It's one of the most popular musicals of all time, with well known characters, settings and of course the songs.
Chemainus Theatre Festival will be bringing My Fair Lady to the stage for the summer -- June 1 to Sept. 3. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play and Gabrial Pascal's movie Pygmalion, with book, music and lyrics by Lerner and Loewe, My Fair Lady is being directed in Chemainus by Jeremy Tow, the theatre's artistic director.
The story revolves around Eliza Doolittle, a lowly flower peddler in London's Covent Garden Square. She agrees to take speech lessons from phonetician Henry Higgins in order to fulfill her dream of working in a flower shop. Professor Higgins makes a wager that he can pawn her off as a lady in any social setting.
The musical includes such well known songs as Wouldn't It Be Loverly?, With a Little Bit of Luck, The Rain in Spain, I Could Have Danced All Night, On the Street Where You Live, Get Me to the Church on Time and I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face.
Paul Terry plays Henry Higgins, the role made famous by Rex Harrison in the stage production. Terry, who lives in Victoria where he appears quite often on stage, said he set out to make the role his own.
"Higgins is a rather saucy, independent person who thinks he can get along on his own and doesn't need anybody," he said. "Lots of people are going to have expectations of how this character should be played, but I'm just going to do my own take on it. I can't worry if I'm not being enough like Rex Harrison. I can do my own thing with it."
Terry said another fun part of the production is getting to sing all the wonderful, well known songs from the musical version. He played Higgins in Pygmalion and said it's great to revisit the role with the songs.
"It's ridiculously popular and I would say justifiably so," Terry said. "There are so many hits in it. Almost all the songs are ones people know and love."
This is Terry's second production with Chemainus Festival Theatre. He was Bob Cratchett in a Christmas Carol many years ago and said he's having a great time in rehearsal so far.
"It's a blast, it's a very fun group of people and it's neat watching the pieces of the set as they get built, it's quite a complicated show with all the changes in scenery," he said. "It's just been a lot of fun."
Vancouver actress Meghan Gardiner is stepping into the role of Eliza Doolittle, the Cockney flower girl being groomed for a life in the upper class. Gardiner, a veteran of musicals, said Eliza is her absolute dream role.
"She's not your typical ingenue, she's a bit feisty, she's a bit independent and those are the roles I tend to gravitate towards, so it's an honour to get to play this one," she said. "The scenes are so well written and the music comes right out of those scenes. It's so story driven, it's an acting challenge."
Gardiner is making her debut with Chemainus Theatre Festival with My Fair Lady and said it's been a great experience so far.
"It's wonderful to get to live on the Island and get to do my dream role," she said.
Like the role of Henry Higgins, Eliza Doolittle has been made famous, being played by Julie Andrews on stage and Audrey Hepburn on film. Gardiner said she's setting out to make the role her own.
"Audience members are going to come and remember Julie Andrews or Audrey Hepburn, but I'm not going to try and imitate or impersonate either of them" she said. "I'm going to do a Meghan Gardiner version of Eliza Doolittle."
A preview night will be held May 31. The performance schedule is varied: matinees at 2 p.m. and evenings at 8 p.m.
Check for specific show dates on-line or call the box office at 1-800-565-7738 or (250) 246-9820. www.chemainustheatrefestival.ca for more information.