So I wasn’t planning on watching the Super Bowl last Sunday, as I figured that the officials would make sure that the Kansas City Chiefs would be victorious (boy, was I wrong), so I surfed channels for a few minutes, about to give up on TV, when I saw that TCM was showing My Fair Lady.
This is my absolute favorite musical. With a good Broadway musical, the story, while important, should not be as memorable as the music that accompanies it. People leaving the theater or done watching the movie should be whistling or humming a song from it afterward. My theory on musicals is this:
One good song – OK, it has its moments
Two good songs – It may be worth watching again
Three good songs – It is definitely something worth watching again
Four or more good songs – A definite classic that you watch every chance that you get
With My Fair Lady, it goes beyond that in my opinion. Let’s start with the storyline. Based on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, a pompous and arrogant professor of phonetics named Henry Higgins takes on a gentleman’s bet that he can convert a low-class Cockney flower girl named Eliza Doolittle into someone presentable to royalty. There is constant arguing and comical drama between the two, but in the end, he is successful. The conflict at the end is that Eliza is no longer recognized by her companions in the marketplace, and she feels lost, as Higgins acts as if his victory means he is done with his “project.”
The big difference in the play and the musical is, in Pygmalion, Eliza leaves Higgins, possibly to marry a male suitor Freddy. In My Fair Lady, both Higgins and Eliza have a change of heart and she returns to him, perhaps not romantically but to serve in some form of companionship.
Now for the musical. It originally opened on Broadway in 1956, with Rex Harrison as Higgins and Julie Andrews as Eliza. The storyline by Alan Jay Lerner was excellent, but even more beautiful were the songs, especially coming from the voice of Andrews. The score was written by Lerner and Frederick Loewe, which critics loved and audiences loved even more. At the time, it was the longest running musical on Broadway, and saw wonderful responses from US and British tours.
In 1964, a film version was produced, again receiving numerous accolades and awards. Harrison returned to his role as Higgins, but the part of Eliza was portrayed by Audrey Hepburn, in my opinion, the most beautiful woman that has ever graced the Earth. Even when she is a filthy poor flower girl, Hepburn’s beauty shines through, so when she is seen in her Ascot Gavotte dress or her gown for the Embassy Ball, she is amazingly gorgeous. The downside of this was, as Andrews was not in the film and the producers of the film were not confident with Hepburn’s vocals, most of her singing parts were overdubbed by the golden voice of Marni Nixon (who overdubbed the female singing for many film versions of Broadway plays).
There is a lot of trivial history surrounding the film, especially with the choice of Hepburn over Andrews for the movie version, which I will not get into here. I welcome you to go to IMDB.com and read some of the posted items. For such a production as this, one can guarantee that there would be a lot of conflicts and debates going on.
However, I am here to blog specifically about the music. This is a musical that definitely falls under the “four or more good songs” category. Many of you will probably recognize a few songs from the soundtrack but not realize that they were from the play. Of the many great songs in the production, there are at least six that I can think of that have become standards in the catalog of Western music, ones that professional singers still perform and have even become sing-alongs at schools and campfires:
“Wouldn’t It Be Loverly”
“With a Little Bit of Luck”
“The Rain In Spain”
“I Could Have Danced All Night”
“On the Street Where You Live”
“Get Me to the Church on Time”
“I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face”
These are absolute standards for any singer to be familiar with and wish to perform. I personally have sang all of them hundreds of times to myself, as well as some of them a few times to audiences or as audition material. These are the type of songs that you recognize when just the first three or four notes are played, and it seems everyone over 40 knows the chorus.
For the film, the producers brought in Stanley Holloway as Eliza’s father Alfred P. Doolittle, the underachieving dustman. Holloway played the part in the original Broadway play. Like Harrison as Higgins, Holloway MADE that part! No one could have done it better. He also performs two of the most notable songs, “With a Little Bit of Luck” and “Get Me to the Church on Time.” I could watch the film if only for his two performances. Classic in every sense!
If those aforementioned standards are not enough for you, there are many more songs within the production that people will fall in love with:
“Why Can’t the English?”
“I’m an Ordinary Man”
“Just You Wait”
“Ascot Gavotte”
“Show Me”
There’s a reason that this musical has had revivals as recent as 2019 in the US and 2022 in West End London. It is beyond a classic musical – it is textbook direction to what every musical produced after it should be compared. I recommend that you watch the film, go see the play if it is in your area, and pick up a copy of the soundtrack, be it the original Broadway cast or from the film. Your heart will have never received better medicine from a musical. I literally well up with tears of joy when I hear one of these songs if I have not heard them for a long period of time.
Chew on it and comment.
Luegra 