Loverly:The Life and Times of My Fair Lady (Broadway Legacies)

by McHugh, Dominic

  Addressing a similar issue, Eliza has a line in RS that was then cut: she says to Higgins, “I wish you’d left me where you found me” (2-1-8). This intensifies the character’s grief and fear, and in particular illustrates her realization that she is now too self-aware either to resume her former life or to fit comfortably into middle-class society. The climax to the scene (from “Damn Mrs. Pearce” on, PS, 114) was also slightly changed for PS. Crucially, Higgins does not “damn” Eliza in the original version of this speech. This makes a huge difference; never before has Higgins so flagrantly shown his lack of regard for Eliza than in this direct insult, and it is no wonder that the scene ends with her breaking down into “uncontrollable sobs.” The other change is the addition of the word “my” in reference to Higgins’s comment about “lavish[ing] hard-earned knowledge” (PS, 114) on her, thereby intensifying his resentment.

  Julie Andrews (Eliza) and Rex Harrison (Higgins) (Springer/Photofest)

  This trend is continued in the revision of the scene in which Higgins and Pickering discover that Eliza has fled (something not shown in Pygmalion). Again, the most important changes involve explicit discussion of Higgins’s feelings for Eliza. Pickering suggests that “Eliza could have met some bounder at the ball and eloped with him.” Higgins calls this “an idiotic notion” but is clearly perturbed by the idea because he soon asks Pickering: “Was there some chap or other she paid particular attention to? Or he to her?” They discuss a “toothy Spaniard” who Higgins noted was “quite attentive,” but Pickering assures him that he “didn’t speak a word of English,” to which Higgins responds—“to himself”—“Good. Good” (RS, 2-4-24). Yet again, we can see how the issue of romance between Higgins and Eliza was to have been more unambiguous.

  When the two meet again at Mrs. Higgins’s house, the battle continues, and once more Lerner made some effective changes during rehearsals. Originally, Mrs. Higgins’s advice to Eliza was simply to “Remember, last night you danced with a prince” (2-5-28), but the published version turns this into “Remember, last night you not only danced with a prince, but you behaved like a princess” (140). The alteration adds dignity and power to Eliza, raising her status because of her own behavior rather than by association with a man. By contrast, when Higgins’s original insult of “You mean I’m to put on my Sunday manners for this creature I picked out of the mud?” (2-5-29) was changed to “You mean I’m to put on my Sunday manners for this thing I created out of the squashed cabbage leaves of Covent Garden?” the affront to Eliza was made far graver. Lerner also added the tense exchange in which Eliza and Higgins contrast the Professor’s manners with those of Pickering; Higgins advocates “having the same manner for all human souls” (PS, 143). This presents rather a stark revelation of Higgins’s true character: a man with no respect for anyone. Such a portrayal helps tip the balance of the scene even more in Eliza’s favor, since he backs himself into a corner with his foolish words.

  Eliza is generally much stronger in PS. For instance, originally she said to Higgins, “It would make no difference to you if I were there or not, and it’s cruel of you to pretend that it would” (2-5-31), yet the published text has her say instead, “But I can get along without you. Don’t think I can’t” (143). The original has Eliza describe her worth in terms of what she means to Higgins while the replacement has her declare her independence from him. The adjustment makes it necessary for Higgins to respond to this new statement: “You never wondered, I suppose, whether I could get along without you,” he asks her. But she replies that he will “have to,” and he immediately returns to his normal defiant stance: “And so I can. Without you or any soul on earth” (PS, 143). This makes the battle even more interesting, with Higgins acknowledging Eliza’s power and contemplating his dependence on her. She takes this to be emotional blackmail, yet in truth Higgins has let down his guard and spoken his true feelings for her—a rare example of romantic intensification in PS. Then again, RS has Eliza address something that is not dealt with in PS: “You can twist the heart in a girl as easy as some could twist her arms to hurt her. Mrs. Pearce warned me. Time and again she has wanted to leave you; and you always got around her at the last minute. And you don’t care a bit for her. And you don’t care a bit for me. I won’t care for anybody that doesn’t care for me” (RS, 2-5-31). Here, Lerner seems to have considered sketching a new aspect of Mrs. Pearce’s relationship with Higgins: we do not otherwise know that she has nearly left him several times, nor do we realize that Eliza and Mrs. Pearce are confidantes who have discussed the Professor’s behavior. This fact is not unimportant, since it explains why Mrs. Pearce is not surprised at Eliza’s bolting, as well as telling us why she did not prevent her from doing so.

