Pygmalion was on at alhamra this friday night – (the same play that was made into the movie My Fair Lady) and they decided to make it a musical. Big mistake. The girl who played the lead role – Eliza Doolittle – couldn’t sing to save her life. Half the time, the violins drowned her out. (the good part was they had live violinists playing). She couldn’t do a cockney accent either, though, to be fair, that was probably too much to expect of any Pakistani girl.

The professor – Professor Higgins – carried the play. He was just the right (believable) amount of arrogant. The stills too, were nice. They did cut out an entire scene at the end, and made the play end at a startling note – they didnt let eliza end up with professor higgins. Instead, the play ended with the professor proclaiming his love for her, and her walking off the stage at the end.

You can read more details about the play at the Daily Times review of it. The last bit, the summary of the play though, does no justice to the undertones suggested both in the play as well as in the staging of it. It was almost satirical, messing with the idea of how easy it is to gain access to “high society” by just learning their language and mannerisms. There was a human service message in there too somewhere…about treating people not like flower girls or princesses but you know, like humans.
Or something.
(image taken from www.pygmalion.ws/ images/pygm1938movie.jpg)