By Helen Musa
WHEN Reg Livermore, Nancye Hayes, Matthew Robinson and Taryn Fiebig descended on Canberra Theatre a while ago with their director Stuart Maunder, all the talk was of the classics.
Those actors are, of course, are all leading lights in Opera Australia’s new production “My Fair Lady,” to be seen in Canberra early next month. 
They predicted that the combination of the “classical” acting skills of Livermore, the musical theatre know-how of Hayes, the metro-sexual charm of Robinson and the soaring operatic voice of Fiebig, would make for a sure-fire hit, and they were right – Opera Australia has since been packing them in at Melbourne’s State Theatre and Sydney Opera House. 
Director Stuart Maunder is quite certain that “My Fair Lady,” written by Lerner and Loewe, is a piece of classic theatre, which takes on class and women’s issues in a way that few other musicals have, following George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” from which the book derives.
Maunder says Eliza is most definitely a new woman and argues that she and Professor Higgins end up as equals. “Higgins has learnt to have some kind of relationship with another human being – “I’ve grown accustomed to her face… her smiles, her frowns, her ups, her downs.”
As for Livermore’s credentials as a classical actor, he was trained in the classics, but it is not for his classical roles that he is known, but rather for outrageous, over-the-top parts, such as Betty Blokkbuster and Dr Frank N Furter.
No wonder Livermore seemed tamed by Professor Henry Higgins. So much so that he has already announced that later in the year, he’ll be handing over the part to African-English actor Richard E. Grant and heading off to perform his own one-man show on the refurbished stage of the old Independent Theatre in Sydney.  On this subject, Livermore will say no more.
Hayes, who danced in the original Australian production of “My Fair Lady,” plays Professor Higgins’s forbearing mother, Mrs Higgins. As well as being the grand dame, she also gets to wear some extraordinary hats and costumes by designer Roger Kirk.
As for the younger parts, Fiebig, an average actress, is energetic and vital, like a young Marina Prior, while Matthew Robinson, whose mini-musical “Metro Street” was directed by Hayes last year, plays Freddie Eynesford-Hill with a light tenor voice and a new burst of life.
Maunder, also executive producer for Opera Australia doesn’t worry about the annoyance of high opera lovers at revivals such as “My Fair Lady.” On the contrary, he’s found a mixture of classical and modern theatre, seen through the eyes of opera and popular musical theatre, and it couldn’t be better. 
“My Fair Lady”, Canberra Theatre, August 9-23.