BACKGROUND OF MY FAIR LADY

The musical MY FAIR LADY was written by Alan Jay Lerner and based on the play Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw. The music was written by Frederick Loewe. The team of Lerner and Loewe was also responsible for several other hit Broadway shows including Brigadoon and Camelot.

STAGE PRODUCTION
The first production of My Fair Lady was staged by Moss Hart at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on March 15, 1956, with Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins, Julie Andrews as Liza Doolittle and Stanley Holloway as Alfred P. Doolittle. The show ran for 2,717 performances making it the longest running musical up to that time surpassing the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical play, Oklahoma!, which had held that record up to then. It also ran for 2,281 performances in London at the Drury Lane Theatre. Several New York revivals including 1976 with 377 performances and 1981 with 119 performances. The 1981 revival once again starred Rex Harrision.

MOVIE
The 1964 movie, directed by George Cukor, starred Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn with Stanley Holloway reviving his role as Alfred P. Doolittle. Audrey Hepburn's singing in the film was done by Marni Nixon (also dubbed the singing for Natalie Wood in West Side Story).

AWARDS
1955-1956

The New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical
The Outer Critics Circle Award for Musical

1956-1957

6 Tony Awards for Musical, Director, Conductor and Musical Director,
     Costume Designer, Scenic Designer and Actor
The Outer Critics Circle Award for Musical

1975-1976

The Tony Award for Actor - 2 Drama Desk Awards for Actor and Featured Actor

SYNOPSIS OF MY FAIR LADY

SETTING: London, March 1912.

Covent Garden is bustling with activity as flower girls are selling bouquets and buskers (street-entertainers) performing as the opera patrons arrive at the theatre. Freddy Eynsford-Hill knocks over the flowers of the cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle. She reacts loudly in a very thick cockney accent. Nearby, Professor Henry Higgins (an expert in spoken dialects) is taking notes of every word. Eliza thinks that he is a policeman, but Higgins explains that he is on a quest for new dialects of London's speech. Higgins boasts that he can correctly identify the origin of any Englishman within six miles of his home by the quality of his speech. Higgins complains that the English are unable to speak their own language correctly in the song Why Can't the English?. Higgins' friend. Colonel, Pickering, agrees to a wager with Higgins where Higgins must teach Eliza to speak, dress and act like a duchess at the embasy ball. Eliza expresses her idea of her perfect life in the song Wouldn't It Be Loverly.

Alfred P. Doolittle (Eliza's father) is found drinking in a run-down area in Tottenham Court Road with several of his friends. He finds himself short of money so he asks Eliza to give hime some. He sings about his unorthodox perspective on life in the song With a Little Bit of Luck.

Eliza, who has now moved into the home of Professor Higgins, begins her lessons on how to act, dress and talk like a lady. Higgins make it very clear to both Eliza and her father that his only interest in Eliza is the experiment, and as a confirmed bachelor, he would never allows himself to get involved with a woman. He sings the song I'm an Ordinary Man to explain his reasons. After a long and frustrating period of time, Eliza figures out how to lose her cockney accent. As she realizes that she can finally speak without the accent, her lesson turns into the song The Rains in Spain with Higgins and Pickering joining in. Extatic and unable to sleep, Eliza sings I Could Have Danced All Night.

Higgins decides to bring the "new" Eliza to his mother's box at the Ascot races to see if she would really pass as a lady. The song Ascot Gavotte features all of the elegant gentlemen and ladies watching the races with their very proper mannerisms. Higgins enters with Eliza in a gorgous gown looking every bit like a proper lady. The afternoon is somewhat tarnished when her enthusiasm for her horse compells her to indulge in unladylike cheering. Freddy Eynsford-Hill is immediately taken by Eliza's charms and falls in love with her. Not able to put her out of his mind, he waits in front of Professer Higgins' house to catch a glimpse of Eliza. As he waits he sings the enchanting song, On the Street Where You Live.

