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:''This article is about the stage musical. For the 1964 film see My Fair Lady (film), and for the manga see The Wallflower (manga).
'''My Fair Lady''' is a musical based George Bernard Shaw's ''Pygmalion'' and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The show's 1956 Broadway production was a smash hit, setting a new record for the longest run of any major theatre production in history. It was followed by a hit London production, a popular film version, and numerous revivals. It has been called "the perfect musical."[1]
In the mid-1930s, film producer Gabriel Pascal acquired the rights to produce film versions of several of George Bernard Shaw's plays, ''Pygmalion'' among them. He asked lyricist Alan Jay Lerner to write the musical adaptation. Lerner agreed. Lerner and writing partner Frederick Loewe began writing, but they quickly realized the play was incapable of obeying the rules for constructing a musical. First, there was no place for an ensemble. Second, there was no subplot or secondary love story. ''Pygmalion'' has just one story, and it is a nonlove story. Many people, including Oscar Hammerstein II, told Lerner that converting the play to a musical was impossible, so he and Loewe abandoned the project for two years. During this time, the collaborators separated, Gabriel Pascal died, and the American musical theatre changed. Lerner had been trying to musicalize ''Lil' Abner'' when he read Pascal's obituary and found himself thinking about ''Pygmalion'' again. When he and Loewe reunited, everything seemed to fall into place. All the insurmountable obstacles that stood in their way two years earlier had disappeared with the transformation of the musical theatre, and they excitedly began writing the show.
However, Chase Manhattan Bank was in charge of Pascal's estate, and the musical rights to ''Pygmalion'' were fought for by Lerner and Loewe and MGM, whose executives called Lerner to discourage him from challenging the studio. Loewe famously said to him, "We will write the show without the rights, and when the time comes for them to decide who is to get them, we will be so far ahead of everyone else that they will be forced to give them to us."[2] For five months Lerner and Loewe wrote, hired technical designers, and made casting decisions. By the time the bank had to give away the rights, it chose Lerner and Loewe.
After much deliberation, Rex Harrison agreed to play Professor Higgins. Julie Andrews was "discovered" when the creative team went to see her Broadway debut in ''The Boy Friend''. Moss Hart agreed to direct after hearing only two songs. The show quickly went into rehearsal.
The musical had its pre-Broadway tryout at New Haven's Shubert Theatre. On opening night Rex Harrison, who was unused to singing in front of a live orchestra, "announced that under no circumstances he would go on that night . . . with those thirty-two interlopers in the pit."[3] He locked himself in his dressing room and came out only a little more than an hour before curtain time. The whole company had been dismissed but were somehow rounded up by assistant stage manager Bernie Hart, Moss's brother. The result: opening night was a triumph.[4]
Beginning on February 15, 1956, the show played for four weeks at the Erlanger Theatre in Philadelphia. It then opened on March 15, 1956, at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in New York City. It ran for 2,717 performances, a record at the time. Moss Hart directed and Hanya Holm was choreographer. The original cast included Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, Stanley Holloway, Robert Coote, Cathleen Nesbitt, John Michael King, and Reid Shelton. Edward Mulhare and Sally Ann Howes replaced Harrison and Andrews later in the run.
The show's title comes from one of Shaw's provisional titles for ''Pygmalion'' -- ''Fair Eliza''. Other titles considered included "Come to the Ball" and "Liza," but everyone agreed that a marquee reading "Rex Harrison in 'Liza'" would be imprudent. So they took the title they disliked least -- "My Fair Lady." This title also created a pun on "Mayfair lady", which is how the title sounds when pronounced with a Cockney accent. The original Playbill and cast recording sleeve featured artwork by Al Hirschfeld, who depicted Eliza as a marionette being manipulated by Henry Higgins, whose own strings are being pulled by a heavenly puppeteer resembling George Bernard Shaw.
London's West End production, in which Harrison, Andrews, Coote, and Holloway reprised their roles, opened on April 30, 1958, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where it ran for 2,281 performances.
The show has been revived on Broadway three times -- in 1976, under Jerry Adler's direction and with Ian Richardson, Christine Andreas, and George Rose; in 1981, with Harrison and Milo O'Shea; and in 1993, with Richard Chamberlain, Melissa Errico, and Paxton Whitehead.
