"I'm a good girl, I am!"

We went along to see Pygmalion at The Garrick Theatre last night - and it was a remarkably surprising production! For despite the lure of seeing the eternally sexy Rupert Everett and the magnificent Dame Diana Rigg on stage together, it was the (previously unknown to me as I don't watch soaps or reality TV) first-timer Kara Tointon who emerged as a genuine star in the making.

Despite evidently being directed to impersonate Audrey Hepburn rather than actually portray an Edwardian character, Miss Tointon really injected some personality into her Eliza Doolittle - and provided a perfectly feisty foil for Mr Everett's terrifyingly dismissive Professor Higgins and Peter Eyre's aloof Colonel Pickering. Her scene when first introduced to polite society, engaging in ‘small talk’ with the society ladies, was hilarious and impeccably delivered - and her transformation from "squashed cabbage leaf" flower girl to well-spoken lady (without losing her anger) was convincing. Not bad for a West End debut!



Dame Diana was marvellous (as she would be) as Mrs Higgins - holding court in her drawing room - and Roberta Taylor’s Mrs Pearce the housekeeper is perfectly controlled as she seethes quietly about the Professor's callousness. There was only one weak spot - and a rather unfortunate one, given the importance of the character - in the fact that poor Simon Ward is unwell and has had to pull out of the production, leaving an obviously under-rehearsed Michael Feast to carry the part of Alfred Doolittle (who has so many of George Bernard Shaw's best lines in the play). Mr Feast is a good actor, but I felt myself wince several times as he stuttered, trying to get the lines - and losing a little of their emphasis on occasion.



The elegance, charm and wit of GB Shaw's writing shone through beautifully with such a great cast of thespians. Despite the unfortunately widespread set design, which placed Rupert Everett and Kara Tointon out of the eyeline of half the audience in the Circle on several occasions, at least you could always hear the dialogue. I am sure I was not alone in half-expecting them to burst into song ("reminder to self: this is the original, not My Fair Lady"), especially as little bursts of music do permeate the play...

Another joyful evening's entertainment, in celebration of the lovely Paul's birthday - and we managed to get our programmes autographed by a Dame, a queen and a debutante at the Stage Door afterwards!

Pygmalion at the Garrick Theatre

Yorkshire carrying-on

We went with my sister and History Boy to see JB Priestley's When We Are Married last night - a rare thing for us, to go and see a West End production that isn't a musical!

Hilb had given us this as a Xmas prezzie, knowing as we all did that with a cast that includes Roy Hudd, Maureen Lipman, Michelle Dotrice, Sam Kelly and Susie Blake in it just has to be good! Another fave Lynda Baron was unfortunately replaced by her understudy, but good it most certainly was...

The plot is a twist on the traditional "comedy of manners", in that the setting is pompous nouveaux riche society in Edwardian Yorkshire rather than genteel aristocratic drawing-rooms, and centres around a party being held to celebrate three couples who married on the same day twenty-five years previously. Of course, nothing is quite as simple as it seems, and when the young "lah-de-dah Southerner" church organist, about to be sacked by the dreadful old bigots of the Presbyterian chapel, drops a bombshell - the three working-class-made-good couples were never in fact legally married due to the lack of qualification of the minister!

Having well and truly pricked the bubble of their brusque pomposity, farce ensues... All the couples begin to feel the wind of freedom now they are no longer bound by law to each other. Hen-pecked Herbert Soppitt (Sam Kelly) reveals his long-standing passion for Annie Parker (Michelle Dotrice), and begins to stand up to his domineering "wife" Clara (Maureen Lipman) for the first time.

A newcomer Lottie Grady (a "tart with a heart", played brilliantly by Rosemary Ashe) calls in, on hearing the news (from the gossipy housekeeper) that all the individuals are now "free", in the hope of running away with Alderman Helliwell (David Horovitch). She reveals they had a "fling" in Blackpool, much to the horror (and slight relief) of his long-suffering "wife" Maria (Suzy Blake).

Best of all is the reaction of Annie to the news she is finally free of her overbearing skinflint husband Councillor Parker (Simon Rouse), as she tells him with scathing honesty just what she thinks about him!

But of course, this wouldn't be a proper farce without the comic turn - ably provided by the fantabulosa Roy Hudd as the drunken Henry Ormenroyd, photographer from the local paper, who has come to take photos of the "celebrating" couples and remains a witness to the whole unfolding melodrama. With a couple of rousing Music Hall sing-songs and a bravado bumbling performance, his character often provided the "gel" that kept the pace of the whole play together.

All in all, this is a lovely evening's entertainment, despite the ignoramus audience with their rattly sweet wrappers and loud whispering, and the sound of the Piccadilly Line and the police sirens penetrating the lovely Garrick Theatre (sited as it is right next to Trafalgar Square). We thoroughly enjoyed it!

Garrick Theatre