  Romance becomes a topic again in the next part of the scene. There was originally a series of lines about Freddy’s advances toward Eliza: Higgins “damns his impudence,” Eliza says that “he has a right to” love her, Higgins declares that she has “no right to encourage him,” but she responds that “Every girl has a right to be loved.” Higgins refers to him as a “fool,” yet Eliza says that “if he’s weak and poor and wants me, maybe he’d make me happier than my betters that bully me and don’t want me” (RS, 2-5-32). Notwithstanding the reference to marrying Freddy, this exchange unequivocally foregrounds the possible Higgins-Eliza romance. Higgins’s overt grumpiness at the idea of Eliza having a young, foolish lover shows his own desire for her, while Eliza’s suggestion that Freddy might make her happier than her “betters that bully” her again nominates Higgins as her potential lover. Yet the replacement for this exchange appears to make the union impossible. Higgins proclaims, “Oh, in short, you want me to be as infatuated about you as he is. Is that it?” (PS, 146), and Eliza explains in response that she entered into the experiment “not for the dresses and the taxis” but “because we were pleasant together” and because she “came to care” for him. She says that she did not want him to “make love” to her or “forget the difference” between them but to be more friendly.

  In a final change, after Eliza has sung “Without You” and exits, Higgins’s response was modified: RS has him say, “Eliza has left me! For good,” while PS changes it to “She’s gone!” (PS, 150). Yet again, the modification moves the script from language that implies a relationship (“left me”) to something less specific (“gone”). From beginning to end, this subject was systematically deleted or obscured during the rehearsal period, so that whereas RS charts a conventional Broadway romance between a man and a woman, PS forged a bond that was scarcely less strong yet much more difficult to define. In the end, Lerner tantalizes us with the possibilities of an alliance between Eliza and Higgins, yet never quite delivers it.

  STRUCTURE

  The structural robustness of My Fair Lady is a major asset and it was clearly no accident. Its brilliance operates on several levels. First, the layout of the scenes takes us on a careful journey from one location to the next (see table 3.6). We meet the main protagonist, Eliza, at the very beginning of the first scene, and she is at Covent Garden market carrying a basket of flowers. The first moment of tension between her and Higgins occurs here, and it is no coincidence that the final clash between the two takes place in another sort of “artificial garden,” Mrs. Higgins’s conservatory. The market represents a space in which things come out into the open: Higgins’s and Eliza’s world-views emerge here, in “Why Can’t the English?” and “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” respectively, and Eliza’s return to the market in act 2, scene 3, is a moment of high emotion in which she realizes that she no longer belongs there. Higgins’s study is also pivotal to the unfolding of the story. It is a place of learning of all kinds: in a literal sense, Eliza’s lessons take place here, but this is also the place where we find out about Higgins’s attitude to women (act 1, scene 3), Doolittle’s background and lifestyle (act 1, scene 5), the relationship between Higgins and his household (act 1, scene 5), Higgins’s newfound respect for Eliza as they depart for the ball (act 1, sce
ne 9), his overriding conceitedness and his new awareness of her true personality (act 2, scene I), and the final resolution of the story (act 1, scene 7). One might add to this list act 2, scene 4, which takes place in the “Upstairs hall of Higgins’s house” and is often staged on the same set as the study scenes. Here, Higgins learns that Eliza has bolted and realizes that she has gained complete independence from him.