The show has also had a 1979 West End revival at the Adelphi Theatre with Tony Britton, Liz Robertson, Dame Anna Neagle, Richard Caldicot, and Peter Land. Produced by Cameron Mackintosh, it was first directed by Robin Midgley and then by the Lerner himself; Gillian Lynne was choreographer. Mackintosh again produced the show in 2001 at the Royal National Theatre and later the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, with Martine McCutcheon as Eliza Doolittle and Jonathan Pryce as Professor Henry Higgins. This revival won three Olivier awards: Best Actress in a Musical (Martine McCutcheon), Outstanding Musical Production, and Best Theatre Choreographer (Matthew Bourne).
In 2007 the New York Philharmonic held a full-costume concert presentation of the musical. The concert had a four-day engagement lasting from March 7th to 10th at Avery Fisher Hall. It starred Kelli O'Hara as Eliza Doolittle, Kelsey Grammer as Professor Henry Higgins, Charles Kimbrough as Colonel Pickering, and Brian Dennehy as Alfred Doolittle. This presentation is notable for its featuring Marni Nixon as Henry's mother. Nixon had provided the singing voice of Audrey Hepburn in the film version.
A US Tour is scheduled to begin on September 12, 2007, and end on June 22, 2008, opening in Tampa, Florida, and closing in Tempe, Arizona.[5] The production will star Lisa O'Hare as Eliza Doolittle, Christopher Cazenove as Professor Henry Higgins, Walter Charles as Colonel Pickering, and Tim Jerome as Alfred Doolittle.
Henry Higgins, an arrogant, irascible professor of phonetics, boasts to fellow linguist Colonel Pickering that he can train any woman to speak so properly that he could pass her off as a duchess. (In the terms now used by linguists, and which did not yet exist in the period of the show, Higgins said he could take a speaker of basilect and teach her to speak acrolect.) Pickering is intrigued by Higgins's boast and wagers that Higgins cannot make good on his claim. Higgins takes on the challenge. He chooses Eliza Doolittle for tutoring. She is a poor girl with a strong Cockney accent whom he encounters selling flowers in Covent Garden. An intensive makeover of Eliza's speech, manners, and dress begins in preparation for her appearance at the Embassy Ball.
Complicating matters is Eliza's father, Alfred P. Doolittle (Stanley Holloway), a cheerfully amoral and drink-loving dustman. He shows up to extract money from Higgins, claiming that Higgins is compromising Eliza's virtue. Higgins is impressed by the man's natural gift for language and his brazen lack of moral values ("Can't afford 'em!"). So he flippantly recommends Doolittle to an American millionaire who is seeking a lecturer on moral values. In the end, Doolittle gets a surprise bequest of four thousand pounds a year from the millionaire. This raises him uncomfortably into middle-class respectability.
Meanwhile, Eliza endures speech tutoring, endlessly repeating phrases like "In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen” (to demonstrate that "h"s must be aspirated) and "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" (to practice the "long a" phoneme). Just as things seem hopeless, she suddenly "gets it" after Higgins eloquently speaks of the glory of the English language. Thereafter her pronunciation is transformed into that of impeccable upper class English. For her first public tryout, Higgins takes her to Ascot Racecourse. There she makes a good impression with her polite manners but shocks everyone by her vulgar Cockney attitudes and slang (thus establishing one of the show's themes: good elocution is only "skin deep"). But she captures the heart of an eager young man named Freddy Eynsford-Hill.
The final test requires Eliza to pass as a lady at the Embassy Ball. She does this admirably, even fooling a rival of Higgins, a Hungarian phonetician named Zoltan Karpathy: Karpathy claims Eliza was "born Hungarian." After the ball, Higgins's ungrateful boasting about his triumph and his pleasure that the experiment is now over leave Eliza feeling used and abandoned. She walks out on Higgins, leaving the clueless professor mystified by her ingratitude. But Higgins soon realizes his feelings for her: he has "grown accustomed to her face." When Eliza tentatively returns to him, the musical ends on an ambiguous moment of possible reconciliation between teacher and pupil.
