Home > My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady is a musical theater production with lyrics and book by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederic Loewe, adapted from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. The musical opened on March 15, 1956 at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in New York City. It ran for 2717 performances, a Broadway record at the time. Moss Hart directed the musical, Cecil Beaton designed the costumes, and Hanya Holm choreographed. The original Playbill and original cast album included art by Al Hirschfeld, which depicted Eliza Doolittle as a marionetteA marionette is a type of puppet moved by strings, as in a puppet show. They originated from the medieval times in France and can be found in every country in the world; They can be found in box theatres, curtain theatres and black light theatres. Marione being manipulated by Henry Higgins, whose own strings are being pulled by a heavenly puppeteer who looks like George Bernard Shaw.1 The songs
- "Why Can't the English?"
- "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?"
- "With a Little Bit of Luck"
- "I'm an Ordinary Man"
- "The Servants' Chorus"
- "Just You Wait"
- "The Rain in Spain"
- "I Could Have Danced All Night"
- "Ascot Gavotte"
- "On the Street Where You Live"
- "You Did It"
- "Show Me"
- "Get Me to the Church On Time"
- "A Hymn to Him"
- "Without You"
- "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face"
2 The plot
Henry Higgins, an arrogant, irascible professor of phoneticsPhonetics is the study of speech sounds ( voice). It is concerned with the actual nature of the sounds and their production, as opposed to phonology, which operates at the level of sound systems and linguistic units called phonemes. Discussions of meaning, finds an impoverished young woman, Eliza Doolittle, selling flowers, and boasts to a new acquaintance that he can train her to speak so "properly" that he could pass her off as a duchess. The woman finds the professor's house and offers to pay the professor to give her elocution lessons so that she can get a better job.
The ending of the musical was subtly changed from that of the play, in order to please audiences by a suggestion of romance between Eliza and Higgins.
A contemporary version of the Pygmalion motif can be found in Willy RussellWilliam Martin Russell (born 1947) is a British playwright, lyricist and composer. Russell comes from a working class background. As an adolescent he was a hairdresser's apprentice and later ran his own salon. Only as an adult did his interest in learning's play Educating RitaEducating Rita is a stage comedy by British playwright Willy Russell which premiered at The Warehouse, London, in 1980; and a film ( 1983) by Lewis Gilbert (b. 1920) starring Julie Walters and Michael Caine, with a screenplay by Russell. The film won the (1980).
3 The cast
- Rex HarrisonSir Reginald Carey Harrison ( March 5, 1908 June 2, 1990) was a British theater and film actor. He was born in Huyton, Lancashire, England. He died in New York City of pancreatic cancer. He first appeared on the stage in 1924 in Liverpool. He acted in var as Henry Higgins
- Julie AndrewsDame Julie Andrews is a British actress, singer, and author, best known for her starring roles in the musical films Mary Poppins ( 1964) and The Sound of Music ( 1965). She was born Julia Elizabeth Wells in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey on October 1, 1935. as Eliza Doolittle
- Stanley HollowayStanley August Holloway ( October 1, 1890 January 30, 1982) was a British actor and entertainer. Musical theater credits 1919 Kissing Time 1920 A Night Out 1921 The Co-Optimists 1922 The Co-Optimists 1923 The Co-Optimists 1924 The Co-Optimists 1925 The Co as Alfred P. Doolittle
- Robert Coote as Colonel Pickering
Harrison and Holloway reprised their roles in the film version, while Andrews was replaced by Audrey Hepburn and Robert Coote by Wilfrid Hyde-White .
