My Fair Lady Returns to the Théâtre du Châtelet

Based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, this beloved musical returns to the Théâtre du Châtelet this holiday season, following an immensely successful run in December 2010. With music by Frederick Loewe and book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, the production’s instantly recognisable tunes, such as Wouldn’t It Be Loverly and I Could Have Danced All Night, have led to it being called “the perfect musical”.

My Fair Lady concerns the charming Eliza Doolittle, a character immortalised by two legendary actresses – Julie Andrews in the original Broadway and West End productions, and Audrey Hepburn in the subsequent film – a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from arrogant phonetics professor, Henry Higgins. The latter bets that he can change the East Londoner’s ‘rough around the edges’ pronunciation into correct English, and therefore pass her off as an educated, upper class lady.

This production sees Katherine Manley reprise the role of Miss Dolittle (shared with Christine Arand), and the entire show is performed in English with French subtitles. My Fair Lady is a firm favourite of musical fans, but its return to the Paris stage is fleeting, for one month only.

Théâtre du Châtelet, December 5, 2013 – January 1, 2014. 8 p.m. nightly, matinée 4 p.m. Tel: +33 1 40 28 28 28. Tickets €27.50-€101.50

Originally published in the December 2013-January 2014 issue of France Today