my fair lady

S y r a c u s e S t a g e2004-2005 Study Guide education office: 443-1150 or syracusestage.org/education.html 2

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A life spent makingmistakes is not onlymore honorable, butmore useful than alife spent doingnothing.

— George Bernard Shaw

I am of the opinionthat my life belongsto the whole com-munity and as longas I live, it is myprivilege to do for itwhatever I can. Iwant to be thor-oughly used upwhen I die, for theharder I work themore I live.

— George Bernard Shaw

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5 Theatre and Education

6 Theatre Etiquette and Frequently Asked Questions

8 Who’s Who

9 Plot of My Fair Lady

10 Meet the Creators: Lerner and Loewe

11 Meet the Creators: George Bernard Shaw

13 Shaw timeline

14 Evolution of Pygmalion

16 Ovid’s tale

17 Why Two Pianos?

18 Glossary

19 Money in Eliza’s time

21 Pre-war England

22 In the Classroom

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Syracuse Stage Season Study Guide

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S y r a c u s e S t a g e2004-2005 Study Guide

education office: 443-1150 or syracusestage.org/education.html 5

Theatre and Education

"Theatre brings life to life." — Zelda Fichandler

When the first cave dweller got up to tell a story, theaterbegan. Almost every culture has some sort of live per-formance tradition to tell stories. Television and film mayhave diminished the desire for access to theater, but theyhave not diminished the importance. Live theater giveseach audience member an opportunity to connect withthe performers in a way he or she never could with TomCruise or Lindsay Lohan. The emotions can be moreintense because the events are happening right in front ofthe audience.

Ultimately, there is a fundamental difference in the psy-chological responses aroused by electronic media andtheatre because the former presents pictures of eventswhereas the latter performs the actual events in whatamounts to the same space as that occupied by the audi-ence. This difference results in one unique characteristicof theatre: its ability to offer intense sensory experiencethrough the simultaneous presence of live actors andaudience.

"The sole substitute for an experience which we have notourselves lived through is art and literature."

— Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Pedagogically, theatre can be used in a variety of ways.In many respects the teacher in the classroom is muchlike the actor onstage - with an audience (hopefully atten-tive), a script (lesson plan), props and set (classroom set-ting and teaching tools). The environment of the teachingexperience can change day to day, and can be impactedby weather, mood, outside events — in other words, eachday is a unique, active, sensory occurrence, just like aplay.

From this perspective all of what can be taught can betaught theatrically, whether it is having young childrencreating a pretend bank to learn about money, to olderstudents acting out a scene from a play. Theatre providesan opportunity to teach, and any play provides an oppor-tunity to teach more.

"Children, like animals, use all their senses to discover the

world. Then artists come along and discover it the sameway all over again."

— Eudora Welty

Bringing your students to productions at Syracuse Stage,and utilizing this study guide in teaching about the plays,fulfills elements of the New York State core requirements.We know that as educators you are the more qualified todetermine how our plays and study guides blend withyour lesson plans and teaching requirements. We hopethat you find lots of possibilities to cover a variety of dis-ciplines.

As you bring your students to the shows, you might wantthem to examine not merely the thematic elements of thewritten word, but also how production elements explorethese themes. Everything you see on this stage has beencreated specifically for this production — there are nostandard sets for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, no codi-fied method for presenting Big River, no rules for costum-ing Grapes of Wrath. How, for example, will we repre-sent the mighty Mississippi in Big River? How will thecostumes differentiate between characters? Our designersmeet with our directors months before rehearsals start,and shows are built to their specifications, which are inline with their vision of the work. In our detailed studyguides for our school shows, we will try to give you somepreviews of this process, but you might want to explorediscussing all of the design elements with your students asa way of opening the door to the production they will beseeing. You probably know all of the elements that makeup a show, but to recap:

Sets Costumes LightsProps Sound PaintingChoreography Music Casting

And of course, the one thing that is vitally necessary forany piece to be theatre:

AN AUDIENCE

Without this last, most important element, the theatreceases to be. Welcome to Syracuse Stage's EducationalOutreach Programs.

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eQuestions and Answersand theatre etiquette as well...

Teachers: please speak with your students aboutthe role of the audience in watching a live per-formance. Following are answers to some com-

monly asked questions that you might want to sharewith your students, and some helpful suggestions tomake the day more enjoyable.

When should we arrive? We recommend you arrive atthe theatre at least 30 minutes prior to the performance.Student matinees begin promptly at 10:30 am - we donot hold the curtain. Latecomers will be seated at thediscretion of the Management.

Where do we get off the bus? Busses not staying shouldload and unload on East Genesee Street. Bus parking isavailable along East Genesee Street at the baggedmeters. Parking at bagged meters is for busses only -cars will be ticketed. Please do not park in the CentroBus Stop. You may exit the bus, but have your groupstay together in the lobby.

Where do we sit? Will we have tickets? There are notickets - ushers will direct you to the seats. Studentswill be asked to fill in the rows and not move aroundonce seated. We request that teachers and chaperonesdistribute themselves throughout the students and notsit together. Remember, we have to seat 500 people asquickly as possible, so your help in seating is greatlyappreciated.

What can be brought into the auditorium? We do notallow backpacks, cameras, walkmans, recordingdevices, food or chewing gum. We do not have storagefacilities for these items so it is best if these are left atschool or on the bus.

May we take pictures? Taking photographs or record-ing the performance is illegal, disruptive to other audi-ence members and dangerous to the actors. All cam-

eras and recording devices are prohibited and will beconfiscated.

Is there someplace we can snack or eat? When possi-ble, soda and snacks will be available for sale duringintermission, at a cost of $1.00 (exact change appreciat-ed.) Food is not allowed in the auditorium.

Where are the restrooms? There are restrooms in themain lobby. We ask that students use the facilitiesbefore the show and during intermission only and notget up during the show.

What is the audience’s role?

A performance needs an audience. It is asmuch a part of the theater event as our actors,our designers, our technicians and crew.Each playwright asks you to come into theworld he or she has created — but this worldis different than television or movies. Theactors need your responses — your laughter,your applause — but as you can imaginesuch things as conversations, cell phones,beepers and other distractions will disrupt theworld that is being created. If any studentbecomes disruptive to the point of interfer-ence with the performers or other audiencemembers, a chaperon will be asked to removethat student.

If you play your part well, the actors can playtheir parts well and you both will enjoy theshow!

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SEASON SPONSORS

James A. ClarkProducing Director

Robert MossArtistic Director

My Fair Lady

PRESENTS

DIRECTED BY

Robert Moss

SCENIC DESIGN

Adam Stockhausen COSTUME DESIGN

Nanzi Adzima

LIGHTING DESIGN

Tyler Micoleau SOUND DESIGN

Jonathan Herter STAGE MANAGER

Stuart Plymesser

BOOK AND LYRICS BY

Alan Jay LernerMUSIC BY

Frederick LoeweFROM PYGMALION BY

George Bernard Shaw

CHOREOGRAPHED BY

Anthony SalatinoMUSICAL DIRECTION BY

Dianne AdamsMcDowell

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Eliza Doolittle: A cockney flower girl from LissonGrove, Eliza works outside Covent Garden. Her poten-tial to become “a lady” becomes the object of a betbetween Higgins and Pickering.

