Once described by a critic as ‘the perfect musical’, My Fair Lady boasts a substantial influence on Theatre history. From the massive budget and casting choices to the timeless themes and meticulous score-writing, Lerner and Loewe truly created a musical masterpiece.
To understand My Fair Lady, one must first consider the original foundation for the musical: the drawing-room comedy Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw. Written as a comment on the ever-increasing divide in the social-class system in the early Twentieth Century, Shaw highlights how the Industrial Revolution had successfully lined the pockets of the upper classes in Britain, yet heeded those in poverty, who then fell into a life of crime, poor sanitation, prostitution and disease. “Shaw’s observations about men and women were shockingly advanced for any era” (Gray, 2016) dealing with social themes that remain relevant even today. Revivals of the show continue to be frequently produced globally partly because of how pertinent the surrounding matters remain.
After Shaw’s death, the play fell into the hands of producer Gabriel Pascal, who was determined to evolve Pygmalion into a musical. Many theatre veterans attempted the transition from play to musical – including the likes of Rodgers and Hammerstein – but all admitted defeat as they simply struggled without the theme of love at the forefront of the plot. Shaw had been so determined to express his socialist opinions that he did not want to cloud the platonic relationship between Eliza and Higgins with romance. Even Lerner himself was baffled at first: “until the last scene it was most definitely a non-love story and how, may I ask, does one write a non-love song?” (Lerner, 1978) In this sense, My Fair Lady created a space in the industry for many generally non-romantic musicals with a focus on alternate themes, such as Billy Elliot and Caroline, or Change.
The previous success of Brigadoon in 1947 and Paint Your Wagon in 1951 meant that Lerner and Loewe had finally established themselves in the theatre industry, and now possessed the affluence to devise something to surpass any previous achievements. The budget extended to over $400,000, introducing an extortionate benchmark for the musicals to follow. Nowadays, “A typical production budget for a Broadway musical will fall anywhere from $8-12 million” (Rubino-Finn, 2018). Productions such as My Fair Lady assisted in paving the costly path for the more recent big-budget musicals, such as The Lion King ($28.4 million) and Shrek – The Musical ($27.6 million).
My Fair Lady unusually opened in Broadway with three British leads: Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway and Dame Julie Andrews, who certainly went on to leave her footprint in the sands of musical theatre history. She was spotted in her American debut The Boyfriend for her “dazzling array of gifts: a charming soprano voice…the most immaculate diction…she moved with grace” (Lerner, 1978). She flourished to become arguably the most famous Musical actress in history, starring in various roles on stage and in film and winning countless awards for her success. In 2016, she returned to My Fair Lady as the director at the Sydney Opera House revival, where she replicated the original production almost entirely, claiming ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’.
Whilst making pioneering advances in some aspects, Lerner and Loewe also took inspiration from others. The use of a star vehicle in productions – such as Ethel Merman in Annie Get Your Gun – really brought in the audiences, thus Rex Harrison was cast in a similar manner. He stated himself: “My range is about one and a half notes. I ended up talking the musical numbers, which was revolutionary at the time”(Lee, 2018). Tunes such as Why Can’t The English? were therefore composed specifically for him and due to this, “There’s no denying the fact that some of Higgins’ numbers could scarcely be called songs” (Laufe, 1969). This has been a tool utilised by many producers to fill the audience since Musical Theatre began and still remains today; for example, 2017 saw Alfie Boe and Katherine Jenkins take to the stage in a revival of Carousel.
Titled by some as “The Hamilton of its day” (Gray, 2016), My Fair Lady was pioneering, thought-provoking, and a true spectacle of its time. Running originally for a record-breaking 2,717 performances, this show has definitely made an impact on the ever-expanding industry of musical theatre we know today.