Finty Williams deepens her love of musicals with My Fair Lady
Finty Williams is loving playing the part of Mrs Pearce in My Fair Lady on the Chichester Festival Theatre stage this summer.
“She is a voice of reason, and she's also the only woman in a very male world. She becomes very fond of Eliza. I think she sees her as somebody that is very honest and very upfront and very succinct in what she says. She knows where she is with her whereas with Henry Higgins, well, he just goes all around the houses with all that he says!”
Mrs Pearce is Higgins’ housekeeper: “She tries to keep him together. Higgins is a live wire but she runs his house and she tries to keep him on the straight and narrow. I think she has known him for a very, very long time. She can put up with his day-to-day life and his world but when it comes to this young girl coming into the house and the way he speaks to her, she really doesn't like it at all.
“Obviously in 2026 we can talk about the way Higgins talks to her, about whether it's acceptable for anyone to call a woman ‘baggage’ but I think you have to look at the time in which it was set and I think you also have to talk about two people that are fundamentally changed by their experiences, hopefully for the better.”
Plus the fact, of course, that it is a wonderful musical: “The music is so amazing. If you are my age or older you will have grown up knowing these songs forever. I remember being able as a five-year-old to sing I Could Have Danced All Night. I suspect my parents were horrified!
“And now it is just wonderful to be doing it, watching these incredible people, watching Keziah (Ibe as Eliza) who is just incredible. She is phenomenal. She is 20 years old and it's her first job but she has approached it with such respect and such willingness to learn. It sounds trite, I know, but it has been like watching the most beautiful rose bloom. You don't know what it's going to look like but, my goodness, it is just beautiful.”
Finty counts herself as a musical theatre novice: “I have done three in 37 years, and it took 35 years to do the first one.
Hortense in The Baker's Wife (Menier Chocolate Factory) was the first, and then came Patricia in Here & Now: The Steps Musical (Birmingham Alexandra Theatre and UK tour).
“I trained in musical theatre but I've never done one. I'm not sure for what reason except that I don't have an iota of the talent for it that is in even the little toe of the other people in these shows. But somebody took a punt on me, and then I did the Steps Musical. I think that was more fun than I have ever had. I wasn't a Steps fan before but I am now, and I just loved doing the mega mix at the end.”
Finty has appeared at Chichester Festival Theatre before but never as part of the summer season: “It is such a fantastic and exciting place to be because there is such a hub of creativity and community. I love going to places where the theatre is just such an integral part of the place.”