Henry Higgins: A British, upper class professionalbachelor, Higgins is a world-famous phonetics expert,teacher, and author of Higgins’ Universal Alphabet.

Colonel Pickering: A retired British officer with colo-nial experience, Pickering is the author of SpokenSanskrit.

Alfred P. Doolittle: Eliza’s father, Doolittle is an elderlybut vigorous dustman/chimney sweep.

Freddy Eynsford-Hill: An upper class young man,Freddy becomes completely smitten with Eliza.

Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: A friend of Mrs. Higgins, Mrs.Eynsford-Hill is Freddy’s mother.

Mrs. Higgins: Henry’s long-suffering mother.

Professor Zoltan Karpathy: A former student ofHiggins, he is a rival phonetics expert.

Mrs. Pearce: Henry Higgins’ housekeeper.

credit: Utah Shakeare Festival


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Rarified WorldWho’s who in My Fair Lady

Production HistoryPerhaps the most popular musical of the 1950s, MyFair Lady came into being only after Hungarian filmproducer Gabriel Pascal devoted the last two yearsof his life to finding writers who would adapt GeorgeBernard Shaw's 1914 play Pygmalion into a musical.Rejected by the likes of Richard Rodgers and OscarHammerstein II and Noël Coward, Pascal finally turnedto the younger, but very talented duo, of FrederickLoewe and Alan Jay Lerner.

My Fair Lady opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatreon March 15, 1956 and enjoyed a run of 2,717 perform-ances which lasted more than nine years. The originalproduction featured Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins andJulie Andrews as Eliza. The 1964 film version starred RexHarrison, Stanley Holloway and Audrey Hepburn.

It was revived in 1976 and ran for 377 performances,revived again in 1981 with Rex Harrison reprising hisrole and finally in 1993, when it ran for 165 perform-ances.

Tony Awards 1957

Best Musical Best Actor in a Musical, Rex

HarrisonBest Scenic Design, Oliver

Smith Best Costume Design, Cecil

Beaton Best Direction, Moss Hart

1956 Theatre World Award

Awards



It is a blustery March evening outside the Opera atCovent Garden. Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flowergirl tries to sell some flowers to Colonel Pickering.

Professor Henry Higgins from a distance is painstaking-ly writing down her speech, for he is a distinguishedphonetician. He insists he can place any Englishmanwithin six miles of his home by the quality of hisspeech. Spurred on by a wager with Pickering, Higginsdecides to transform Lizain speech, manner anddress into a duchess.

Liza's father, Doolittle,and his pals have beendrinking, and he asksLiza to give him money.

Liza has now come tolive with ProfessorHiggins, who devoteshimself painstakingly toteaching her how to actlike a lady. Higgins con-vinces both her and herfather that,beyond thisexperiment,he has no further interest in her.

At long last Liza responds to Higgins' instruction andmanages to drop her cockney accent.

At Ascot race track, Pickering informs Mrs. Higgins thather son will soon make his appearance with the trans-formed Liza. Within the enclosure, elegant gentlemenand ladies are watching the races — their reactionsreflected in the song, "Ascot Gavotte." Eliza nowappears on Higgins' arm. Beautifully gowned, and verymuch the lady, she instantly captures the heart of youngFreddy Eynsford-Hill. Smitten, Freddy later hauntsHiggins' house for a sight of Eliza.

The night of the embassy waltz arrives. It is here that

Liza is to meet her final test. In every sense the well-groomed lady, Liza carries herself with the utmostpoise. Her triumph is complete. Later the same night,back at Higgins' place, Pickering is exuberant overLiza's triumph, while Liza herself nostalgically recallsthe pleasures of that evening. But before long she turnsangrily upon Higgins for not having left well enoughalone by allowing her to remain a flower salesgirl. For,now that she is a lady, what will become of her?Higgins suggests she marry some nice young man. Thisserves only to arouse Liza further. Packing her things,

she storms out ofHiggins' house tostumble outside intoFreddy. He proteststhat he is in love withher, but Liza brusheshim off. In an attemptto find her true identi-ty she returns to theflower mart, whereshe is not recognized,even by her ownfather. When he doeshe gives her news thathe is getting married.

Meanwhile, Higgins isupset to discover Liza

has left and wonders why womenbehave the way they do. When next he does see Liza, itis at his mother's house, where Liza has come for abrief visit. He would like her to come back to him, butwhen Liza informs him that Freddy has asked to marryher, he loses his temper. Liza retorts that she can marryanybody she wishes, and she can get along in life with-out Mr. Higgins.

At his home, at dusk, Higgins realizes how much Elizahas come to mean to him. Without her, he is lost andlonely. Liza slips silently in as he is thus musing. Whenhe finally notices her he barks: "Liza! Where the devilare my slippers?!"

Plot of My Fair Lady

Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison

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Frederick Loewe, an unheralded Vienna-borncomposer, and Alan Jay Lerner, the lyricist-play-wright son of the proprietors of an American

chain of women's clothing shops, with sketches andlyrics for two Harvard Hasty Pudding shows among hismajor credits, met by chance at New York's LambsClub, a hot spot for theater people, in 1942. Oneevening, Loewe encountered Lerner at a nearby table.Loewe went up to him, saying "I understand you writelyrics." Lerner replied, "Well, I understand you writemusic.”

The first Lerner-Loewe collaboration was a musicaladaptation of Barry Connor's farce The Patsy for aDetroit stock company in 1942. They called it Life ofthe Party and it enjoyed a nine-week run that encour-aged them to continue with the musical comedy What'sUp? which opened on Broadway in 1943. Lerner wrotethe book and lyrics with Arthur Pierson, and Loewecomposed the music. It ran for 63 performances andwas followed in 1945 by their The Day Before Spring.

It was when the curtain went up to the haunted strainsof bagpipes on the night of March 13, 1947, and themist-shrouded Scottish Highland village of Brigadoonfirst appeared, that the team reached true success. Themusical, which after its original 581 performances onBroadway toured extensively and has been revived fre-quently, won the "Best Musical" award from the NewYork Drama Critics Circle the year it opened and washailed as having "evoked magic on Broadway."

Between Brigadoon and Paint Your Wagon, Lernerwrote Love Life, with music by Kurt Weill, which wasselected as one of the best plays of the 1948-49Broadway season, plus the story, screenplay and lyricsfor the films Royal Wedding and Brigadoon, and thestory and screenplay for An American in Paris, forwhich he won an Oscar in 1951.

