The starting point for Pretty Woman is a Greek myth in which a sculptor Pygmalion, dispirited by the immorality of the women around him, creates a statue of an ideal woman and persuades Aphrodite to breathe life into it.
Our more familiar version of this is Shaw’s Pygmalion (1912), later to become the musical My Fair Lady, in which a wealthy man makes a bet that he can take a sluttish girl from the streets of London and transform her into someone capable of moving in the highest society.
The current touring musical version is based on a screenplay by J F Lawton which was originally intended as a more serious account of prostitution and street life in the US but, as directed by Garry Marshall in 1990, became a popular and successful romantic comedy.
The musical is set in Hollywood, where rich corporate raider Edward Lewis meets street girl Vivian Ward and is so entranced by her beauty as well as her sexual availability that he employs her as a companion for a week of high living while he conducts a takeover bid on a troubled shipbuilding company owned by Jim Morse.
The musical embraces impossible dreams, which are given expression in the songs, provide opportunities for choral dance routines performed by the ensemble of cheerful dropouts, druggies and prostitutes and also finds space for some comedy and a little villainy to add spice to the sugar.
The production is notable for its scenic design (David Rockwell), where beautifully drawn, two-dimensional images of street scenes and interiors are raised and lowered with maximum efficiency.
There are a huge number of costumes involved: for the singing, dancing ensemble; for a fashion show in an upmarket shop; scenes at an opera and a night club and poverty on the city streets. Unfortunately, the important costumes relating to Vivien’s transformation do not have the impact they should have, though the minimal shorts and skirts give us plenty to look at.
Oliver Savile gives a commanding performance as Edward Lewis, though his conversion from hard-nosed business man to self-sacrificing lover is difficult to swallow. Savile does his best with an unconvincing script.
As Vivian, Amber Davies is beautiful and wears her character as well as the scanty costumes with delicacy. There are one or two scenes of sexual congress, but these are extremely polite, masked by convenient shadow and not enough to frighten the horses or suggest overwhelming and uncontrolled passion. Davies’s singing voice is disappointing, almost always blasting out at double forte with little modulation and slightly off key.
The comic moments provided by Ore Oduba in a variety of roles and Noah Harrison as the goofy hotel Bell Boy are a welcome distraction from the main action. Oduba is a talented comedian with an expressive face, the ability to reach out to an audience and a lovely singing voice.
More serious drama is provided by Edward’s lawyer, Philip Stuckey (Ben Darcy), who is infuriated when Edward backs out of his commitment to sink David Morse’s teetering business and almost becomes the villain of the piece. In contrast, Chombo Taulo, owner of the threatened business, expresses his bitterness and resentment when it looks as if he might lose all.
An enthusiastic audience responded with enthusiasm to the production, applauded familiar songs, laughed at the comic business and gave a standing ovation at the end.