgins. What do you think would be best for her? Does he deserve her?
I loved this production, super singing, great design by Diego Pitarc, a wonderful band with great sound design and originally choregraphed, newly invented dance scenes from director and co-choreographer Joseph Pitcher. It is the most deserving of a transfer, so many may miss out if it does not, and gains an easy five stars from Theatrevibe, the site that doesn’t do stars.
Musical Numbers
Act One
Overture
Why Can’t the English?
Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?
With a Little Bit of Luck
I’m an Ordinary Man
With a Little Bit of Luck (Reprise)
Just You Wait
Poor Professor Higgins
The Rain in Spain
I Could Have Danced All Night
Ascot Gavotte
On the Street Where You Live
Act Two
Embassy Waltz
You Did It
Just You Wait (Reprise)
Show Me
Wouldn’t It Be Loverly? (Reprise)
Get Me to the Church on Time
A Hymn to Him
Without You
I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face
Production Notes
My Fair Lady
Book and Lyrics by Alan J. Lerner
Music by Frederick Lowe
Directed and co-choreographed by Joseph Pitcher
Cast
Starring:
Zaynah Ahmed
Simbi Akande
Imogen Bailey
Alfie Blackwell
Sophie-Louise Dann
Francesca Ellis
Will Foggin
Emma Fraser
Nadia Kramer
Conor McFarlane
Mark Moraghan
Nadim Naaman
Christopher Parkinson
Jo Servi
James William-Pattison
Creatives
Director: Joseph Pitcher
Co-Choreographers: Joseph Pitcher and Alex Christian
Set Designer: Diego Pitarch
Costume Designer: Natalie Titchener
Musical Supervisor and Arranger: Charlie Ingles
Lighting Designer: Jamie Platt
Sound Designer: Chris Whybrow
Musical Director: Nick Tudor
Information
Running Time: Two hours 45 minutes including an interval
Booking until !7th January 2026
Theatre:
The Mill at Sonning Theatre
Sonning Eye
Reading
RG4 6TY
Website: millatsonning.com
Box Office: (0118) 969 8000
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge
at the Mill at Sonning
on 29th November 2025
