Musical Theatre / “My Fair Lady”, John Frost and Opera Australia. At The Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House until October 31. Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

There are many reasons to savour this magnificent production of My Fair Lady.

Firstly, it is the only production in the world directed by Julie Andrews, who created the role of Eliza Doolittle in the original 1956 Broadway production.

Although she had played the role hundreds of times during its original seasons on Broadway and in London, Julie Andrews had never seen the show from the front. Therefore, when invited by John Frost and Opera Australia to direct a recreation of the original production for its 60th Anniversary, she did so from her memories of performing in it. That production toured Australia in 2016, and it is that production, with Ms Andrews’ direction intact under the stewardship of Karen Johnson Mortimer, who was her assistant director when she created it, that has now been revived for this 70th Anniversary tour.

The magnificence of this production for which extraordinary efforts have been undertaken to ensure the meticulous reproduction of Moss Hart’s breathtaking set designs, and the much-celebrated Cecil Beaton costumes, for this production faithfully recreated by John David Ridge, is still awe-inspiring.

The Covent Garden exterior which opens the show, Professor Higgins’ wonderfully detailed study, the stunning Ascot scene, and of course the breath-taking transition into the Embassy Ballroom, all gloriously enhanced by the lighting design of Richard Pilbrow, remain as gasp-inducing as ever. Each reveal drawing excited applause from the first-night audience, a reminder that there were those in the theatre had not been born at the time of the first Australian production or had never seen a stage production of My Fair Lady.

Although one who certainly had, and sitting quietly among the first-night audience was Australia’s original 1959 Eliza Doolittle, Bunty Turner.

In 2026, Claire Lyon is a bewitching Eliza Dolittle, as comfortable vocally as the uneducated cockney flower-girl as she is as Higgins newly minted faux duchess. Her renditions of The Rain in Spain and I Could Have Danced All Night are a joy, as is her entrance as Eliza dressed for the ball.

Similarly, Nathaniel Parker, who while embracing the unfettered misogyny of Henry Higgins, manages to invest his portrayal with a winning likability, even a modicum of warmth that allows Eliza’s capitulation at the end to almost makes sense.

Particularly unique are the three Australian stage legends returning to the roles they created in the 60th Anniversary production. Reg Livermore as Alfred Doolittle remarkably reprising his show-stopping versions of With a Little Bit of Luck and I’m Getting Married in the Morning; Robyn Nevin delightfully dignified but landing every laugh as she brings her son, Henry, to heel; and Tony LLewellyn-Jones as the ever-urbane Colonel Pickering.

None look a day older than when they created these roles in 2016, and each bringing to the stage, a unique command and style earned over a lifetime lighting up stages in a succession of memorable roles.

New to this production but bringing with them a wealth of stage experience, Anne Wood plays Henry Higgin’s formidable though kindly housekeeper, Mrs Pearce. David Whitney clearly enjoys playing Higgins phonetics rival, Zoltan Karpathy, while Freddy Hellier brings an impressive voice and presence to the role of the besotted Freddy Eynsford-Hill even harvesting laughs from the verse of his impressively sung On the Street Where You Live.

If you need more encouragement as to why you should not miss this production, there’s the opportunity to hear the glorious Lerner & Lowe score played magnificently by the Opera Australia Orchestra, conducted by David Young, who generously allows the orchestra to have its head during Christopher Gattelli’s boisterous dance numbers, while keeping it restrained during the many songs to allow Alan Jay Lerner’s witty lyrics to be relished.

If you have ever yearned to experience this classic musical as its creators intended, then this is your opportunity.

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