The musical has been translated into many languages,with Eliza speaking Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and Prague dialects. Here is Higgins' linguistic exercise and well-known song "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" in various languages:
★ Czech: "Déšť dští ve Španělsku zvlášť tam kde je plán"
★ Danish: "En snegl på vejen er tegn på regn i Spanien"
★ Dutch (Version 1): "Het Spaanse graan heeft de orkaan doorstaan"
★ Dutch (Version 2): "De franje in Spanje is meestal niet oranje"
★ Finnish: "Vie fiestaan hienon miekkamiehen tie"
★ French: "Le ciel serein d'Espagne est sans embrun"
★ German: "Es grünt so grün wenn Spaniens Blüten blühen"
★ Hebrew: "ברד ירד בדרום ספרד הערב" ("Barad yarad bidrom sfarad haerev")
★ Hungarian: "Lent délen édes éjen édent remélsz"
★ Icelandic: "A Spáni hundur lá við lund á grund"
★ Italian (Version 1): "La rana in Spagna gracida in campagna"
★ Italian (Version 2): "La pioggia in Spagna bagna la campagna"
★ Polish: "W Hiszpanii mży, gdy dżdżyste przyjdą dni"
★ Portuguese (Version 1): "O rei de roma ruma a Madrid"
★ Portuguese (Version 2): "Atrás do trem as tropas vem trotando"
★ Russian (Version 1): "На дворе трава а на траве дрова" ("Na dvorye trava a na travye drova")
★ Russian (Version 2:) "Карл у Клары украл коралы" ("Karl ooh Klary ukral koraly")
★ Spanish (Version 1): "La lluvia es maravilla en Sevilla"
★ Spanish (Version 2): "La lluvia en España los bellos valles baña"
★ Swedish: "Den spanska räven rev en annan räv"
Main articles: My Fair Lady (film)
An Oscar-winning film version was made in 1964 with Harrison again in the part of Higgins. Controversy surrounded the casting of Audrey Hepburn instead of Julie Andrews for the part of Eliza -- partly because theatregoers regarded Andrews as perfect for the part and partly because Hepburn's singing voice had to be dubbed. (Marni Nixon sang all songs except "Just you wait," where Hepburn's voice was left undubbed during the harsh-toned chorus of the song but Nixon sang the melodic bridge section.) Meanwhile, Andrews won 1964's Oscar for Best Actress in ''Mary Poppins''.
Lerner in particular disliked the film version of the musical: he thought it did not live up to the standards of Moss Hart's original direction. He also was unhappy that the film was shot entirely on the Warner Brothers backlot rather than, as he would have preferred, in London.
The musical has been spoofed by or has served as an inspiration for episodes of numerous television programs, including ''The Addams Family'', ''The Andy Griffith Show'', ''Family Guy'', ''The Simpsons'', ''Duckman'', ''The Nanny'', ''Will & Grace'', ''Doctor Who'', ''Arthur'', ''Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends'', ''¡Mucha Lucha!'', ''Animaniacs'',''3rd Rock From the Sun'', and ''.
On ''Seinfeld'', Elaine Benes's close talker boyfriend Aaron takes her, Morty Seinfeld, and Helen Seinfeld to see ''My Fair Lady'' in "The Raincoats, Part 1".
In the Danny Phantom episode Splitting Images, the Box Ghost attacks him with "costumes and props from the broadway classic, My Fair Lady."
Also, in an episode of ''Sesame Street'', Oscar the Grouch sings a parody called "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Fur" after he orders a breed of dog called a Rotten-Doodle and it turns out to be a sweet and helpful female dog ironically named Cranky. In another episode, Rosita is teased about her Spanish accent and wishes that she could sound like everyone else. A pig named Henry Piggins tries to teach her how to speak by repeatedly saying "The pig is big and did a wiggly jig". Eventually she improves, and Piggins, Rosita, and Big Bird sing a parody of "The Rain in Spain" called "The Pig Is Big." Then Piggins says that he is on his way to the theatre to see ''PIGmailion''.
