An Interview with Stephen Mear CBE, My Fair Lady at Chichester Festival Theatre
Conducted by Stephen Gilchrist for Theatre and Tonic.
Whilst preparing for the upcoming opening of My Fair Lady at the Chichester Festival Theatre, I had the pleasure of speaking to choreographer Stephen Mear CBE about his work and life. Stephen is a 3-time Olivier Award-winning and Tony-nominated choreographer and director, whose work on both sides of the Atlantic has led him to be recognised as one of the greatest choreographers in musical theatre. The stage production of Disney’s Mary Poppins has given him worldwide acclaim and presented him with an array of prestigious awards for his outstanding and innovative joint choreography with his friend, Sir Matthew Bourne. Stephen is also currently represented in the West End with Allegra, starring Maureen Lipman.
I asked Stephen how he approached his work in My Fair Lady, which is directed by Rachel Kavanaugh, one of his favourite directors. He first worked with her at Chichester in The Music Man eighteen years ago. He says they have” worked beautifully together. It was not on his list of shows to stage, “but now I've fallen in love with it”, and has a “passion for it.” Kavanaugh has made the women in the show ‘stronger’, women that men don’t mess with, and he admires Hadley Fraser, who plays Higgins, for his performance as a handsome, charming, but spoilt brat, It is truly wonderful, he says to hear the songs reclaim their musicality in Fraser’s performance, so different from Rex Harrison’s "Sprechgesang"—the style of speaking to musical accompaniment on pitch rather than traditional singing.
My Fair Lady production images.
My Fair Lady is not a show that is known for showcasing choreography. The choreography in the original production was by Hanya Holm, and on screen it was staged by Fred Astaire’s alter ego Hermes Pan. Stephen made the point that Gary Milner is cast as Alfred Doolittle and will be familiar to musical theatre fans for his recent work in Kiss Me Kate at the Barbican. He also played in Evita at the Leicester Curve and as Herr Schultz in Cabaret at the Lido 2 in Paris. So this is an actor who could move, unusually for such casting in the iconic Lerner and Loew piece. Audiences can look forward to Doolittle joining in the celebratory numbers of ‘With a Little Bit of Luck’ and ‘I'm Getting Married in the Morning’, rather than, as Stephen puts it, sitting on a barrel while everybody dances around him.. He explained that he leads the whole company in those numbers, and some music has been added to one of the dance arrangements. “Little Bit of Luck” runs 5 minutes 32 seconds, much longer than in the original production. Stephen is excited about that big dance number and how audiences will hopefully respond to his work. He was at pains to point out that ‘I'm Getting Married in the Morning’ is “ mammoth” and as big as the 'Anything Goes’ number, which he had previously staged and whose dynamic, story-driven choreography was a standout feature of the acclaimed 2002/2003 London revival.
Stephen, of course, has another show running in the West End at present, and that is Peter Quilter’s play with music, Allegra, starring Maureen Lipman, and I asked him how that show developed. It is not really a musical but a comedy-drama with occasional musical numbers. Stephen told me that it was wonderful to be a part of it, because the play is about a fiercely joyous woman who cannot stop spontaneously bursting into song in public spaces—much to the confusion of locals, her anxious brother, and local police who insist she take medication to curb her eccentricities. Stephen feels close to this piece as his mother suffered from dementia, although dementia is not specifically referenced in the play itself. The audience, he says, will have to decide for themselves whether she is demented or just batty! But the eccentricity of the character played by Maureen Lipman was certainly one of the reasons that he wanted to do the show and found great joy in creating it. He has known Maureen Lipman for some 28 years and admires her brilliance as an actress. He told me that he has no particular desire to direct more straight plays, but certainly would not say no if the right project came to him.
Allegra production images.
I asked Stephen about his experiences in jointly choreographing Mary Poppins with Sir Matthew Bourne, both in London and on Broadway. He told me that it was Cameron Mackintosh’s idea that the project be a co-venture between himself and Bourne, and that it worked perfectly, though both had quite different choreographic styles. He does not think that it would have been as good if either one of them had directed and choreographed the show on their own. We talked about his relationship with Matthew Bourne and how refreshing it was to work again with him in “Old Friends,” the Stephen Sondheim review that has played on both sides of the Atlantic.
We went back to the beginning. The first show that Stephen saw when he was a kid was ‘Pal Joey’, which starred Sean Phillips and Dennis Lawson. He was “blown” away by it, despite the show not exactly being a choreographer’s dream but more a musical drama.. Stephen told me that he was tap dancing at the age of 3 and was an avid viewer of the old black and white musical movies with Astaire and Gene Kelly. He was treated as being ‘thick’ at school, due to his unrecognised dyslexia. But one thing he could do was dance. He got noticed. As the song goes, if only his friends could see him now!
He was in amateur theatrics. As a kid, he was not a Billy Elliot with disapproving parents. In fact, his mother used to teach at a dance school, and his dad was easy-going about his choices. He worked hard and was, in his own words, the ‘Best dancer in Loughborough’! But then, he went on, you get to London, and you’re nowhere as good as you think you are!
It was no surprise to learn that the choreographers Stephen most admires are Hermes Pan (who staged the numbers for the Fair Lady movie), Jack Cole (the American dancer, choreographer, and theatre director known as "the Father of Theatrical Jazz Dance") Fosse and Jerome Robbins and latterly Susan Stroman. He has been influenced by all of them, as Jack Cole influenced Fosse.
And so we moved on to “triple threats.” I did ask him whether he considered himself to be a triple threat as a performer, and the answer, perhaps unsurprisingly, was “yes” He worked his way up from the bottom, relishing every experience she could take advantage of as a performer in musical theatre. He agreed that there are many more triple threats in musical theatres today than there were when he started in the business.
We talked a little about his personal life and, as is well known, his husband, Mark, is deaf. Mark, himself, is a dance teacher and choreographer who incorporates sign language in his choreography. This inspired Stephen to develop a version of sign language, as a surprise for Mark, for use in the Mary Poppins number ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.’ He did not tell Mark that he was using sign language in the number, and effectively exaggerated movements based on small finger signing. The signing was also used to create actual words, such as “party” and “fun” and others. He told me that the number had been recreated in Disneyland in Florida with some 300 people performing the number as choreographed by him. The company included the original Broadway leads, Ashley Brown as the titular magical nanny, and Gavin Lee as the chimney sweep, Bert.
As to My Fair Lady, he was cautious about the prospect of bringing such a big show, which uses Chichester’s whole stage revolve, into the West End but intimates that Gillian Lynne would be perfect for it!.
Thinking ahead, we discussed what shows he would like to stage. The Drowsy Chaperone, Grand Hotel, and to revisit ‘How to Succeed….’ I suspect we have a lot more of Mear to relish in the future! I, for one, cannot wait to see the show at the Chichester Festival Theatre this summer.
My Fair Lady plays at Chichester Festival Theatre plays from 5 July to 5 September 2026. If you’re heading to the West End, Allegra continues to play at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 8 August.
