Loverly:The Life and Times of My Fair Lady (Broadway Legacies), McHugh, Dominic [fantasy books to read TXT] 📗

She takes it and they go out of the door, Pickering following after.” Through this action, Higgins acknowledges Eliza’s dignity for the first time, going through the door with her rather than before her. This shows Lerner at his most brilliant and imaginative (the scene is a complete deviation from Pygmalion): one of the longest scenes in the play, including three musical numbers, is replaced by one of the shortest, yet in this instance gesture serves the overall drama more effectively than twenty minutes of song and dance.

Resolving the Higgins-Eliza Relationship

The first scene of the second act is one of the most crucial in the show, and it was changed in numerous ways during rehearsals, nearly always to adjust this climax in the Eliza-Higgins relationship. First, Higgins’s initial speech of reaction to Eliza’s admission that she is worried about “what is to become of her” was originally slightly shorter. One might take the addition of the line “Oh, I shouldn’t bother about that if I were you” (PS, 110) as a comfort to Eliza—suggesting that she has nothing to worry about—but at the same time, it also has an air of dismissal, as if her future is not worth contemplating. The rephrasing of the subsequent line from “You’ll settle yourself somewhere or other” (RS, 2-1-8) into “I should imagine you won’t have much difficulty in settling yourself somewhere or other” also hints at a split meaning: the first part becomes softer, but “somewhere or other” maintains Higgins’s apparently indifference towards Eliza’s precise fate (though this indifference could be perceived to be feigned).

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