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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
April - May, 2017
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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.
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.
A frustrated moment
for Eliza (Audrey
Hepburn) in George
Cukor’s 1964 film of
My Fair Lady.