FLASH FRIDAY: MY FAIR LADY's Loverly Journey From Stage To Screen
By: Michael Dale Oct. 16, 2015
Cole Porter attempted to write it. Rodgers and Hammerstein tried writing it but after a year Oscar Hammerstein concluded that George Bernard Shaw's PYGMALION simply could not work as a musical.
Find out just how wrong he was beginning October 18th, when the 50th Anniversary of the spectacular Academy Award winning film version of MY FAIR LADY is celebrated with screenings featuring a breathtaking new restoration. Click here to find a theatre near you and purchase tickets.
So how did the less-experienced team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe figure out how to turn Shaw's harsh social satire of the British class system into one of Broadway and Hollywood's most beloved musicals?
Part of it could have been the unusual contrast between the librettist and his composer. Lerner was an acerbic Ivy League intellectual and the story of a warm-hearted, but uneducated, Cockney flower girl who tries to improve her station by taking lessons in proper English from a snide, self-centered linguist seemed an excellent fit.
But his partner, Lowe, was born of Viennese parents and schooled in operetta. While Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle never see each other as a romantic couple, Lowe's graceful score, filled with old world charm, allows the audience to feel the romance in their story.
Also, Lerner based his book and lyrics primarily on Shaw's screenplay for the 1938 film version starring Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller, which opened up the story with scenes only described in the play. The film also includes an ending that was not scripted by Shaw, but was used by Lerner. Though intentionally ambiguous, Lowe's underscoring of that final scene suggested to some audience members that the romance they were waiting for might actually happen.
Sir Noel Coward was first offered the role of Henry Higgins, but he suggested Rex Harrison would be a better choice. Lerner and Lowe famously wrote songs that the non-singing actor could speak-sing, but when the show began out of town tryouts in New Haven the star's temper tantrums could be heard all the way to Times Square. Exactly how much of this publicity footage of Harrison in rehearsal was legitimate and how much was a show for the camera is something only he would know.
After Mary Martin passed on the project, Julie Andrews was cast as Eliza Doolittle on the strength of her Broadway debut in THE BOYFRIEND, but Harrison wasn't satisfied with how she was progressing in rehearsals and threatened to leave the show if they didn't replace her with an actress more to his liking. Director Moss Hart spent an entire weekend with the young star, carefully dictating the nuances of the role to her and Harrison no longer complained.
The first half of this video shows silent footage of MY FAIR LADY's London opening, followed by backstage interviews with Harrison, Andrews and co-star Stanley Holloway, who regularly stopped the show as Eliza's father, Alfred Doolittle.
While Harrison and Holloway were signed by producer Jack Warner to repeat their stage roles for the screen, it was determined that a better-known star was needed to play Eliza. This freed up Julie Andrews to sign with Walt Disney to play her Oscar-winning role in MARY POPPINS while the luminous Audrey Hepburn added to her list of memorable screen turns.
It soon became known that most of Hepburn's singing would be dubbed by Marni Nixon, who had provided soprano voices for Deborah Kerr in THE KING AND I and Natalie Wood in WEST SIDE STORY. Though millions had heard her voice, far fewer would know her face, as demonstrated by her appearance on TO TELL THE TRUTH.
MY FAIR LADY was a smash on Broadway, but it was a worldwide sensation on screen and its London premiere was a royal occasion.
My Fair Lady is now more "lovelier" than ever with a breathtaking new restoration playing in cinemas nationwide two days only. In honor of its 50th Anniversary, this eight time OSCAR winning musical has been restored frame-by-frame from the original 65mm negative and scanned (8K to 4K or 2K) utilizing start-of-the-art technology under the supervision of Robert Harris (the famed film historian and preservationist known for his restoration of films including Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus, Vertigo and The Godfather Parts I & II).
Gloriously witty adaptation of the Broadway musical about Professor Henry Higgins, who takes a bet from Colonel Pickering that he can transform unrefined, dirty Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a lady, and fool everyone into thinking she really is one, too! He does, and thus young aristocrat Freddy Eynsford-Hill falls madly in love with her. But when Higgins takes all the credit and forgets to acknowledge her efforts, Eliza angrily leaves him for Freddy, and suddenly Higgins realizes he's grown accustomed to her face and can't really live without it. Bonus content: The Fairest Fair Lady, a 10 minute theatrical trailer produced by Warner Bros. for the film's original release will be added to the event screenings. The Fairest Lady takes a revealing and fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the remarkable efforts that went into making My Fair Lady. MPAA RATED "G"Videos