The third collaboration between Leeds Playhouse and Opera North, this My Fair Lady keeps things traditional with its Edwardian London setting – wherein Katie Bird makes for a fierce Eliza Doolittle in the face of John Hopkins’s appropriately maddening, but deliciously funny, Henry Higgins.

The production sounds glorious, but can be physically inert – reflecting rather than distracting from the fact that the chorus are obviously singers rather than hoofers. It all comes together as a slightly stodgy but still toothsome take on a classic musical. 

John Hopkins (Henry Higgins)

Katie Bird (Eliza Doolittle and company)

The company of My Fair Lady

Dean Robinson (Colonel Pickering), John Hopkins (Henry Higgins), Katie Bird (Eliza Doolittle)

PRODUCTION CREDITS

My Fair Lady

Leeds Playhouse, reviewed on 7 June 2024

Starring Katie Bird, John Hopkins, Richard Mosley-Evans, Dean Robinson, Ahmed Hamad, Miranda Bevin, Helen Évora

Directed by James Brining

My Fair Lady runs until 29 June 2024 - for more information and tickets, visit leedsplayhouse.org.uk

Read Holly Williams's full review in our August/September issue, published on 26 July 2024.