Paint Your Wagon rolled in in 1951, and then, five yearslater, on March 15, 1956, My Fair Lady opened andbecame one of the most spectacular successes — artis-

tically and financially in the history of the Americantheater. Playing a record 2,717 performances onBroadway alone, it went on to break all other existingworld records. This musicalization of Shaw's classicPygmalion was named "outstanding musical of the year"by the New York Drama Critics Circle — and by mil-lions of theatregoers.

Lerner and Loewe's next collaboration was on the filmadaptation of the Colette novel Gigi, another successfilled with songs destined to become standards.

The next production, Camelot, received terrible reviewswhen it opened, but the director and producer of theplay got the brilliant idea of having the stars, RichardBurton, Julie Andrews, and Robert Goulet appear on theEd Sullivan Show. The next morning the ticket officewas swamped with requests, and Camelot became a hit.

There was more collaborating to come — the film ver-sion of the Antoine de Saint-Exupery fable The LittlePrince in 1972. Loewe, who had suffered a heart attackin 1958, went into retirement. He died in 1988. Thetwo received the prestigious Kennedy Center Award in1985, and Lerner died the next year.

Lerner wrote of his partner, "There will never be anotherFritz. ... Writing will never again be as much fun. A col-laboration as intense as ours inescapably had to becomplex. But I loved him more than I understood ormisunderstood him, and I know he loved me more thanhe understood or misunderstood me."

www.punahou.edu/theatre/curriculum/AMTWeb/lernerleowe/bio.html

Meet Lerner and LoeweM

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G. Bernard Shaw (he hated the "George" and neverused it, either personally or professionally) was born in1856 in Dublin, in a lower-middle class family ofScottish-Protestant ancestry. His father was a failed cornmerchant, with a drinking problem and a squint (whichOscar Wilde's father, a leading Dublin surgeon, triedunsuccessfully to correct); his mother was a profession-al singer, the sole disciple of Vandeleur Lee, a voiceteacher claiming to have a unique and originalapproach to singing.

When Shaw was just short of his sixteenth birthday, hismother left her husband and son and moved withVandeleur Lee to London, where the two set up ahousehold, along with Shaw's older sister Lucy (wholater became a successful music hall singer). Shawremained in Dublin with his father, completing hisschooling (which he hated passionately), and workingas a clerk for an estate office (which he hated just asmuch as school).

It may not be accidental, then, that Shaw'splays, including Misalliance, are filled withproblematic parent-child relationships: withchildren who are brought up in isolationfrom their parents; with foundlings, orphans,and adopted heirs; and with parents whowrongly presume that they are entitled to their chil-dren's obedience and affection.

In 1876, Shaw left Dublin and his father and moved toLondon, moving in with his mother's menage. There helived off his mother and sister while pursuing a careerin journalism and writing. The first medium he tried as acreative writer was prose, completing five novels (thefirst one appropriately titled Immaturity) before any ofthem were published. He read voraciously, in publiclibraries and in the British Museum reading room. Andhe became involved in progressive politics. Standing onsoapboxes, at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park and atsocialist rallies, he learned to overcome his stagefrightand his stammer. And, to hold the attention of thecrowd, he developed an energetic and aggressivespeaking style that is evident in all of his writing.

With Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Shaw founded theFabian Society, a socialist political organization dedicat-ed to transforming Britain into a socialist state, not byrevolution but by systematic progressive legislation, bol-stered by persuasion and mass education. The Fabiansociety would later be instrumental in founding theLondon School of Economics and the Labour Party.Shaw lectured for the Fabian Society, and wrote pam-phlets on the progressive arts, including The PerfectWagnerite, an interpretation of Richard Wagner's Ringcycle, and The Quintessence of Ibsenism, based on aseries of lectures about the progressive Norwegian play-wright, Henrik Ibsen. Meanwhile, as a journalist, Shawworked as an art critic, then as a music critic (writingunder the pseudonym "Corno di Bassetto"), and finally,from 1895 to 1898, as theatre critic for the SaturdayReview, where his reviews appeared over the infamousinitials "GBS."

In 1891, at theinvitation ofJ.T. Grein, amerchant, the-atre critic, anddirector of aprogressive

private new-play society, The Independent Theatre,Shaw wrote his first play, Widower's Houses. For thenext twelve years, he wrote close to a dozen plays,though he generally failed to persuade the managers ofthe London Theatres to produce them. A few were pro-duced abroad; one (Arms and the Man) was producedunder the auspices of an experimental management;one (Mrs Warren's Profession) was censored by the LordChamberlain's Examiner of Plays (the civil servant who,from 1737 until 1967, was empowered with the priorcensorship of all spoken drama in England); and severalwere presented in single performances by private soci-eties.

In 1898, after a serious illness, Shaw resigned as theatrecritic, and moved out of his mother's house (where hewas still living) to marry Charlotte Payne-Townsend, an

George Bernard Shaw1856-1950

To hear George Bernard Shaw go to:www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/shawg1.shtml

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Irish woman of independent means. Their marriagelasted until Charlotte's death in 1943.

In 1904, Harley Granville Barker, an actor, director andplaywright twenty years younger than Shaw who hadappeared in a private theatre society's production ofShaw's Candida, took over the management of theCourt Theatre on Sloane Square in Chelsea (outside ofthe "Theatreland" of the fashionable West End) and setit up as an experimental theatre specializing in new andprogressive drama. Over the next three seasons, Barkerproduced ten plays by Shaw (with Barker officially list-ed as director, and with Shaw actually directing his ownplays), and Shaw began writing new plays with Barker'smanagement specifically in mind. Over the next tenyears, all but one of Shaw's plays (Pygmalion in 1914)was produced either by Barker or by Barker's friendsand colleagues in other experimental theater manage-ments around England. With royalties from his plays,Shaw, who had become financially independent onmarrying, now became quite wealthy. Throughout thedecade, he remained active in the Fabian Society, incity government (he served as vestryman for the Londonborough of St. Pancras), on committees dedicated toending dramatic censorship, and to establishing a subsi-dized National Theatre.

The outbreak of war in 1914 changed Shaw's life. ForShaw, the war represented the bankruptcy of the capi-talist system, the last desperate gasps of the nineteenth-century empires, and a tragic waste of young lives, allunder the guise of patriotism. He expressed his opin-ions in a series of newspaper articles under the titleCommon Sense About the War. These articles proved tobe a disaster for Shaw's public stature: he was treatedas an outcast in his adopted country, and there waseven talk of his being tried for treason. His dramaticoutput ground to a halt, and he succeeded in writingonly one major play during the war years, HeartbreakHouse, into which he projected his bitterness anddespair about British politics and society.