Eliza's final test is the embassy ball. She enters the embassy looking and acting as if she were royalty. She dances the Embassy Waltz with Professor Higgins and is noticed and admired by all. They are all curious about her identty and speculate that she is of royal Hungarian blood and the experiment is a great success. The crowning achievement becomes her interaction with Karpathy, a European phonetics expert. Karpathy invites her to dance and commends her on the pureness of her English. When they return to Higgins' home, Higgins and Pickering revel in their success as they indulge in self congratulation. They ignore Eliza and her part in the experiment. Eliza on the other hand is more nostalgic. Eventually, she realizes that she may have been better off staying as a simple flower girl. She gets mad at Higgins because she doesn't know what she would do as a lady, and she demands recognition for her part in the experiment. Higgins' suggestion that she marry some nice young man gets her even more upset and she rushes out of the house, only to run into young Freddy. He claims his love for her, but she rebuffs him and turns her anger toward him with the song Show Me and leaves. Eliza wanders the streets and eventually returns to her old place in the flower market outside of Covent Garden. She is dejected when no one recognizes her, not even her own father Alfred Doolittle.When he finally does realize that it is his daughter, he annouces to her that he has become wealthy and is to be married to her mother and sings the rousing Get Me to the Church on Time.

Higgins finds out the Eliza has left and sings the song, A Hymn to Him. He goes to his mother's house, where he finds Eliza. He would like her to return to his house, but Eliza mentions that Freddy has asked her to marry him. This sets Higgins into a rage and he calls her a fool. Eliza makes it clear that she no longer needs Higgins and she is free to marry anybody she wishes and sings Without You. Higgins returns home and can't help but think about Eliza. When he realizes that Eliza has become an entirely independent and admirable human being and how much she meant to him he sings the song I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face. He finally comes to the conclusion that he can't live without her and as he is saying these things, Eliza quietly enters the room and hears his words. He finally notices her and realizing that she has returned to stay, ends the show by leaning back in his chair with a long, contented sigh and saying "Eliza? Where the devil are my slippers?"

CAST OF CHARACTERS (* principal vocal part)

Eliza Doolittle *

A cockney flower girl from Lisson Grove working outside Covent Garden. Her potential to become “a lady” becomes the object of a bet between Higgins and Pickering.

Professor Henry Higgins *

British, upper class professional bachelor, world famous phonetics expert, teacher and author of “Higgins’ Universal Alphabet.”

Alfred P. Doolittle *

Eliza’s father; an elderly but vigorous dustman.

Colonel Hugh Pickering *

Retired British officer with colonial experience and the author of “Spoken Sanskrit.”

Freddie Eynsford-Hill *

Upper class young man who becomes completely smitten with Eliza.

Mrs. Higgins

Henry’s long-suffering mother.

Professor Zoltan Karpathy

A bearded Hungarian; former phonetics student of Henry Higgins.

Mrs. Pearce *

Henry Higgins’ housekeeper.

Mrs. Eynsford-Hill *

A friend of Mrs. Higgins’ and Freddy’s mother.

George

Bartender who works at the Tottenham Court Road Pub.

Harry *

Drinking companion of Alfred Doolittle.

Jamie *

Drinking companion of Alfred Doolittle.

Mrs. Hopkins

A cockney woman of Tottenham Court

A Bystander

Opening scene, (2 men) a Bystander with another Bystander outside Covent Garden.

Cockney Quartet * (First, Second, Third & Fourth Cockney) –

In Covent Garden Market; the male Cockney Quartet.

Butler

Henry Higgins household employee.

Footman

Henry Higgins house, non-speaking.

Lord Boxington

Friend of Mrs. Higgins, Ascot race patron.

Lady Boxington

At Ascot races, non-speaking.

Flower Girl

Working in Wimpole Street.

Footman

Embassy employee.

Footman

Embassy employee, non-speaking.

Selsey Man

Opening scene, bystander outside Covent Garden.

Hoxton Man

Opening scene, bystander outside Covent Garden.

Two Maids *

Henry Higgins household, non-speaking.

Three Buskers

Street performers, outside Covent Garden, non-speaking.

Six Servants

Henry Higgins household, non-speaking chorus singers. S-S-A-A-T-B

Two Stewards

Ascot employees, non-speaking.

Singing & Dancing Ensembles

The Ascot Race patrons, Embassy Ball guests including the Queen of Transylvania and her escort, the Ambassador and his wife and Dr. Themistocles Stephanos, Covent Garden Scene Crowd, Tottenham Court Crowd, etc.

Various Voices

doubling with single spoken lines

Angry Woman

Act I – Scene 2

Angry Man

Act I – Scene 2

Charles

Mrs. Higgins Chauffer - Act I – Scene 6

Policeman

Wimpole Street - Act I – Scene 8

Queen of Transylvania

Act I – Scene 10

Maid

Mrs. Higgins employee - Act II – Scene 5

ORCHESTRA INSTRUMENTATION

Full Orchestration

LIST OF SCENES

SETTING: The place is London, the time 1912

LIST OF MUSICAL NUMBERS

ACT TWO