My Fair Lady

M U S I C A L N O T E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O

The development of the score was still at a comparativelyearlystagewhenBroadwaysuperstar Mary Martin and her husband, producer Richard Halliday, caught wind that a musical Pygmalion was in the works. They requested a preview, but after hearing some of the songs, the couple left without saying a word. Halliday later told Lerner and Loewe that Martin had paced back and forth all night muttering, “Richard, those boys have lost their talent.” While attacking the thorny task of obtaining the rights to produce their show, the duo searched for a leading lady, now that Mary Martin was out of the picture. Attending a performance of Sandy Wilson’s 1920s-style Broadway musical hit, The Boy Friend , Lerner and Loewe first laid eyes on an exceptionally poised 19-year-old English singer-actress. Her name was Julie Andrews, and in voice, diction, presence, and beauty she was exquisite. Lerner asked her to stay on call and not accept another project until they could confirm the rights to the show, and Andrews graciously agreed. Now that an ideal Eliza Doolittle was waiting in the wings, the duo needed to locate her leading man. Though Noël Coward was thought of as a possibility, for Lerner there was only Rex Harrison, whom he considered the quintessential Prof. Henry Higgins. In 1955 the librettist and composer flew to London to secure the rights to produce the show, but also to meet with Harrison. After his performance in John Van Druten’s comedy Bell, Book, and Candle in the West End, they found a piano to show the actor two of the completed numbers for Higgins: “Lady Liza” and “Please Don’t Marry Me” (neither actually ended up in the final production). Harrison was hesitant to sign on; he disliked the music and was unconvinced of Lerner’s clever word games. An even more serious problem – Harrison wasn’t a singer! He was also nervous about following in the footsteps of Leslie Howard in Pascal’s film, but having been assured that he was the best possible choice, Harrison decided to think it over. After a few days, he confirmed with Lerner and Loewe that he would play Higgins. His utterly distinctive half-singing/ half-speaking style would ultimately leave an indelible mark on the role. The introduction of Eliza’s father into the story developed as an aside from Shaw’s original concept. The team decided to show what happened to Eliza between her meeting Higgins at Covent Garden and her arrival at his house the next morning. They imagined a scene in which the flower-girl – having been tossed a good bit of money by Higgins – is cajoled by her father into tossing him a coin or two. Alfred P. Doolittle is an incorrigible yet lovable man, reveling in the “good life” of

Wendy Hiller as Eliza in Gabriel Pascal’s film of Pygmalion , 1938 – the bedraggled flower girl and the proper young lady.

A frustrated moment for Eliza (Audrey Hepburn) in George Cukor’s 1964 film of My Fair Lady.

avoiding work and marriage while pursuing drink and philandering. Lerner and Loewe knew that London-born Stanley Holloway, with his experience as a comic monologist who’d also acted in two of Pascal’s Shaw films, would be perfect as Doolittle. After securing funding for production from CBS, the musical had everything in place – except a director and a title. The first problem was solved after Moss Hart, a major player on Broadway as both playwright and director, heard half a dozen of the songs. As for the title: Lerner and Loewe did not want to call

the musical Pygmalion , as it sounded too much like just a revival. My Fair Lady was originally rejected, since the duo considered it too operetta-ish. Other names were thought over, such as Liza , Lady Liza , Come to the Ball , The Talk of London , and Fanfaroon (British slang for “braggart”), but by the summer of 1955, the title My Fair Lady had stuck. As it turned out, in 1925 Ira Gershwin had written a musical of the same name that was then renamed Tell Me More . Out of courtesy, Lerner made a call to Gershwin to inform him that he and Loewe would be using the title.

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