After the war, Shaw found his dramatic voice again andrebuilt his reputation, first with a series of five playsabout "creative evolution," Back to Methuselah, and

then, in 1923, with Saint Joan. In 1925 he was awardedthe Nobel Prize for Literature. (Not needing the money,he donated the cash award toward an English edition ofthe Swedish playwright August Strindberg, who hadnever been recognized with a Nobel prize by theSwedish Academy). Shaw's plays were regularly pro-duced and revived in London. Several theatre compa-nies in the United States began producing his plays, oldand new, on a regular basis (most notably the TheatreGuild in New York, and the Hedgerow Theatre, in RoseValley, PA, which became internationally known for itsadvocacy of the plays of Shaw and the Irish playwrightSean O'Casey). In the late 1920s, a Shaw festival wasestablished in England.

Shaw lived the rest of his life as an internationalcelebrity, travelling the world, continually involved inlocal and international politics. He visited the SovietUnion at the invitation of Stalin; and he came briefly tothe United States at the invitation of William RandolphHearst, stepping on shore only twice, for a lecture atthe Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and forlunch at Hearst's castle in San Simeon in California.And he continued to write thousands of letters and overa dozen more plays.

In 1950, Shaw fell off a ladder while trimming a tree onhis property at Ayot St. Lawrence in Hertfordshire, out-side of London, and died a few days later of complica-tions from the injury, at age 94. He had been at workon yet another play (Why She Would Not). In his will,he left a large part of his estate to a project to revampthe English alphabet. (Only one volume was publishedwith the new "Shaw Alphabet": a parallel text edition ofShaw's Androcles and the Lion). After that projectfailed, the estate was divided among the other benefici-aries in his will: the National Gallery of Ireland, theBritish Museum, and the Royal Academy of DramaticArt. Royalties from Shaw's plays (and from the musicalMy Fair Lady, based on Shaw's Pygmalion) have helpedto balance the budgets of these institutions ever since.

Cary M. Mazer, University of Pennsylvania

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Shaw continued



1856 George Bernard Shaw born in Dublin, Ireland.

1871 Shaw becomes a clerk in an estate agent's office.

1876 Shaw leaves Dublin to join his mother in London.Ghostwrites music criticism.

1879 Shaw completes his first novel called Immaturity.

1880 Shaw completes second novel and begins years ofself-education in the British Museum's Reading Room.

1881 Shaw becomes a vegetarian.

1883 Shaw after reading Das Kapital and various lec-tures becomes a socialist.

1884 Shaw joins the (socialist) Fabian Society.

1886-1889 Shaw works as the art critic for The World.

1888-1890 Shaw works as the music critic for The Star.Emerges from obscurity.

1891 Shaw writes The Quintessence of Ibsenism,becoming the foremost English champion of HenrikIbsen's plays.

1892 Shaw's first play, Widowers' Houses, is performedtwice.

1893 Shaw writes The Philanderer and Mrs. Warren'sProfession. The latter is banned by the censor.

1894 Shaw turns from "unpleasant" social dramas to"pleasant" plays: Arms and the Man and Candida.

1895 Shaw writes You Never Can Tell and The Man ofDestiny.

1896 Shaw writes The Devil's Disciple.

1897 The Devil's Disciple is a huge hit in the UnitedStates.

1898 Shaw resigns as drama critic because of ill-health,and marries an "Irish millionairess," Charlotte Payne Townshend. Completes Caesar and Cleopatra and ThePerfect Wagnerite.

1899 Shaw writes Captain Brassbound's Conversion.

1901 Queen Victoria dies. Shaw writes Man andSuperman.

1904-1907 Shaw's plays are featured at The Royal CourtTheatre. Writes John Bull's Other Island, Major Barbara,and The Doctor's Dilemma.

1908-1911Shaw writes Getting Married, Misalliance,and Fanny's First Play.

1910 Edward VII dies.

1912 Writes Androcles and the Lion and Pygmalion (forMrs. Patrick Campbell).

1914 World War I breaks out. Writes Common SenseAbout the War. First production of Pygmalion (directedby Shaw and starring Mrs. Patrick Campbell).

1917 Shaw finishes Heartbreak House.

1920 Shaw completes Back to Methuselah.

1923 Shaw writes Saint Joan which attracts worldwideacclaim.

1925 Shaw is awarded Nobel Prize in Literature.

1926-1927 Shaw writes The Intelligent Woman's Guideto Socialism and Capitalism.

1931 Shaw writes Too True to be Good.

1932 Shaw writes The Adventures of the Black Girl inHer Search for God after visiting South Africa.

1933 Shaw writes On the Rocks and Village Wooing.

1934 Shaw writes The Simpleton of the UnexpectedIsles and The Millionairess.

1936 George V dies. Edward VIII abdicates. Shaw writesGeneva.

1938 Film of Pygmalion is huge success. Shaw winsAcademy Award for screenplay.

1939 Beginning of WWII.

1943 Shaw's wife Charlotte dies at the age of 86.

1945 End of WWII.

1947 Shaw completes Buoyant Billions.

1949 Shaw writes Shakespeare Versus Shaw for pup-pets.

1950 Shaw breaks hip while pruning trees, and diestwo months later.

George Bernard Shaw's Life and Worksadapted from the chronology in Pygmalion, Shaw's Spin on Myth and

Cinderella by Charles A. Berst

Shaw timelineT

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1901 Frederick Loewe (composer) is born in Berlin.

1912 Shaw writes Pygmalion.

1918 Alan Jay Lerner (librettist) born in New York City.

1938 Shaw adapts Pygmalion into a film script.

1942 Lerner and Loewe meet in the Algonquin Grilland start collaboration.

1943 Oklahoma! (by Rodgers and Hammerstein II butan inspiration for Lerner and Loewe) premieres.

1945 Lerner and Loewe's The Day Before Spring.

1947 Lerner and Loewe's first big hit, Brigadoon.

1950 Shaw dies.

1951 Lerner and Loewe's Paint Your Wagon.

1952 Lerner wins a Academy Award for the screenplay,An American in Paris.

1952 Lerner writes film script for Brigadoon, the movie.

1952 Lerner and Loewe being thinking about adaptingShaw's Pygmalion into a musical.

1954 Lerner and Loewe begin work on the Pygmalionadaptation in earnest.

1956 First production of My Fair Lady starring RexHarrison and Julie Andrews.

1958 Gigi, film written by Lerner and Loewe. It winsOscars for Best Screenplay, Best Song, and Best Pictureof 1958.

1960 Camelot written by Lerner and Loewe premiereson Broadway.

1961 End of Lerner and Loewe’s first 18-year period ofcollaboration after the musical (with its rewrites, cut-ting, and the many health problems of the collabora-

tors) Camelot induces a huge amount of stress on bothmen. Alan Jay Lerner went on to write other lesserknown musicals and Fritz Loewe retired.

