At Ealing’s only theatre, the Questors, an ambitious spring/summer season was launched yesterday, including Ayckbourn, Dylan Thomas, and Jane Austen. My Fair Lady is their major musical production of 2025.
An amateur company whose history as one of Europe’s largest community theatres dates back to 1929, The Questors offer a varied programme of shows including plays, comedies, and panto.
My Fair Lady is one of my all-time favourite shows. Based on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, it tells the story of flower girl Eliza Doolittle and phonetics professor Henry Higgins as she attempts to “talk more genteel”.
With book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, My Fair Lady made its Broadway bow in 1956 and has been regularly revived since. Many will recall the 1964 film version that set a high standard for ‘talk-song” in the role of Higgins, created by Rex Harrison.
Here at Questors, Kirsty King stands out as Eliza, with a marvellous voice, a sense of comic timing, and sweet vulnerability. Ant Foran offers an abrasive yet likeable foil as Higgins, an insufferable bachelor buffoon who finds he might have found his match. His songs are delivered with a charming confidence.
The choice of having a 90-minute first half (I’ve seen productions that open act two with “On The Street Where You Live”, but here it was with the Embassy Ball) made proceedings drag a little, but the 24 cast members were extremely hardworking throughout.
Special mention goes to David Leonard’s fey Pickering, Robert Vass’s boisterous Doolittle, and the Cockney Quartet of Ben Connaughton, Tim Williams, Elaine Griffin, and Daniel Thompson. Patricia O’Brien captured the spirit of Henry’s mother, while Lesley McCall offered silent comment of working so long at Wimpole Street.
Michelle Spencer’s direction and choreography allows a rather small stage area to be utilised well for Higgins’s library and the viewing boxes at Ascot, while costumes by Carla Evans, Sue Peckitt, and Nichola Thomas are beautifully captured.
The songs are delivered well (Luke Baverstock shows considerable versatility following Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), and musical director Tom Arnold conducts a 10-piece band who captures the nuances of a sophisticated score. This My Fair Lady ultimately leads me to say, “Bravo, Questors!”
3.5 stars.
My Fair Lady continues until 5 Apr. You can book tickets here.
Image credit: Carla Marker
Excellent. Very good production.2025 curve theater.