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

one another. Another unusual feature of the movie was the decision to have Harrison perform his numbers “live” on set rather than pre-record the vocals as was traditional with movie musicals. Cukor commented that this technique allowed “certain laughs in the lyrics that Rex said himself he could never get on the stage”; the director considered Harrison’s performance “dazzling” and “even better on the screen than on the stage.”44

The movie was first shown in New York on October 21, 1964, and garnered many fine reviews. The New York Times called it “superlative,” the New York Journal-American said it was “enchanting,” and the New York World-Telegram commented that Hepburn “must be the most delightful in the long procession of Elizas.”45 It went on to win eight Oscars, including best picture, director, actor, art direction, cinematography, sound, costume design, and original music score (for the musical director, André Previn). Additionally, Lerner’s screenplay, Holloway’s Doolittle, Gladys Cooper’s Mrs. Higgins, and William Ziegler’s film editing were nominated, but Hepburn’s performance was completely overlooked. In spite of having written the screenplay and been present for much of the filming, Lerner was unhappy with the results of the film, as he acknowledged numerous times in public. Privately, too, he quipped to Cecil Beaton: “I know how sad you will be to hear that George Cukor has not worked since My Fair Lady. As far as I’m concerned, since before My Fair Lady.”46

1976 BROADWAY REVIVAL

It was inevitable that the show would return to Broadway for a full-fledged revival before long. In spite of the disparate directions the genre had taken during the first half of the 1970s—including such wide-ranging fare as Company (1970), Grease (1971), and A Chorus Line (1975)—My Fair Lady was a show for which there would always be a firm demand. So in 1976, Levin brought to bear a twentieth-anniversary revival at the St. James Theatre that would, in another sign of growing nostalgia about the show, aim to reinstate the original sets, costumes, and orchestrations. Jerry Adler, one of the stage managers of the 1956 production, was brought in to direct, while the original dance captain, Crandall Diehl, reproduced the choreography.47 According to an article in the New York Times, Rex Harrison was approached to appear again as Higgins, but said he would do so only if Julie Andrews would return as Eliza; her availability at this point allowed for just “four to six weeks,” so Levin turned, on Lerner’s advice, to British actor Ian Richardson. Robert Coote returned to his original role of Pickering, while George Rose reprised his Doolittle from the 1968 revival. After many months of auditions, the role of Eliza was given to Christine Andreas, who had previously worked with Adler on the 1974 Sammy Cahn revue Words and Music. Hoping to follow their financial success with the original staging, CBS invested $500,000 in the production, which cost $750,000 overall.

Not everything was the same, though: Adler reported that Beaton’s costumes had been reproduced with the exception of Eliza’s ball gown, which had to be modified because Andreas was shorter than Andrews; the groupings in the choreography had to be changed because the St. James Theatre was shallower than the Mark Hellinger Theatre had been; and some of Oliver Smith’s designs were reconceived. Adler also noted that Richardson’s Higgins was “more mature” and “more intellectual,” and was at great pains to emphasize the many different nuances being brought to their roles by the other leads in the new production.48 Confirming the impetus for the revival, Levin commented in a separate article that “This is the classical musical show of the American theater. I think a classical musical has every right to be done over, just as a classical play is done.”49 A couple of weeks later, Richardson reported that the first-night audience agreed with Levin’s view—“So electric was the audience, so desperately was it eager to have the show back,” he said.50 The revival opened on March 25 and ran until December 5, before transferring to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on December 9 for a brief run to February 20, 1977 (377 performances). In light of the success of the original production, this was a disappointment, but both Richardson and Rose were nominated for the Tony Award for best actor and Rose won.

1981 BROADWAY REVIVAL

The excitement was palpable when Rex Harrison announced that he would return to play Higgins on Broadway for a short run in 1981, following a U.S. tour. “There was a sense of expectation in the air” remarked Patrick Garland, the revival’s director, who wrote a memoir about working with Harrison on the production.51 The pre-Broadway tour was extensive and took in New Orleans, San Francisco, Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other major American cities. Garland recounts how, having given fine performances and inspired good reviews for much of the tour, Cheryl Kennedy, the British actress who played Eliza, developed vocal problems. Because of Harrison’s extreme reluctance to play opposite her official understudy (“None of the others can play the comedy”), Kennedy was forced to perform through her illness until, after missing some of the latter part of the tour and performing only one of the New York previews, she was forced to withdraw due to laryngitis and nodes on her vocal cords. She was replaced by Nancy Ringham, a member of the company who had been the unofficial second understudy for the role of Eliza. The New York Times noted that Harrison had been adamant to have an English actress as Eliza, which explains his reticence about Ringham, who was American; the first cover for the role, Kitty Sullivan, was the wife of Milo O’Shea, who played Doolittle in the production, but Harrison refused to work with her, and she left the production the week before the Broadway opening.52

The revival opened on Broadway on August 18, 1981. It was reviewed at the final preview performance, much to Garland’s alarm: he writes extensively about Harrison’s antagonistic attitude toward Ringham during the performance, causing her to underperform,