★ Tony Award for Best Musical - Book by Alan Jay Lerner; Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner; Music by Frederick Loewe; Produced by Herman Levin ('WINNER')
★ Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical - Rex Harrison ('WINNER')
★ Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical - Julie Andrews
★ Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical - Robert Coote and Stanley Holloway
★ Tony Award for Best Scenic Design - Oliver Smith ('WINNER')
★ Tony Award for Best Costume Design - Cecil Beaton ('WINNER')
★ Tony Award for Best Choreography - Hanya Holm
★ Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director - Franz Allers ('WINNER')
★ Tony Award for Best Direction - Moss Hart ('WINNER')
★ Theatre World Award - John Michael King ('WINNER')
★ Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical - Ian Richardson, George Rose ('WINNER')
★ Theatre World Award - Christine Andreas ('WINNER')
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical - Ian Richardson ('WINNER')
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical - George Rose ('WINNER')
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical - Jerry Adler
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival - Produced by Herman Levin
★ Tony Award for Best Reproduction of a Play or Musical - Produced by Mike Merrick, Don Gregory
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical Revival - Produced by Barry & Fran Weissler, Jujamcyn Theaters (James H. Binger: Chairman; Rocco Landesman: President; Paul Libin: Producing Director; Jack Viertel: Creative Director); Produced in association with PACE Theatrical Group, Inc., Tokyo Broadcasting System Intl., Inc., Martin Rabbett
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical - Melissa Errico
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design - Patricia Zipprodt
Pygmalion effect
1. See, e.g., Steyn, Mark. ''Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now'', Routledge (1999), p. 119 ISBN 0415922860 and this 1993 NY Times review
2. Lerner, ''The Street Where I Live'', p. 47
3. Lerner, p. 104
4. History of the show
5. name="2007Tour">US Tour information at MyFairLadyTheMusical.com
★
★ My Fair Lady Audition Advice & Show Information from MusicalTheatreAudition.com
'''My Fair Lady''' is a musical based George Bernard Shaw's ''Pygmalion'' and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The show's 1956 Broadway production was a smash hit, setting a new record for the longest run of any major theatre production in history. It was followed by a hit London production, a popular film version, and numerous revivals. It has been called "the perfect musical."[1]
Background and productions
In the mid-1930s, film producer Gabriel Pascal acquired the rights to produce film versions of several of George Bernard Shaw's plays, ''Pygmalion'' among them. He asked lyricist Alan Jay Lerner to write the musical adaptation. Lerner agreed. Lerner and writing partner Frederick Loewe began writing, but they quickly realized the play was incapable of obeying the rules for constructing a musical. First, there was no place for an ensemble. Second, there was no subplot or secondary love story. ''Pygmalion'' has just one story, and it is a nonlove story. Many people, including Oscar Hammerstein II, told Lerner that converting the play to a musical was impossible, so he and Loewe abandoned the project for two years. During this time, the collaborators separated, Gabriel Pascal died, and the American musical theatre changed. Lerner had been trying to musicalize ''Lil' Abner'' when he read Pascal's obituary and found himself thinking about ''Pygmalion'' again. When he and Loewe reunited, everything seemed to fall into place. All the insurmountable obstacles that stood in their way two years earlier had disappeared with the transformation of the musical theatre, and they excitedly began writing the show.
However, Chase Manhattan Bank was in charge of Pascal's estate, and the musical rights to ''Pygmalion'' were fought for by Lerner and Loewe and MGM, whose executives called Lerner to discourage him from challenging the studio. Loewe famously said to him, "We will write the show without the rights, and when the time comes for them to decide who is to get them, we will be so far ahead of everyone else that they will be forced to give them to us."[2] For five months Lerner and Loewe wrote, hired technical designers, and made casting decisions. By the time the bank had to give away the rights, it chose Lerner and Loewe.
After much deliberation, Rex Harrison agreed to play Professor Higgins. Julie Andrews was "discovered" when the creative team went to see her Broadway debut in ''The Boy Friend''. Moss Hart agreed to direct after hearing only two songs. The show quickly went into rehearsal.
