Exclusive: Broadway star brings pop-up flower shop manned by actors to West End

West End performers will turn florists for the arrival of the Lincoln Center’s production of My Fair Lady, with a pop-up flower shop to open at the London Coliseum manned by actors.

The store, called boo•kay, began life on Broadway during the closure of theatres and was founded by performer Robert Fairchild. 

Fairchild turned to his passion of flower-arranging and made it his aim to use his company to hire other out-of-work Broadway performers who also shared his enthusiasm for floristry. 

The retail experience will come to London this summer, to coincide with the opening of My Fair Lady, about flower seller Eliza Doolittle.

It will include Friday Flowers, during which West End actors will also perform as part of the retail experience.

When it took place on Broadway, Friday Flowers provided one of the only performance opportunities for Broadway performers to put on a show. 

The Coliseum said it would provide “a time at the end of the week to celebrate togetherness, beautiful boo•kays and bask in the musical performances from some of the best in the West End”.

Floristry classes will also be on offer.

Fairchild trained at the Covent Garden Academy of Flowers during his time in the West End, performing the leading role in An American in Paris in 2017.

Fairchild is joined by Broadway dancer and actor Adam Perry, who had Covid for four months during 2020 and credits part of his recovery to the art of floral arranging.

Fairchild said: "London has always felt like home. It’s where I fell in love with flowers. My first spring there, I was lucky enough to go to the Chelsea Flower Show. I immediately enrolled in classes at the Covent Garden Academy of Flowers and was hooked. It was my therapy. To be bringing our pandemic pivot boo•kay to London, and at the London Coliseum, is an absolute dream.”

Perry added that he was “looking forward to bringing boo•kay to the historic London Coliseum and sharing the healing quality of working in flowers”.

English National Opera chief executive Stuart Murphy described the initiative as “a really exciting collaboration where Robbie and Adam can bring their floristry passion and creativity, along with their team of florists formed of West End performers, to the West End’s most beautiful and historic theatre”.

“With their arrival coinciding with My Fair Lady opening, we want everyone who walks through the London Coliseum doors to be immersed in the creative atmosphere,” he added.

My Fair Lady runs at the Coliseum from May 7 to August 27.