1964 My Fair Lady is made into a film with RexHarrison and Audrey Hepburn, and wins AcademyAward as Best Picture.

1967 Camelot is made into a film starring VanessaRedgrave and Richard Harris.

1973 Lerner and Loewe adapt Gigi for the stage.

1974 Lerner and Loewe collaborate on the film scorefor The Little Prince.

1986 Alan Jay Lerner dies in New York City.

1988 Fritz Loewe dies in Palm Springs, California.


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Evolution of a MusicalMy Fair Lady

[With My Fair Lady] I was not only adaptingthe work of another author [than myself], butan author whose plays were as great as hehimself said they were. And as famous.

— Alan Jay Lerner

By 1954 it no longer seemed essential that amusical have a subplot, nor that there be anever-present ensemble filling the air withhigh C's and flying limbs. . . What causesthe change? It is not the desires of the audi-ence. It is the restlessness of authors for newforms of expression, which audiences thendiscover to be exactly what they wereunconsciously longing for.

— Alan Jay Lerner



In a poetry collection of myths concerning metamor-phosis or transformation, the Roman poet Ovid (43BC – 17 AD) first wrote down the Greek myth of

Pygmalion, about a misogynist who creates the perfectwoman as a statue. Aphrodite brings the statue to life,creating Galatea.

In 1912, George Bernard Shaw(1856 - 1950), a playwright, critic,social activist, and passionateadvocate for the rights of women,wrote his version of Pygmalion. Theplay was written as a star vehiclefor Mrs. Patrick Campbell, and wasinspired by a flower girl Shaw sawoutside Covent Garden around theturn of the century, and by theBritish phoneticist Henry Sweet.

The first English language produc-tion, starring Mrs. Campbell anddirected by Shaw, was a huge suc-cess and established Shaw as acommercially successful play-wright.

“I wish to boast that Pygmalion hasbeen an extremely successful play all over Europe andNorth America as well as at home. It is so intensely anddeliberately didactic, and its subject is esteemed so dry,that I delight in throwing it at the heads of thewiseacres who repeat the parrot cry that art shouldnever be didactic. It goes to prove my contention thatart should never be anything else.”

In the 1940s and 1950s, various adapters tried to turnPygmalion into a musical, including the team of Lernerand Loewe. With the success of Oklahoma, the form ofthe musical changed, placing much more emphasis onthe story, or book, and less on big splashy song anddance numbers. In the wake of this development,Lerner and Loewe made a second, successful, attemptat adapting Pygmalion. Six years after Shaw died, My

Fair Lady debuted in 1956.

In adapting Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion for the musical-comedy stage the highest standards were applied to

every aspect of the musical theatre — text, lyrics,music, choreography, direction, Cecil Beaton's costum-

ing and Oliver Smith's sets — to create as near perfecta production as human ingenuity and imagination

could contrive. The resultwas, as the critic WilliamHawkins said, “a leg-endary evening," or, inthe words of BrooksAtkinson, "one of the bestmusicals of the century... close to the genius ofcreation."

With these and similarcritical accolades as aspringboard, My FairLady went on to becomethe greatest commercialtriumph the Americantheatre had known upuntil that time. On June13, 1961, it became thelongest-running produc-tion in Broadway history,

outdistancing the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicalplay, Oklahoma!, which had held that record up tothen. By that time it had been seen by over three mil-lion patrons, and had earned almost forty million dol-lars; the long-playing recording by the original cast soldover three million discs at a price of fifteen million dol-lars; the motion-picture rights were sold for over fivemillion dollars. The national tour of a second companybegun on March 18, 1957, and stayed on the road sev-eral years, breaking boxoffice precedents in city aftercity. Numerous companies were formed to present itthroughout the civilized world, including the SovietUnion in 1960.

Pygmalion TransformedOn the stage

[We] were determined toretain as much of Shaw’s dia-logue as possible, whichwould automatically meanthere would be more dia-logue than in any othermusical to date. The onlyway to accomplish this . . .was to fill the score withtempo and search everyemotion.

— Alan Jay Lerner

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Ovid’s tale

Pygmalion saw women waste their lives inwretched shame, and critical of faults whichnature had so deeply planted through their

female hearts, he lived in preference, for many yearsunmarried.

But while he was single, he carved a statue, with con-sumate skill, out of snow-white ivory, and gave to itexquisite beauty, which no woman of the world hasever equalled: she was so beautiful, he fell in love withhis creation. It appeared in truth a perfect virgin withthe grace of life, but in the expression of such modestyall motion was restrained — and so his art concealedhis art. Pygmalion gazed, inflamed with love and admi-ration for the form, in semblance of the woman, he hadcarved.

He lifts up both his hands to feel the work, and won-ders if it can be ivory, because it seems to him moretruly flesh — his mind refusing to conceive of itas ivory, he kisses it and feels his kisses are returned.And speaking love, caresses it with loving hands thatseem to make an impression on the parts they touch,so real that he fears he then may bruise her by his eagerpressing. Softest tones are used each time he speaks toher. He brings to her such presents as are surely prizedby sweet girls; such as smooth round pebbles, shells,and birds, and fragrant flowers of a thousand tints, lilies,and painted balls, and amber tears of Heliads, whichdistill from far off trees — he drapes her in rich cloth-ing and in gems: rings on her fingers, a rich necklaceround her neck, pearl pendants on her graceful ears;and golden ornaments adorn her breast.

All these are beautiful — and she appears most lov-able, if carefully attired — or perfect as a statue,unadorned. He lays her on a bed luxurious, spread withcoverlets of Tyrian purple dye, and naming her the con-sort of his couch, lays her reclining head on the mostsoft and downy pillows, trusting she could feel. The fes-tival day of Venus [the Latin name for Aphrodite],known throughout all Cyprus, now had come, andthrongs were there to celebrate. Heifers with spreading

horns, all gold-tipped, fell when given the stroke ofdeath upon their snow-white necks; and frankincensewas smoking on the altars. There, intent,Pygmalion stood before an altar, when his offering hadbeen made; and although he feared the result, heprayed: “If it is true, O Gods, that you can give allthings, I pray to have as my wife” but, he did not dareto add “my ivory statue-maid,” and said,“One like my ivory.” Golden Venus heard, for she waspresent at her festival, and she knew clearly what theprayer had meant. She gave a sign that her Divinityfavored his plea: three times the flame leapedhigh and brightly in the air.

When he returned, he went directly to his image-maid,bent over her, and kissed her many times, while shewas on her couch; and as he kissed, she seemed togather some warmth from his lips. Again he kissed her;the ivory seemed to soften at the touch, and its firm tex-ture yielded to his hand, as honey-wax of MountHymettus turns to many shapes when handled in thesun, and surely softens from each gentle touch.