Beginning on February 15, 1956, the show played for four weeks at the Erlanger Theatre in Philadelphia. It then opened on March 15, 1956, at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in New York City. It ran for 2,717 performances, a record at the time. Moss Hart directed and Hanya Holm was choreographer. The original cast included Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, Stanley Holloway, Robert Coote, Cathleen Nesbitt, John Michael King, and Reid Shelton. Edward Mulhare and Sally Ann Howes replaced Harrison and Andrews later in the run.
The show's title comes from one of Shaw's provisional titles for ''Pygmalion'' -- ''Fair Eliza''. Other titles considered included "Come to the Ball" and "Liza," but everyone agreed that a marquee reading "Rex Harrison in 'Liza'" would be imprudent. So they took the title they disliked least -- "My Fair Lady." This title also created a pun on "Mayfair lady", which is how the title sounds when pronounced with a Cockney accent. The original Playbill and cast recording sleeve featured artwork by Al Hirschfeld, who depicted Eliza as a marionette being manipulated by Henry Higgins, whose own strings are being pulled by a heavenly puppeteer resembling George Bernard Shaw.
London's West End production, in which Harrison, Andrews, Coote, and Holloway reprised their roles, opened on April 30, 1958, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where it ran for 2,281 performances.
Revivals, tours and concerts
The show has been revived on Broadway three times -- in 1976, under Jerry Adler's direction and with Ian Richardson, Christine Andreas, and George Rose; in 1981, with Harrison and Milo O'Shea; and in 1993, with Richard Chamberlain, Melissa Errico, and Paxton Whitehead.
The show has also had a 1979 West End revival at the Adelphi Theatre with Tony Britton, Liz Robertson, Dame Anna Neagle, Richard Caldicot, and Peter Land. Produced by Cameron Mackintosh, it was first directed by Robin Midgley and then by the Lerner himself; Gillian Lynne was choreographer. Mackintosh again produced the show in 2001 at the Royal National Theatre and later the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, with Martine McCutcheon as Eliza Doolittle and Jonathan Pryce as Professor Henry Higgins. This revival won three Olivier awards: Best Actress in a Musical (Martine McCutcheon), Outstanding Musical Production, and Best Theatre Choreographer (Matthew Bourne).
In 2007 the New York Philharmonic held a full-costume concert presentation of the musical. The concert had a four-day engagement lasting from March 7th to 10th at Avery Fisher Hall. It starred Kelli O'Hara as Eliza Doolittle, Kelsey Grammer as Professor Henry Higgins, Charles Kimbrough as Colonel Pickering, and Brian Dennehy as Alfred Doolittle. This presentation is notable for its featuring Marni Nixon as Henry's mother. Nixon had provided the singing voice of Audrey Hepburn in the film version.
A US Tour is scheduled to begin on September 12, 2007, and end on June 22, 2008, opening in Tampa, Florida, and closing in Tempe, Arizona.[5] The production will star Lisa O'Hare as Eliza Doolittle, Christopher Cazenove as Professor Henry Higgins, Walter Charles as Colonel Pickering, and Tim Jerome as Alfred Doolittle.
Synopsis
Henry Higgins, an arrogant, irascible professor of phonetics, boasts to fellow linguist Colonel Pickering that he can train any woman to speak so properly that he could pass her off as a duchess. (In the terms now used by linguists, and which did not yet exist in the period of the show, Higgins said he could take a speaker of basilect and teach her to speak acrolect.) Pickering is intrigued by Higgins's boast and wagers that Higgins cannot make good on his claim. Higgins takes on the challenge. He chooses Eliza Doolittle for tutoring. She is a poor girl with a strong Cockney accent whom he encounters selling flowers in Covent Garden. An intensive makeover of Eliza's speech, manners, and dress begins in preparation for her appearance at the Embassy Ball.
Complicating matters is Eliza's father, Alfred P. Doolittle (Stanley Holloway), a cheerfully amoral and drink-loving dustman. He shows up to extract money from Higgins, claiming that Higgins is compromising Eliza's virtue. Higgins is impressed by the man's natural gift for language and his brazen lack of moral values ("Can't afford 'em!"). So he flippantly recommends Doolittle to an American millionaire who is seeking a lecturer on moral values. In the end, Doolittle gets a surprise bequest of four thousand pounds a year from the millionaire. This raises him uncomfortably into middle-class respectability.
