Morning:
13°c
London faces a wave of bus and Tube strikes that could cause chaos for millions of passengers as unions walkout over pay and conditions
More...
An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Nick Curtis's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Peter Hall.
Cast: Tim Pigott-Smith, Michelle Dockery, Tony Haygarth, Pamela Miles, Una Stubbs
Description: Peter Hall's production of Bernard Shaw's classic tale of the Cockney flower girl clashing head-on with the boastful and arrogant phonetics professor. With Tim Pigott-Smith as Henry Higgins and Michelle Dockery as Eliza Doolittle.
Trains: Tube/BR: Waterloo 
Phone: 0870060 6628
Website: www.oldvictheatre.com
Extra info: Pub, Food
Say it with flowers: Michelle Dockery as Eliza Doolittle
It's a good time for George Bernard Shaw. His sharp analyses of his characters’ questionable motives and moral equivocations seem to chime well with our era. After a surprisingly moving revival of St Joan and an effective staging of the caustic but problematic Major Barbara, both at the National, comes Peter Hall’s acclaimed Bath Theatre Royal production of Shaw’s brightest and best comedy.
Those who know the story of guttersnipe Eliza Doolittle and ’Enry ’Iggins, the professor who trains her to pass for a duchess, chiefly from Lerner and Lowe’s My Fair Lady, will be surprised by Pygmalion. The source play is much more cutting and witty than the musical, less saccharinely romantic and more political. It is also the play in which Shaw reined in his tendency to hector, where his fondness for one-liners helps rather than scuppers the action.
Hall loves the play and has been hopping from foot to foot (metaphorically speaking — he is 77) to effect a London transfer. He is convinced he found the perfect cast for it in Bath last year — not just the estimable likes of Tim Pigott-Smith and James Lauren-son as Higgins and his friend Colonel Pickering, but also newcomer Michelle Dockery as Eliza.
Dockery narrowly missed out (to the excellent Rory Kinnear) on the Ian Charleson Award for a classical performance by a young actor for her Eliza. She got rave reviews and has since played a poised and beautiful Yelena for Hall in a touring production of Uncle Vanya.
The transfer was worth the wait, as it turns out, because Kevin Spacey has invited Hall back to his spiritual home. The director saw some of his first plays at the Old Vic as a boy, moved in when it was still home to the National Theatre after taking over from Laurence Olivier, and took up residence with his own company there in the late Nineties until the sale of the building forced him regretfully to leave.
Hall says he “cannot imagine a better home” for Pygmalion. Nor can I.
Previewing now; booking to 2 August (0870 060 6628; www.oldvictheatre.com)
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
[ 1 ] [ 2 ]
Brilliant acting by all. Really well worth going to see. The scene changes were rather clunky but Michelle Dockery was exceptional so one didn't mind. (Well chosen, Kevin Spacey - who ought to be given an ASBO so that he can NEVER leave the country.)
The only negatives were the Old Vic's seating, designed for the short legged, the time it takes to get a drink, the shortage of women's loos and the sweltering heat on the night I went.
- Charles, London