  Dualities are also used cleverly in the scenic structure of the piece. Act 1, scenes 6/7 (Ascot) and 10/11 (the Embassy Ball) are connected in being two pairs of scenes that take place in high society where Eliza is put to the test. In both cases the first of each pair takes place outside the main location and involves a discussion between Pickering and Mrs. Higgins about Eliza and the potential for disaster in the following scene. The second scene of each pair is the actual event—the first goes badly (Ascot), the second is a triumph (the ball). In this way Lerner cleverly replicates the format used in the Ascot scene to rebuild the tension for the Embassy Ball scene, thereby making us believe that Eliza could fail again (something that is intensified by the presence of Zoltan Karpathy, who threatens to reveal Eliza’s background). The two remaining locations also occur in pairs. The “Tenement section” at Tottenham Court Road in act 1, scenes 2 and 4, is the place where we meet Alfred Doolittle and where he sings both the original rendition and reprise of “With a Little Bit of Luck,” while the space outside Higgins’s house on Wimpole Street is the location for Freddy’s “On the Street Where You Live” (act 1, scene 7) and its reprise (act 2, scene 2). In both instances, we return to both a location and a song that has been heard before but experience them in a completely new light. When Doolittle’s song about optimism is reprised, it comes after the news of Eliza’s departure to live with Higgins, which represents a possible source of money for Doolittle. Similarly, the reprise of “On the Street” finds an “undaunted” Freddy (PS, 115) still singing his song in vain, but we see it in a new light when Eliza rejects his bland vision of romance and spits out the fiery “Show Me.”

  Table 3.6. Scenic Outline of My Fair Lady

  Strongly tied to this careful distribution of the scene locations is the musical structure of the piece (see table 3.7). Unquestionably, certain conventions determine the allocation of the numbers between the two acts, but it is striking that many of the songs from the first act either reappear or have some sort of analogue in the second act. There are several examples in addition to those discussed earlier. When Eliza hears the reprise of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” sung around a fire by the vegetable costermongers in act 2, it is no longer her theme, and it serves to tell her that she no longer belongs in the market. The return of “Just You Wait” has a similar function, because a song that Eliza originally sang in her Cockney accent is now sung in her refined accent, reminding her—and us—that she is no longer the person she was. It also takes on a sad irony, because the threats Eliza originally throws at the imaginary Higgins when the song first appears in act 1 are now shown to be completely empty, since he has just stormed off, leaving her crouching on the floor in tears (PS, 113–4).48 In its original version, this song also shares something with “Show Me” and “Without You,” two numbers that have different styles but communicate Eliza’s feisty anger against men.

  The trend continues with “I’m an Ordinary Man,” which is strongly connected to “A Hymn to Him” in subject matter and style, since both deal with Higgins’s attitudes to gender relations. Even though “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face” has little explicit connection to the first act except for the brief reference to “I’m an Ordinary Man,” we will see in chapter 5 how it contains material from the cut first-act song “Come to the Ball” and reverses the meaning of the lyric from praise to insult. This theme was also used in the cut ballet from act 1. So even if “Accustomed” was planned as a bigger summation of themes than it is in the published score, it still provides an accumulative finale to the show. In addition to its own reprise, “With a Little Bit of Luck” is obviously connected to “Get Me to the Church on Time” as a similar music hall–style song for Doolittle. There is also an irony in the fact that Doolittle’s mocking rebuttal of marriage and responsibility in “Luck” has now been turned on his head as his friends bid him a poignant farewell on his wedding day. Finally, “You Did It” is briefly brought back later in act 2, when Higgins interrupts Eliza’s “Without You” with a short verse of “By George, I really did it.” Even this brief summary of the musical contents of the show demonstrates how strongly planned the material is.