Meanwhile, Eliza endures speech tutoring, endlessly repeating phrases like "In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen” (to demonstrate that "h"s must be aspirated) and "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" (to practice the "long a" phoneme). Just as things seem hopeless, she suddenly "gets it" after Higgins eloquently speaks of the glory of the English language. Thereafter her pronunciation is transformed into that of impeccable upper class English. For her first public tryout, Higgins takes her to Ascot Racecourse. There she makes a good impression with her polite manners but shocks everyone by her vulgar Cockney attitudes and slang (thus establishing one of the show's themes: good elocution is only "skin deep"). But she captures the heart of an eager young man named Freddy Eynsford-Hill.
The final test requires Eliza to pass as a lady at the Embassy Ball. She does this admirably, even fooling a rival of Higgins, a Hungarian phonetician named Zoltan Karpathy: Karpathy claims Eliza was "born Hungarian." After the ball, Higgins's ungrateful boasting about his triumph and his pleasure that the experiment is now over leave Eliza feeling used and abandoned. She walks out on Higgins, leaving the clueless professor mystified by her ingratitude. But Higgins soon realizes his feelings for her: he has "grown accustomed to her face." When Eliza tentatively returns to him, the musical ends on an ambiguous moment of possible reconciliation between teacher and pupil.
Song list
;Act I ★ Overture ★ Why Can't the English? ★ Wouldn't It Be Loverly? ★ With a Little Bit of Luck ★ I'm an Ordinary Man ★ With a Little Bit of Luck (Reprise) ★ Just You Wait ★ The Servants Chorus ★ The Rain in Spain ★ I Could Have Danced All Night ★ Ascot Gavotte ★ On the Street Where You Live ★ Embassy Waltz | ;Act II ★ You Did It ★ Just You Wait (Reprise) ★ On the Street Where You Live (Reprise) ★ Show Me ★ Wouldn't It Be Loverly? (Reprise) ★ Get Me to the Church on Time ★ A Hymn to Him ★ Without You ★ I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face |
My fair lady around the world
The musical has been translated into many languages,with Eliza speaking Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and Prague dialects. Here is Higgins' linguistic exercise and well-known song "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" in various languages:
★ Czech: "Déšť dští ve Španělsku zvlášť tam kde je plán"
★ Danish: "En snegl på vejen er tegn på regn i Spanien"
★ Dutch (Version 1): "Het Spaanse graan heeft de orkaan doorstaan"
★ Dutch (Version 2): "De franje in Spanje is meestal niet oranje"
★ Finnish: "Vie fiestaan hienon miekkamiehen tie"
★ French: "Le ciel serein d'Espagne est sans embrun"
★ German: "Es grünt so grün wenn Spaniens Blüten blühen"
★ Hebrew: "ברד ירד בדרום ספרד הערב" ("Barad yarad bidrom sfarad haerev")
★ Hungarian: "Lent délen édes éjen édent remélsz"
★ Icelandic: "A Spáni hundur lá við lund á grund"
★ Italian (Version 1): "La rana in Spagna gracida in campagna"
★ Italian (Version 2): "La pioggia in Spagna bagna la campagna"
★ Polish: "W Hiszpanii mży, gdy dżdżyste przyjdą dni"
★ Portuguese (Version 1): "O rei de roma ruma a Madrid"
★ Portuguese (Version 2): "Atrás do trem as tropas vem trotando"
★ Russian (Version 1): "На дворе трава а на траве дрова" ("Na dvorye trava a na travye drova")
★ Russian (Version 2:) "Карл у Клары украл коралы" ("Karl ooh Klary ukral koraly")
★ Spanish (Version 1): "La lluvia es maravilla en Sevilla"
★ Spanish (Version 2): "La lluvia en España los bellos valles baña"
★ Swedish: "Den spanska räven rev en annan räv"
Film adaptation
Main articles: My Fair Lady (film)
An Oscar-winning film version was made in 1964 with Harrison again in the part of Higgins. Controversy surrounded the casting of Audrey Hepburn instead of Julie Andrews for the part of Eliza -- partly because theatregoers regarded Andrews as perfect for the part and partly because Hepburn's singing voice had to be dubbed. (Marni Nixon sang all songs except "Just you wait," where Hepburn's voice was left undubbed during the harsh-toned chorus of the song but Nixon sang the melodic bridge section.) Meanwhile, Andrews won 1964's Oscar for Best Actress in ''Mary Poppins''.
