Scarborough theatre world's Tim Tubbs and Michael O'Brien team up for My Fair Lady at the Kirk Theatre in Pickering

The Lerner and Loewe musical is on at Kirk Theatre, Pickering, later this month.

Michael is a regular performer with Pickering Musical Society and it’s Tim’s first appearance on stage at the Kirk.

Tim is playing the lead role of Henry Higgins and Michael is his colleague Colonel Pickering in the musical based on George Bernard Shaw’s witty comedy Pygmalion, which originally starred Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews and Stanley Holloway before the blockbusting 1964 film with Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn.

Higgins, a phonetics professor, accepts his friend Pickering's bet to teach Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower girl, to speak beautifully and pass her off as an aristocrat at a grand ball.

Eliza is an unlikely Cinderella, coaxed and bullied into her new role by the arrogant, misogynist Higgins.

When a prince charming appears in the person of man-about-town Freddy Eynsford-Hill, Higgins finds himself unexpectedly attached to his ‘creation’ while Eliza struggles for independence and a new life of her own.

Set in 1913, My Fair Lady offers contrasting scenes of upper-class splendour at Ascot Races and an Embassy Ball alongside the down-to-earth vitality of the old Covent Garden market and Eliza’s cheerfully vulgar dustman father Alfred Doolittle, played by society regular Marcus Burnside.

Danielle Long, well known as Principal Boy in Pickering’s annual pantomimes, plays Eliza – her first principal role in a musical.

“I'm really enjoying rehearsals,” said Danielle, "and finding the character of Eliza both challenging and fun to perform.”

The production will be the 10th musical staged by resident director Luke Arnold, who said: “I have always wanted to produce My Fair Lady, having first seen the production as a young man and from that moment being besotted with the characters, the music and the setting.

“This will be our first musical production since our closure due to the pandemic and I can’t think of a better show to come back with. It will be our most ambitious production to date.

"The set and costumes are the biggest and most challenging we have ever aimed for and I am lucky to have such a talented team to bring my vision to the stage”.

The live band, led by musical director Clive Wass, will deliver the show’s unforgettable score of famous standards, including Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?, I Could Have Danced All Night, On The Street Where You Live, The Ascot Gavotte, I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face and Get Me To The Church On Time.

“All my life I’ve wanted to play Professor Higgins,” said Tim Tubbs, “and amazingly, here I am and loving every minute. It’s a huge role, with a terrifying number of lines and lyrics to learn. The man never shuts up.”

Michael O’Brien, who has previously played Freddy Eynsford-Hill as well as Henry Higgins, now turns his hand to the genial Colonel Pickering. “My journey at the Kirk Theatre began 30 years ago,” he said, "when I appeared in my first show Camelot playing the role of Sir Lancelot.”

My Fair Lady runs from Tuesday May 23 to Saturday May 27, daily at 7.30pm with a matinée performance on Saturday 27 at 2.30pm.

Tickets £15 available online at www.kirktheatre.co.uk or via the box office on 01751 474833.