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Pygmalion at the Old Vic review
Last night I saw Pygmalion at the Old Vic, courtesy of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
the_magician.
It was a pretty good production. Mr Doolittle (Tony Haygarth), with his rants about middle class morality, was a particular highlight, and got several spontaneous rounds of applause.
It had a lovely old fashioned set, which required the curtains to be drawn so they could do the scene changes. At one point this trapped a sofa cushion on the wrong, so a hand shot out from under the curtain :)
My one complaint would be that Miss Eynsford-Hill (Emma Noakes) was far too quiet. I could hardly hear her at times.
I thought that the ending didn't gell with my memories of the musical. Having looked it up it seems that the ending was changed for the film, but I don't think they quite used the original either.
IIRC they changed two words.
"I'll marry Freddy, I will, as soon as he's able to support me."
became
"I'll marry Freddy, I will, as soon as I'm able to support him."
But that is the last mention of Freddy, and comes just before her realisation that she could set herself up in business, with her knowledge of phonetics.
Far from delivering the lines about Freddy's affection with warmth, Eliza seemed to be using them to score points off Henry, and to prop up her ego. By the end I got the impression that she will neither marry Freddy (as George Bernard Shaw later states she does), nor go back to live with Henry Higgins (as the film implies), but will instead sets herself up as an independent career woman.
the_magician. It was a pretty good production. Mr Doolittle (Tony Haygarth), with his rants about middle class morality, was a particular highlight, and got several spontaneous rounds of applause.
It had a lovely old fashioned set, which required the curtains to be drawn so they could do the scene changes. At one point this trapped a sofa cushion on the wrong, so a hand shot out from under the curtain :)
My one complaint would be that Miss Eynsford-Hill (Emma Noakes) was far too quiet. I could hardly hear her at times.
I thought that the ending didn't gell with my memories of the musical. Having looked it up it seems that the ending was changed for the film, but I don't think they quite used the original either.
IIRC they changed two words.
"I'll marry Freddy, I will, as soon as he's able to support me."
became
"I'll marry Freddy, I will, as soon as I'm able to support him."
But that is the last mention of Freddy, and comes just before her realisation that she could set herself up in business, with her knowledge of phonetics.
Far from delivering the lines about Freddy's affection with warmth, Eliza seemed to be using them to score points off Henry, and to prop up her ego. By the end I got the impression that she will neither marry Freddy (as George Bernard Shaw later states she does), nor go back to live with Henry Higgins (as the film implies), but will instead sets herself up as an independent career woman.