Review: PYGMALION 1940 at Kechi Playhouse

Most theatregoers only know George Bernard Shaw’s popular play, PYGMALION, through the Broadway musical classic, MY FAIR LADY. But Kechi Playhouse owner/producer/director Misty Maynard takes Shaw’s 1913 classic and smartly transforms it into a 1940s radio drama set in war-ravaged London during World War II.

It’s the well-known tale of lower-class Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as she is transformed into a “proper lady” by the arrogant and obnoxious dialect expert, Professor Henry Higgins.  Motivated by a bet with his colleague Colonel Pickering, Higgins takes Eliza from the streets of old London and forms her into a Duchess.  Together, they teach her proper English, suitable refinement and gentility, and the essentials of fine manners.  Not only do the gentlemen pass Eliza off as a refined lady, but she is also thought to be Hungarian royalty by others.  Higgins and Pickering see Eliza more as an experiment than a person with feelings and dreams of her own.  As Eliza prepares to take her leave, she informs Higgins that what makes a flower girl a Duchess is not how she’s taught to behave, but the way she is treated.

In Maynard’s brilliant adaptation, musical strands of The White Cliffs of Dover take audience members back in time to 1940s London.  Act One opens as the radio station personalities come together in the BBC basement to read Shaw’s PYGMALION over the air.  As the cast make their way into the studio and prepare for an autumn evening’s broadcast, we learn that Millicent Pepperidge (who reads the character of Eliza) and Alistair J. Cochrane  (who reads the character of Professor Henry Higgins) have had some sort of previous connection from seventeen years earlier that has left them at odds.  As the evening progresses and the studio readers are nearing the end of their broadcast, the BBC building has been bombed, and the readers are left in the dark.   Act Two brings the radio readers back the next evening to finish their reading. They are terrified and dismayed by the loss of their BBC colleagues, but console each other as they bravely finish Shaw’s story.

Playhouse veteran Heather Johnson plays Millicent, and WSU’s Ed Baker plays Alistair.   Their chemistry together was stellar and believable.   Baker’s facial expressions are worth the price of admission alone, and it's good to see him onstage again.  Both Kristin Moody as Rose McCallister (radio narrator and Mrs. Eynsford-Hill) and D.J. Freeman as Wendy Bartholomew (Clara Eynsford-Hill) were especially fun to watch as they popped in and out of characters quickly. 

Elisa Balleau plays the matronly Grace Hepswich (Mrs. Peace and Mrs. Higgins), and Andrew Johnson plays Sterling Mercer (Colonel Pickering).  Both Balleau and Johnson keep the scenes moving steadily. Nathaniel Schmucker plays Edwin Keats (Alfred Doolittle).  Kechi audiences will remember Schmucker from earlier in the season as a cop in Maynard’s original script, YOU TAKE THE CAKE.  It's good to have him back.  

Playhouse veteran Mike Shryock plays Foley artist Sam Tucker.   Watching him effortlessly but rapidly make doors slam, footsteps walk, clocks chime, bells ring, thunder roar, and the sound of rain fall was spectacular.  Kechi audiences will really enjoy Benjamin Eldridge’s theatre debut performance as Rupert Worthy (Freddy Eynsford-Hill).  His comic timing is perfect, and I certainly hope we will see more of him.

Rounding out the cast is piano player Archie, played by Matt Fenwick.  Fenwick not only impressed the audience by composing original music for the performance but also wrote a commercial ditty for Cadbury Chocolates.   Excellent work, Matt.

PYGMALION 1940 runs through September 28.  Performances are every Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 pm.  Tickets are available at the door.

Next up at the Kechi Playhouse is another Maynard original script, COPPER MOON. It closes out the 2025 season and runs October 3 – 26.