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My Fair Lady, York Theatre Royal, May 15-25th

From the Evening Press, first published Friday 10th May 2002.

RICHARD Bainbridge and Toni Ward are not unduly concerned about My Fair Lady forming York Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society's centenary production at York Theatre Royal.

"There is enough pressure in the show already," says society stalwart Richard, who will be playing the fastidious Professor Higgins from next Wednesday to May 25. "I'm the only one out of the principals who hasn't done it before."

Toni, back in York since graduating from the Guildford School of Acting last July, has performed the role of flower girl Eliza Doolittle once before.

"I did it at Canon Lee School when I was 15: that was seven years ago and your attitude is very different at that age," she says.

"You just want to get on and do it! They even put the music down a scale for me, so my highest note was an E.

"This time they've not changed it for me and I have to do a top G, but then I have been away to stage school doing musical theatre for three years."

Toni, now 22, believes her acting has moved on apace since her York schooldays.
"I'm a lot less self conscious than I was - so if I need to pull back my performance, I will," she says. "When I did Carousel and Me And My Girl for YAODS, I was 17/18, so I was still a little self-conscious. But this time I have more confidence in myself, and I have enjoyed it more because I'm older, and you don't feel like everyone is mothering you."

Richard Bainbridge has never looked short of confidence in his illustrious career on the North Yorkshire amateur circuit but, at 49, Higgins is proving a ticklish challenge. Hailing from a Yorkshire farming family, he knows he must follow Eliza's example in transforming his accent to the clipped Received Pronunciation of high society.

"It's my biggest fear. It's a wonderful role but it is a fact he has to be so precise. You can't let it slip because it's the only way Higgins talks," says Richard.
He smiles, a little nervously; no matter that he has played so many leading men. "I have to say that it's been one of the hardest parts I've ever undertaken, not only in terms of the voice but in terms of learning all those lines.

"It is such a well known musical that you must learn it absolutely correctly."

Toni has had to master not one but two accents, first Cockney, then Received Pronunciation, and her Guildford course studies have come in most handy. "In my first year at college I had to do RP, so I've been doing that for three years and at the end of the second year we were assessed on different accents; I was given Cockney to do and got an A-minus."

How fortunate!