He is amazed; but stands rejoicing in his doubt;while fearful there is some mistake, again and yet again,gives trial to his hopes by touching with his hand. Itmust be flesh! The veins pulsate beneath the careful testof his directed finger. Then, indeed, the astonished heropoured out lavish thanks to Venus; pressing with hisraptured lips his statue’s lips. Now real, true to life —the maiden felt the kisses given to her, and blushing,lifted up her timid eyes, so that she saw the light andsky above, as well as her rapt lover while he leanedgazing beside her — and all this at once — the goddessgraced the marriage she had willed, and when ninetimes a crescent moon had changed, gave birth to herdear daughter Paphos.

— P. Ovid Naso, editor Brookes More, Book 10

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Broadway tickets can cost more than $100 and put themagic of theater out of many family’s hands. But evenback in 1959, costs were a concern. Tams-Witmark, aNew York-based music library that handles the licensingof musicals, wanted to make its new hit musical MyFair Lady accessible to anyone who loved its music andstory. Costs were a concern, but so was space. Manytheaters, such as Syracuse Stage, don’t have an orches-tra pit. The size of a Broadway-style orchestra keepsthese theaters from sharing the treasures of Americanculture with their regional audiences.

The library commissioned Trude Rittman, an orchestra-tor who had worked with Lerner and Loewe on thedance arrangements for the show, to write a two-pianoversion of My Fair Lady. It believed Rittman knew themusic better than anyone else — other than the twocomposers. She worked extensively on dance music,and knew how to translate a composer’s interpretationof character into music that would heighten the dramat-ic action and help an actor communicate to the audi-ence.

The benefit of the two-piano version is that the tendermelodies, rather than lush orchestrations and big pro-duction numbers, put more focus on Eliza’s transforma-tion. The musical numbers in My Fair Lady, includingsuch beloved favorites as "I Could Have Danced AllNight" "The Rain in Spain" and "Wouldn't It BeLoverly?" — become a seamless part of her journey,rather than an interruption of Eliza’s story.

Syracuse Stage is so proud the two-piano version allowsit to share this wonderful Tony-award winning showwith the Central New York community.



Two pianos

Nearly a century of music

Trude Rittman, 96, a choral and dance musicarranger who help shape such landmark Broadwayproductions as My Fair Lady, Carousel, The Soundof Music and Camelot, died Feb. 22 in Lexington,Mass.

Rittman left her native Germany during the rise ofAdolf Hitler and arrived in New York in 1937. Acomposer and pianist, she landed a job as anaccompanist and soon became musical director forGeorge Balanchine's American Ballet Caravan (theprecursor to the New York City Ballet), before tak-ing a similar post with choreographer Agnes DeMille's concert company.

Her resume included collaborations withBroadway's legendary teams, including Rodgersand Hammerstein II and Lerner and Loewe, as wellas Jerome Robbins and Irving Berlin.

She arranged or composed music for both JeanArthur's and Mary Martin's Peter Pan (1950 and1954, respectively) and arranged music or dancefor South Pacific (1949), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes(1949), The King and I (1951), Paint Your Wagon(1951), My Fair Lady (1956) and The Sound ofMusic (1959).

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What is an orchestrator?

Douglas Besterman, the orchestator of The Producers and other shows, explains the job as “We're the designers ofthe sound of a piece.” He explained, in a typical production, the composer develops the show's melodies-the con-textual skeleton-for each song, mainly on piano. The orchestrator then fleshes out each piece and develops themfor a mini-orchestra-usually about 24 musicians for live theater. Sometimes, a composer will pass on a fully devel-oped piece. But often there's little more than a hum of an indication of how a song is supposed to go. To completethat translation, the composer turns to the orchestrator. "Composers carefully choose the right partner for a project,"Besterman says. "It's very much a partnership."


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Royal Opera House: England's primary internationalopera house, which is often referred to as CoventGarden. Covent Garden: A square in London in the midst of theWest End. Buildings were erected here in 1830 tohouse the major fruit, vegetable, and flower market ofLondon.Smudge-pot fire: A receptacle in which oil or anothersmoky fuel is burned to protect an orchard from insectsor frost.Costermongers: Originally a fruit seller, but most oftenused for the fruit sellers who sold from barrows in thestreets. By the mid-19th century, anyone who sold aproduct from a barrow was called a costermonger. Hoxton: Part of Shoreditch lying north of Old Street andwest of Kingland Road. In the 19th century it wasdescribed as "one of the worst parts of London, wherepoverty and overcrowding were characteristic of practi-cally the whole district." Also renowned for music halls.Selsey: Selsey is situated on a peninsula jutting out intothe English Channel. In the summer months, Selsey hasa variety of fetes, carnivals and shows.Tec: DetectiveLisson Grove: A neighborhood based in a former manorhouse, now rather battered and squalid nearMarylebone Station.Blimey: a Cockney expletive since late 19th century; acorruption of Gorblimey, in turn a corruption of "Godblind me."Phonetics: branch of linguistics concerned with the pro-duction, physical nature, and perception of speechsounds.Milton: (1608-1674), English poet, whose rich, denseverse was a powerful influence on succeeding Englishpoets, and whose prose was devoted to the defense ofcivil and religious liberty. Milton is often considered thegreatest English poet after Shakespeare.Soho Square: An area in London lying within theboundaries of Regent Street, Oxford Street, CharingCross Road, and Leicester Square. By the late 19th cen-tury it had become a significant core of London'snightlife.Yorkshireman: Gruff almost to the point of ill-manneredor rude with some similarities with Cockney.Cornishman: Fishermen, hardy, self-sufficient, people ofthe earth and the sea, from Cornwall.Bilious: Of or containing bile; irascible.Queen of Sheba: Rich, fantastic and beautiful biblicalqueen. If the Queen of Sheba was a historical figure,

she is likely to have traveled to Jerusalem for diplomaticand commercial reasons. Jaw: Used mid 18th-20th centuries, slightly obsolete by1935 and gone by 1970; it has been scathingly appliedto an excessively talkative person.Mews: Originally, the alley that went behind a house tothe stables in back. Buckingham Palace: The London residence of the Kingand Queen.Hyde Park: A large park in Central London, north ofBuckingham Palace. It is an open park with trees widelyand regularly spaced. The park never officially closes,and thus it is home to many courting couples in thedarker hours.Wimpole Street: A street in London north of OxfordStreet. It is the center in London for doctors' offices andresidences, and is also synonymous with the profession-al middle-upper class.Wallop: To beat soundly, thrash; to strike with a hardblow, impact; to defeat thoroughly.Garn: From go on, related to "oi." An expression of dis-agreement of disbelief. Chump: One easily taken advantage of, but used as averb in this instance.Balmies: Crazy people.Keats: (1795-1821), English poet, one of the most giftedand appealing of the 19th century and an influential fig-ure of the Romantic Movement.Spanish Inquisition: It was established with papalapproval in 1478 at the request of King Ferdinand Vand Queen Isabella I. This Inquisition was to deal withthe problem of Marranos, Jews who through coercionor social pressure had insincerely converted toChristianity; after 1502, it turned its attention to similarconverts from Islam, and in the 1520s to persons sus-pected of Protestantism. Wagner (Wagnerian mother): (1813-83), German com-poser and musical theorist, one of the most influentialfigures of 19th-century Europe. Wagnerian mother usu-ally means a very large and loud woman.Cockney: A working-class Londoner, with a very pro-nounced accent. Ezra D. Wallingford: Wallingford is a old name ofMassachusetts and Connecticut society, included in thegenealogy book Families of Ancient New Have. In MyFair Lady, Wallingford is a moralist.Moral Reform League: Probably inspired by the con-temporary American National Temperance Movementor Anti-Saloon Society.

