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

[etc.]” in “Come to the Ball,” Higgins sings the insulting “I can see her now … Not a penny in the till [etc.].” This demonstrates that each of the show’s two acts were to reach a climax with a monologue by Higgins, the first seductive and flattering and sung to Eliza, the second an expression of his mixed affection for and frustration with her, sung to himself. To read this section of “Accustomed” as a reprise of earlier material also changes its gesture: the images that Higgins evokes (e.g., “the bill collector beating on the door”) are obviously hyperbolic, but in the context of their relation to his previous “seduction” of Eliza they reveal a bitterness that implies a rejected lover more strongly than the song does without “Come to the Ball” in the show. Therefore, it has to be considered that by removing this romantically overt song, Lerner was making a resounding gesture about the nature of the Higgins-Eliza relationship, namely that it is not the straightforward romance that some writers assume.

The music also contributes to the song’s overt romanticism: the use of a waltz signifies dancing couples, and by extension, romantic attachment. This matches the meaning of the song very well, but if a decision had been made to cut lyrics about Higgins’s attraction to Eliza, it can only have been intensified by their waltz accompaniment (see ex. 4.8). On a practical level, having a waltz at this point also anticipates “The Embassy Waltz” in the following scene. Obviously, Higgins is talking about the ball, and it is natural that the music that will be played there is the musical backbone to his song. But to have first one waltz then another is perhaps too much of the same thing. Furthermore, a comparison between the dance number and the song does “Come to the Ball” no favors. No doubt to accommodate Rex Harrison’s limited vocal abilities, the vocal line moves in a stepwise motion nearly all the way through, and the range is limited. In consequence, the melody is far from memorable and, in truth, sometimes monotonous. By contrast, “The Embassy Waltz” features accented leaps, both of which evoke an animated dance scene and a general smoothness of line, indicating couples skimming across the dance floor.

Dress Ballet

If “Come to the Ball” hints at a connection with “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” the “Dress Ballet” confirms it. Several musical sources for the ballet have survived; between them, they bring to life what was briefly the most complicated number in the show. The main source for all the manuscripts is a fourteen-page piano score written by Trude Rittmann, several photocopies of which are contained in the Warner-Chappell Collection but not the original. One copy is annotated “Freda” on the front page, indicating Freda Miller, the dance pianist; another is attached to a one-page conductor’s short score titled “Intro to Dress Ballet.” Another contains an insert in Rittmann’s hand titled “Dress Ballet (last pages redone)”; bars 209–12 have been crossed out, and the insert shows a later version of 246–59, but the revision of bars 209–45 seems not to have survived.26 This latter score is the closest to the final version of the ballet that exists in piano score. In addition, there is a one-page autograph score in Rittmann’s hand of the new nine-bar “Intro to Dress Ballet,” which is also represented by the autograph full score in Phil Lang’s hand. Robert Russell Bennett’s thirty-four-page full score for the ballet is also in the collection and shows the final version of the number.27

The idea for the ballet was present right from Lerner and Loewe’s initial attempts to write the show. On May 10, 1952, Lerner wrote to Gabriel Pascal: “The end of the first act, of course, can be one of the great moments of any musical I can remember. It should be Liza’s preparation for the ball, her excitement, her desire to please the Prof., her dressing, her rehearsing, her manners, etc.”28 In Outlines 1 and 2 (see chap. 3), the ballet was the centerpiece of “scene 10”: “Montage of Liza’s lessons, this time all done balletically in pantomime.”29 Outline 3 describes the ballet (now “scene 9”) in similar terms: “We intend a short balletic pantomime of more lessons, all to take place in the study. There will be dancing teachers, those who teach her how to walk properly, hairdressers, couturieres, etc.”30 The number was also still in place in Outline 4: “Ballet: (or pantomime) The preparation of LIZA—LIZA, HIGGINS, DRESSMAKERS, DANCING TEACHERS, BEAUTY SPECIALISTS, ETC.”31

Various documents in Hanya Holm’s papers in the New York Public Library reveal her rigorous preparation for this piece, which would have been her big showcase as the choreographer of My Fair Lady (as the dream ballets in Oklahoma! and Carousel had been for Agnes de Mille). One sheet of paper has a brief list of numbers in her handwriting, on which she describes Higgins as “directing the dancer inside her to dance in his tempo!” Another page refers to the ballet as a “Cartoon.” Of the many lists of potential characters for the ballet, the inventory of dancers, the parts they were to play in the ballet, and their proposed costumes, shown in table 4.1, seems the most likely final version.

Eleven other documents in the same folder contain additional notes on the ballet. Perhaps the most important of these is a list of the show’s dance numbers in Holm’s handwriting. The ballet is referred to as: “Cartoon dance [The statue comes to life].” This may be the only direct allusion in all the sources for the show to the Greek Pygmalion myth. Another intriguing description has the ballet as a “nightmare”—a more grotesque interpretation than we might expect, but nevertheless one which dominates the mood of many of the choreographer’s other drafts. For instance, one set of notes includes a rather savage ending to the projected ballet: “At height of entertainment Liza breaks in[to] hysterical laughter, bringing Higgins onto balcony. He summons Pickering,