My Fair Lady
7th - 14th November 1970
Production Officials
Director Derek W. Taylor
Musical Director J. Arnold Thornton
Choreographer Lois Booth
Cast
Mrs Eynsford-Hill Joyce Richardson
Eliza Doolittle Valerie Walmsley
Freddy Eynsford-Hill Kenneth McMinn
Colonel Pickering Ernest Pollitt
Henry Higgins Alec Greaves
Harry Bill White
Jamie Robin Foster
George Roy Haslam
Alfred P. Doolittle Alan Lee
Mrs Hopkins Christine Roberts
Mrs Pearce Audrey Raistrick
Mrs Higgins Brenda Dixon
Lord Boxington Jeff Taylor
Lady Boxington Millie Hackett
Zoltan Karpathy Arnold Knowles
Queen of Transylvania Pauline Entwistle
Servants
Susan Briggs, Pauline Entwistle, Sylvia Fishwick, Anne Haslam, Christine Roberts, Malcolm Digner, Robin Foster, Arnold Knowles
Dancers
Barbara Ainsworth, Yvonne Birchall, Valerie Blundell, Susan Fish, Dorothy Holt, Nora B. Holder
Chorus
Julia Aldred, Barbara Anderson, Rene Barlow, Susan Briggs, Rosemary Copeland, Pauline Entwistle, Sylvia Fishwick, Millie Hackett, Anne Haslam, Virginia Haslam, Nora Holder, Joyce Knowles, Brenda Orrell, Joyce Richardson, Christine Roberts, Jean Shutt, Irene Taylor, Norma Taylor, Kathleen Wilton, Anne Wood, Malcolm Digner, John Evans, Harry Gee, Dennis Hamer, Bill Livesey, David Sutcliffe, Geoff Sutcliffe, Jeff Taylor
Manchester Evening News Review
As the orchestra plays the overture the curtain goes up on a back-projection impression of Tower Bridge. Then through a gauze appears a scene outside Covent Garden – and the North-West’s No. 1 scenery team is showing us once again how the full setting for a major musical can be made by amateurs and afterwards efficiently handled on a school half-stage. Walmsley Church Operatic Society’s stage staff  have been awarded an Oscar for their work in previous shows but their achievements this time exceed anything that has gone before and stage managers of other societies might find a visit to the show at Egerton, Bolton, of great interest to them. They would know, for instance, how the introduction of closed circuit TV to the dressing room has stopped the cast crowding the wings and obstructing stage hands. It seems too that the enthusiasm of Reg Compton, Peter Smalley and their crew rubs off on the players. No need to remind these young people of their eyes and teeth drill. They are on their toes raring to go all the while and the result is a show that fairly bounces and sparkles. It’s such a team effort that one almost hesitates to pick out individual performances but I thought Valerie Walmsley made a splendid Eliza. Alec Greaves gave us a rather benevolent Higgins, Ernest Pollitt had some excellent acting moments as Pickering. Alan Lee was a jovial mountain of a man as Doolittle and I liked Audrey Raistrick’s study of Mrs Pearce. Derek Taylor produced. Arnold Thornton was musical director and Lois Booth choreographer. Tom Wildern
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