Pygmalion - TNT

Though almost a century old, George Bernard Shaw's social comedy — the inspiration for the musical My Fair Lady — comes up fresh and sparkling in Peter Hall's buoyant revival. In an exceptionally strong cast, Michelle Dockery impresses as the Cockney flower girl plucked from the gutter (along with her strangulated vowels) to be transformed by phonetics professor Henry Higgins into a more than passable lady. Tim Pigott-Smith, as the distinguished academic, revels in the bad manners of a fidgety schoolboy lacking the emotional literacy to understand — or even admit — his feelings for his protégée or the consequences of his experiment. Barbara Jefford (as his justifiably exasperated mother) and James Laurenson's gentlemanly Colonel Pickering provide excellent support.
Old Vic, The Cut, SE1 (0870-060 6628; www.oldvictheatre.com). Until August 2. £10-£45