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My Fair Lady
 What a buzz around New York's Mark Hellinger
Theatre, rave reviews for the combined talent of George Bernard Shaw,
Frederick Loewe, Alan Jay Lemer, Moss Hart, Cecil Beaton, Rex Harrison,
Julie Andrews, Stanley Holloway etc. All part of a magical musical
masterpiece celebrating half-a-century: My Fair Lady.
Thanks to records, radio and later film, a score,
like the original source Pygmalion, known far and world-wide. "A modem
musical play... .an absolute wonderful show" raved The New York Times,
16 March 1956. Fully agreed, everything about this lovely lady
overloaded with genuine genius.
The score is among the most memorable in all
Broadway history; it began a popular phase for musical twosome:
Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lemer, known from hereon as Lerner and
Loewe. They had been writing together since 1943; then came a New York
Drama Critics Award in 1947 for Brigadoon. Other of their successes were
Paint Your Wagon, and the M-G-M movie musical Gigi. And Camelot for the
stage.
But it was Lady that made the two Broadway legends.
Nearby Tin-Pan-Alley grabbed hold of their songs sweeping them 50 years
ago into the American Hit Parade. The gesture was repeated in Britain
two years later when Lady came to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
And what of the original Broadway cast Columbia
Long-Player, since out on CD, available in record stores and certainly
local Library. There on the cover, bearded George Bernard pulling on
the strings of phonetics professor Higgins and Cockney flower girl,
Eliza Doolittle - performed to perfection on stage and record by Rex
Harrison and Julie Andrews. Rex also in the film from Warner Bros with
co-star Audrey Hepburn.
No one will forget the transformation of Eliza at
the Embassy Ball resulting in the gloriously lilting I Could Have
Danced All Night. Rapture here at its pinnacle. Alongside Andrews
choose from Rosemary Clooney, and from 1958, 28 weeks in the UK Top Ten
from the likes of Lita Roza, Joe Loss and the Victor Sylvester
Orchestras.
Before that in the score. Rex Harrison famously
talking pitch with the ir Why Can't the English ate:? Then
defiant, exasperated Eliza stamping her feet through a triumphant trio
of numbers: Just You Wait! (I can do very well) Without You and the even
more adamant. Show Me!
Then there's irascible Stanley Holloway,
roguish dust man Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza's Dad cheerfully exulting
his lot: With A Little Bit of Luck, and in the just as
exhilarating rowdy, pre-wedding smash: Get Me To The Church on Time
('I'm getting married in the morning'). Talk about bringing the
House down, I can recall the roar along with the music and lyrics right
now!
We have not done yet. There's the fantastic
'mock' tango; the passion to exactly enunciate: The Rain In Spain 'by
jove, she's got it!'). The almost regretful: I've Grown
Accustomed To Her Face. On the original. Rex Harrison melts into a
kind of longing. Biggest ever hit parade' and lasting standard success
given "that towering feeling" half-a-century ago by Vic Damone is On
The Street Where You Live.
The song was covered in the UK by Ronnie Hilton,
Paul Rich, David Whitfield and the Joe Loss and Victor Silvester
Orchestras. It spent 38 weeks in the Top Ten in 1958. It was also
covered by popular tenor Mario Lanza. Listen out for a Radio Four
programme. From Stage to Screen later this spring; Radio Two will be
covering the anniversary recalling this still great score.
Music masters Percy Faith and Ted Heath and their
respected outfits, the former most brilliant in the pulsating Ascot
Gavotte, and the scintillating Embassy Waltz. To quote another of this
gorgeous score: Wouldn't It Be Loverly if My Fair Lady turned
into even more gold these fifty years on!
Nell Stevens |
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LET THERE BE MUSIC