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Costume sketches fromMy Fair Lady

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Blackguard: A rude or unscrupulous person, one whouses foul or abusive language.Governor: 1) In many businesses, employee slang forboss. 2) Among lower classes, especially Cockneys, asemi-respectable greeting for a stranger who appears tobe from a higher class.Houndslow: A small town in Middlesex. Although his-torically it was a town in its own right, with the railwaysand extension of the tube it is now a suburb of Londonclose to Heathrow airport.Five-pound note: Also known as a fiver; originally, theonly note was the five-pound note. In general use, it ispaper money. A bank note is a promissory note payableto the bearer on demand without interest.Cabinet: The group of ministers who comprise the gov-ernment and head the various departments or ministriesof the executive branch.Pulpit of Wales: A position in the Church of England.St. James: A church built by Wren in 1676, located oneblock north of St. James Square, which was developedduring the Restoration as an elegant suburban site.Since the 19th century, when the Square became thecenter of the club world, it has been the center ofLondon's upper-class male society and has maintainedits fashionable cachet into the present day.Demosthenes: (384-322 BC) Greatest orator of ancientGreece, who led the Athenian opposition toMacedonia. According to his biographers he was afflict-ed with a speech impediment, and his attempts to deliv-er his own speeches were so unsuccessful that heresorted to unusual means to overcome his defect.Whitely's: A London emporium selling goods includingdresses. Ascot Races: Ascot is a horseracing track near Windsor.For one week in mid-June (since 1711), the Royal Ascotoccurred, in which members of the royal family attendthe races and are joined by the most fashionable andprominent members of society. The men are dressed intheir full formal wear and the women don hats andelaborate dresses. Aida: Opera by Verdi written in 1871.Gotterdämmerung: The final work of Wagner's famoustetralogy of music dramas, known collectively as DerRing des Nibelungen, and based on the 12th-centuryMiddle High German epic poem of the Nibelungenlied. Paddock: A fenced area, usually near a stable, usedchiefly for grazing horses; an enclosure at a racetrackwhere horses are saddled and paraded before a race.Royal Society: Independent body that promotes the nat-

ural sciences, including mathematics and all appliedaspects such as engineering and medicine, located inLondon, England.Diphtheria: An acute and highly infectious disease,affecting children particularly, characterized by the for-mation of a false membrane in the passages of theupper respiratory system. Constable: In the 19th century when regular policeforces were organized, the constable was the basicpolice rank. In the modern police force, constables inthe uniformed division are called bobbies and thosewho wear civilian clothes are detective constables.Nosegay: A small bunch of flowers; a bouquet.Prince of Transylvania: At this point, this may have beenan honorary title for a noble of the Austro/Hungarianempire. Probably of Hungarian origins. Transylvania is aHungarian part of present day Romania.Gibraltar: An invincible fortress or stronghold in theMediterranean.Yavol!: German expression of enthusiasm.Brighton: A seaside town on the southern coast ofEngland, south of London. By the turn of the 19th cen-tury, it had lost its appeal as a place for holidays forhigh society and became home to the lower-middleclass.Blighter: A person who acts contemptibly, similar tobugger but used in more polite circles.Scotland Yard: A street in London off of Whitehall. In1829 it was the site of the first offices of theMetropolitan Police. Now it is used as a nickname forthe Metropolitan Police, although they haven't hadoffices there since 1891.

Compiled from various sources by Jessica Rosen with Celise Kalke

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MoneyCurrency in Edwardian England

There are 12 pence in a shilling.

There are 20 shillings in a pound.

Pence: There are 4 brass farthings in a pence, so a far-thing is basically worthless. A half-pence is half apence. So three ha'pence is 1 and 1/2pence. Tuppenceis two pence. Eliza acts as if this is a bargain price for abunch of violets.

Crowns: There are 10 pence in a crown, so it's slightlyless than a shilling. So a half-crown would be 5 pence.

Shillings: A florin is 2 shillings. 1/2 Sovereign is tenshillings (or 1/2 a pound)

Guinea: A guinea is 21 shillings, or a little more than apound sterling.

Pounds: Basic unit of English currency. Also known as aquid.

What does all this buy?Eliza sells her violets for tuppence. Eliza offers to pay Higgins a shilling an hour for lessons. Shaw says that a taxi ride costs a shilling. Eliza's friend pays a French teacher 18 pence (or ashilling and 1/2) for lessons. Higgins estimates Eliza's daily income at 2 shillings 6pence.Shaw says Eliza's rent is 4 shillings a week. Higgins tosses at least 14 shillings at Eliza after he hearsthe church bells. This is less than a pound, but over halfEliza's weekly take home pay. Shaw says Pickering considers 10 pounds minimal dailypocket money. Doolittle throws out that he would sell Eliza into somekind of sexual misalliance for 50 pounds. Higgins would charge a millionaire less than 60 poundsfor an hour lessons. The cost of Eliza's dress and ball accessories is 200pounds.

Annual IncomesKeep in mind that annual income has very little to dowith class rank, which is hereditary. One can be a veryrich cockney, but also a very poor aristocrat. ElizaBetween £38 and £48, based on her rent, and Higgins'estimate. So Eliza offers to pay what Higgins thinks is40% of her daily income for lessons.

DoolittleAbout the same as Eliza, since he isn't married. Thisprobably means Eliza's stepmother works as well, sinceHiggins (in Shaw) says two people can't possibly live on£50.

Mrs. Eynesford HillEstimated annual income also around 4,000 pounds ayear or less. This is an inherited income that won't passon to Freddy. While this is a large amount to Doolittle,it is barely enough to keep up Mrs. Eynesford Hill'saristocratic lifestyle. So it's vitally important that herchildren marry well.

HigginsHis income is between £14,000 and £20,000 a year.Depending on how much he inherited from his family.But keep in mind that he has to work to earn thisamount, unlike anyone else in the play except Eliza andDoolittle.

PickeringBased on his attitude towards pocket money and otherexpenditures, I estimate Pickering's income at around£28,800 a year. That's the combination of an army pen-sion and some sound India investments and businessdeals (and maybe some inherited money). Keep in mindthat he had almost no expenses (as a single army offi-cer) in India and a nice living. Given that he pays norent in London (although by paying for Eliza's lessonshe essentially supports Higgins), he is quite well off.