  Table 3.7. Outline of Musical Numbers in My Fair Lady

  While not every number can or should be seen as functioning as part of a broader duality, there are other important aspects to the show’s musical structure. In particular, both acts have a sequence of musical numbers that increase dramatic tension over a self-contained unit of time. In act 1, this happens in the fifth scene, where four musical numbers take Eliza on a journey from frustration to elation. “Just You Wait” is closely followed by the sequence of lessons that are interspersed with verses of “The Servants’ Chorus.” The last of these leads into the final lesson, in which Higgins teaches Eliza to pronounce “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain” correctly. In turn, this leads into the jubilant song, “The Rain in Spain,” followed by the even more elated “I Could Have Danced All Night.” This last song is the close of the sequence, which occurs over the course of a single scene and provides one of the most imaginative and effective parts of the show.49

  Table 3.8. Outline of Timescale of Scenes in My Fair Lady

  The example from the second act is arguably even more special. After the concerted number “You Did It” at the opening of the act, the long scene of dialogue between Eliza and Higgins that ensues is closed by Eliza’s tearful reprise of “Just You Wait.” This initiates an unbroken chain of music also encompassing the reprise of “On the Street,” Eliza’s new song “Show Me,” and the reprise of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” in the flower market. Even though it lasts only seven or eight minutes, this sequence of music provides just the kick that most musicals need in the middle of their second acts. The tension mounts during the first two reprises and reaches its highpoint in “Show Me,” where Eliza vents her anger as never before. The vigor of this number is cleverly reduced by the “Flower Market” music, which depicts early morning at Covent Garden and segues into the gentle reprise of “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” This complex chain of numbers is a prime example of how Lerner and Loewe’s adaptation of Pygmalion adds an expressive dimension not found in the play.

  Their third structural tool is the manipulation of time. Table 3.8 shows how the musical’s timescale is specifically defined in terms of month and time of the day. Interestingly, this is in contrast to the published version of Shaw’s stage play, which is comparatively vague regarding time and date (see table 3.9).50 In light of this, Lerner’s structure is especially well conceived, with the show working in three discreet periods of time. The first act is in three sequences: the meeting of Eliza and Higgins and their initial lessons during March (scenes 1–5); Ascot in July (scenes 6–8); and the Embassy Ball in late August/early September (scenes 9-11). This provides a three-part exposition in which the establishment of the bet and its early consequences (the Ascot and Embassy scenes) are depicted, leaving the second act in which to discuss the resolution of Higgins’s and Eliza’s problematic relationship. That makes the timescale of the second act all the more important: it takes place over the course of a single day and follows on directly from the end of act 1, with scenes at 3 a.m., 5 a.m., 11 a.m., during the afternoon, and at dusk. Obviously, there is a dramatic push to this format, whereby the scenes almost occur in real time and provide a sense of continuity. By setting the action against this “cycle of the hours,” Lerner ensured that the second act had just as much momentum—if not more—than the first. It is also ingenious that the day of the ball and the immediate aftermath straddles the intermission, thereby providing a
“cliff-hanger” about whether the experiment has been successful—another sign of the master of the theater at work.

  Table 3.9. Outline of Timescale of Acts in Pygmalion

  4

  KNOWING THE SCORE

  A MUSICAL PYGMALION

  The fact that the likes of Rodgers and Hammerstein abandoned their adaptation of Pygmalion makes Lerner and Loewe’s achievement in My Fair Lady all the more impressive. This was a show that confounded even the very best, partly because of the multifaceted challenge of writing a musical based on this particular play. Just as the evolution of Lerner’s script involved a shift of focus from Shaw’s determinedly unromantic view of the Higgins-Eliza relationship to something more ambiguous for the musical, a change of gesture also had to be carried through in the score. This created a semiotic problem for the composer: how to avoid writing standard types of Broadway songs but remain within the recognized bounds of the Broadway musical. Yet one of Loewe’s gifts as a composer was his ability to adopt a wide range of styles. Nor was this limited to broad stylistic gestures such as the “Celtic” music in Brigadoon or hints of the Wild West in Paint Your Wagon: Loewe’s musicals are written with a fine brush, allowing him to conjure up place, character, and mood within the space of a single song.