Photo Flash: Dominic McHugh Signs 'Loverly: The Life and Times of My Fair Lady' at Dress Circle

Dress Circle welcomed Dominic McHugh on Saturday, 21st July. The author of a new book about the behind the scenes and creation of My Fair Lady, McHugh signed copies of the new book, which was released on 19th July. Check out photos from the signing below!

Using previously-unpublished documents, Dominic McHugh presents a completely new behind-the-scenes look at the five-year creation of the show, revealing the tensions and complex relationships that went into the making of this beloved show. Two detailed chapters describe the show’s tortured journey to Broadway, in which Lerner and Loewe were just one of many creative teams trying to turn Shaw’s Pygmalion into a musical.

Few musicals have had the impact of Lerner and Loewe’s timeless classic "My Fair Lady." Sitting in the middle of an era dominated by such seminal figures as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Frank Loesser, and Leonard Bernstein, "My Fair Lady" not only enjoyed critical success similar to that of its rivals but also had by far the longest run of a Broadway musical up to that time. It remains a staple of the musical theatre canon today, an oft-staged show in national, regional, and high school theatres across the country.

Dominic McHugh is Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Sheffield. He is a scholar of the American musical theatre and the Hollywood musical, with additional research interests in the history of opera and opera theory, performance practice and historiography. His book on Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady, entitled Loverly: The Life and Times of My Fair Lady, was published by Oxford University Press in 2012. He has just written seven articles for the New Grove Dictionary of American Music (on Meredith Willson, Burton Lane, Jule Styne, the Marx Brothers, Michael Stewart, Peter Stone and Harold Arlen) and is currently working on an edited volume of the letters of Alan Jay Lerner for OUP, as well as critical monographs on Jule Styne and The Music Man.

Photo credit: Phill Cowndley

Dominic McHugh

Donimic McHugh

Dominic McHugh

Dominic McHugh