Lerner in particular disliked the film version of the musical: he thought it did not live up to the standards of Moss Hart's original direction. He also was unhappy that the film was shot entirely on the Warner Brothers backlot rather than, as he would have preferred, in London.
Popular culture
The musical has been spoofed by or has served as an inspiration for episodes of numerous television programs, including ''The Addams Family'', ''The Andy Griffith Show'', ''Family Guy'', ''The Simpsons'', ''Duckman'', ''The Nanny'', ''Will & Grace'', ''Doctor Who'', ''Arthur'', ''Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends'', ''¡Mucha Lucha!'', ''Animaniacs'',''3rd Rock From the Sun'', and ''.
On ''Seinfeld'', Elaine Benes's close talker boyfriend Aaron takes her, Morty Seinfeld, and Helen Seinfeld to see ''My Fair Lady'' in "The Raincoats, Part 1".
In the Danny Phantom episode Splitting Images, the Box Ghost attacks him with "costumes and props from the broadway classic, My Fair Lady."
Also, in an episode of ''Sesame Street'', Oscar the Grouch sings a parody called "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Fur" after he orders a breed of dog called a Rotten-Doodle and it turns out to be a sweet and helpful female dog ironically named Cranky. In another episode, Rosita is teased about her Spanish accent and wishes that she could sound like everyone else. A pig named Henry Piggins tries to teach her how to speak by repeatedly saying "The pig is big and did a wiggly jig". Eventually she improves, and Piggins, Rosita, and Big Bird sing a parody of "The Rain in Spain" called "The Pig Is Big." Then Piggins says that he is on his way to the theatre to see ''PIGmailion''.
Awards and nominations
1957 Tony Award nominations
★ Tony Award for Best Musical - Book by Alan Jay Lerner; Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner; Music by Frederick Loewe; Produced by Herman Levin ('WINNER')
★ Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical - Rex Harrison ('WINNER')
★ Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical - Julie Andrews
★ Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical - Robert Coote and Stanley Holloway
★ Tony Award for Best Scenic Design - Oliver Smith ('WINNER')
★ Tony Award for Best Costume Design - Cecil Beaton ('WINNER')
★ Tony Award for Best Choreography - Hanya Holm
★ Tony Award for Best Conductor and Musical Director - Franz Allers ('WINNER')
★ Tony Award for Best Direction - Moss Hart ('WINNER')
1956 Theatre World Award
★ Theatre World Award - John Michael King ('WINNER')
1976 Tony Award nominations
★ Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical - Ian Richardson, George Rose ('WINNER')
1976 Theatre World Award
★ Theatre World Award - Christine Andreas ('WINNER')
1976 Drama Desk Award nominations
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical - Ian Richardson ('WINNER')
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical - George Rose ('WINNER')
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical - Jerry Adler
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival - Produced by Herman Levin
1982 Tony Award nomination
★ Tony Award for Best Reproduction of a Play or Musical - Produced by Mike Merrick, Don Gregory
1994 Drama Desk Award nominations
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical Revival - Produced by Barry & Fran Weissler, Jujamcyn Theaters (James H. Binger: Chairman; Rocco Landesman: President; Paul Libin: Producing Director; Jack Viertel: Creative Director); Produced in association with PACE Theatrical Group, Inc., Tokyo Broadcasting System Intl., Inc., Martin Rabbett
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical - Melissa Errico
★ Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design - Patricia Zipprodt
See also
Pygmalion effect
References
1. See, e.g., Steyn, Mark. ''Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then and Now'', Routledge (1999), p. 119 ISBN 0415922860 and this 1993 NY Times review
2. Lerner, ''The Street Where I Live'', p. 47
3. Lerner, p. 104
4. History of the show
5. name="2007Tour">US Tour information at MyFairLadyTheMusical.com
External links
★
★ My Fair Lady Audition Advice & Show Information from MusicalTheatreAudition.com
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