An Edwardian millionaireGiven an income of 150 pounds a day, the Edwardianmillionaire had an annual income of £54,000 pounds.

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Eliza’s WorldPre-war England

The Victorian period (1837-1901) was a time ofrevolution and change. It saw great expansionof wealth, power and culture. The modern idea

of “invention” was invented. Religion was in doubt.Romantic emphasis was placed on self-emotion andimagination. Victorians created astonishing innovationand change in democracy, feminism, unionization ofworkers and socialism. The brief reign of King EdwardVII (1901-1910) continued these changes. And whenKing George V took the throne, England society wasabout to break with its formal past. This is the time ofMy Fair Lady.

Henry Higgins is a beneficiary of this power structure,but by teaching Eliza he also subverts the power struc-ture. Higgins believes he has power over everyone hemeets. He is quite wealthy but doesn't flaunt his moneyor a high position in society. He treats everyone thesame: "I would treat a duchess as if she was a flowergirl."

English society expected men to treat a lady politelyregardless of her class, age or ethnicity. But the societycontradicted itself and treated people differentlydependent on their class, age and ethnicity.

Women's suffrage movements started in the early1840's, but in the time of this play, a man still had totalcontrol over his wife and daughters. Women were sec-ond class citizens. Because they were expected to bewives and mothers, work was viewed as temporary.They weren't paid the same as men, they didn't vote,and they couldn't do the same jobs as men.

Yet, the Victorian period allowed growth in women’sroles. Education became more important. And womenbenefited from the gradual growth of a middle class.

Here are some major events of 1913:

- Grand Central Terminal opens in NYC

- British suffragettes are led by the Pankhursts, whospend much of the year battling the authorities in court- Roland Garros flies across the Mediterranean- The Panama Canal Opens

Published in 1913:- D.H Lawrence’s Son’s and Lovers- Willa Cather’s O Pioneers- Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way

- Charlie Chaplin creates his first films for Paramount

- Henry Ford announces he will pay $5 a day for workin his car factory. It revolutionizes the American work-force and guarantees a liveable wage. He wrote: ”It isour belief that social justice begins at home. We wantthose who have helped us to produce this great institu-tion and are helping to maintain it to share our prosper-ity.”

- Richard Spikes invents the automated car wash anddirectional signals

- The New York Times runs its first crossword puzzle

- Formica, stainless steel and the zipper come into exis-tence

- Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra

- The first refrigerator, as opposed to the simple ice box,designed for home use was the Domelre, which wasmanufactured in Chicago in 1913. Frigidaire brand'sroots date back to the invention of the first self-contain-er refrigerator for household use by Alfred Mellowes in1915.

- Two different men, Ernst Alexanderson and ReginaldFessenden, invent radio receivers

- Thomas Alva Edison invents sound motion pictures

- Niels Bohr publishes his model of the atom, based onenergy states described by one quantum number

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Questions for Discussion

How are Pickering and Higgins foils for each other?

How do Henry Higgins and Alfred Doolittle get educated during the play? What does this play suggest as possibleresults of education? Do teachers and students alike need to be concerned about those results?

What does the play suggest about the differences between social classes? What does it suggest about marriage andfamily? Do the differences that exist between the classes in 1913 still exist today? If they do, how does it affectyour life? How does it affect our city? The country?

Why did Shaw pick Pygmalion as the title of his play? How does this source material compare to the story of ElizaDoolittle and Henry Higgins in the musical?

Think of the different accents people speak with. Do people make judgements of others who may speak with anaccent? Why are some accents cool and others not?

Is Eliza Doolittle a feminist character? Why or why not?

How does the musical show us Eliza’s transformation?Which is the most important transformation?

This version of My Fair Lady made the chorus smaller anddeleted some of the big production numbers. How maythis have changed the production? How might it havechanged the focus of the show?

The story of Pygmalion has inspired many movies: TradingPlaces, Educating Rita, Can’t Buy Me Love, Overboard,Mannequin, Pretty Woman, She’s All That and The PrincessDiaries. Can you think of others? What’s the commontheme in all these films? How do they differ? Does it mat-ter if the Eliza character is a man or a woman? How doesthat change the development?

Write your own script outline for a story inspired byPygmalion.

Think of the inventions of 1913 and think of the waypeople lived then, how will these inventions impact theway Eliza and others would live (if they were real). How does the story foreshadow some of these changes?

Audrey Hepburn

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Further Reading

Web sites

www.eusa.ed.uk/societies/filmsoc/films/my_fair_lady.html

eonline.com/Facts/Movies/Reviews/0,1052,11908,00.html

www.flickfilosopher/oscars/bestpix/myfairlady.html

www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm25.html

www.landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/hist/Gentleman.html

www.landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/religion/herb1.html

www.landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/wmhisttl.html

http://www.frederickloewe.org/fritz/bio.htm

www.musicals101.com

www.psd.k12.co.us/schools/rocky/mfl/story.html

Books and journal articles

Bach, Steven, Dazzler: the Life and Times of Moss Hart, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2001

Citron, Stephen, The Wordsmiths: Oscar Hammerstein 2nd and Alan Jay Lerner, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995.

Flinn, Denny Martin, Musical! A Grand Tour, Schirmer Books, New York, 1997.

Hellerstein, Erna Olafson and Hume, Leslie Parker and Offen, Karen M. Victorian Women: a documentary account of women's lives in nineteenth-century England, France and the United States. Stanford University Press, 1981.

Holroyd, Michael, The Genius of Shaw, Hodder and Stoughton, New York, Applause Theater Books, 1979.

Mintz, Steven. A Prison of Expectations: The Family in Victorian Culture. New York University Press, 1983.

Perkin, Joan. Victorian Women. New York University Press, 1993.

Phillips, K.C. Language and Class in Victorian England. Basil Blackwell Publisher Limited, 1984.

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Edwardian London volumes one, two, three, and four edited from editor George R. Sims's Living London publishedby The Village Press.

The Musical Theatre: A Celebration by Alan Jay Lerner published by McGraw-Hill Book Company.

The Portable Bernard Shaw edited by Stanley Weintraub published by Penguin Books.

Pygmalion and My Fair Lady (now together in one special edition) by George Bernard Shaw and Alan Jay Lerner(respectively) published by Signet classics.

Pygmalion, motion picture, Hollywood Classics collectors edition, video-tape.

Pygmalion, Shaw's Spin on Myth and Cinderella by Charles A. Berst, Twayne Publishers.

Shaw's Plays in Performance: edited by Daniel Leary published by The Pennsylvania State University Press.

The Street Where I Live a biography by Alan Jay Lerner published by W. W. Norton and Company.

The Truth About Pygmalion by Richard Huggett (a history of the first production), published by Random House.

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Further Reading

Adam Stockhausen’s set design for My Fair Lady

my fair lady

Documents

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george bernard shawi

educational outreach