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Shops
A common way to make a living was to set up shop on one of London’s busy streets.
Those lucky enough to own their own shops were on the highest social level of the
working world. In an era before supermarkets, small shops that specialized in one or two
specific goods were the order of the day. From the baker to the butcher, shop owners
often lived in flats above their shops and employed their family members, making the line
between home and work difficult to discern. A typical workday was also infused with a
good deal of gossip and small talk, as socializing was an expected element of the
shopping routine. Gathering household items was considered women’s work, but mothers
sometimes sent their children to run quick errands.
With the pawnbroker, the ironmonger, the cobbler, and countless others in one space,
there was no shortage of variety in a London street market. The sights and sounds on a
typical day were surely exciting, if not slightly chaotic. Making for a long day of buying and
selling, shops stayed open until about 8:00 PM. Very few items were pre-packaged, so a
flurry of weights and scales could be heard clanking and sliding at every corner. Bakers
walked around their shops in white caps and aprons while butchers swept sawdust
around the floor. Glass bottles of colorful liquid decorated the display windows of chemist
shops where all sorts of medicines could be found. Meanwhile the corn-chandlers, who
sold animal food, ladled various feeds into paper bags according to their customers’ specifications.
On a much lower social level than shop owners were merchants who did not have permanent workplaces. Peddlers added to
the noise of the town with street cries, which they sang to draw customers in. In simple rhymes bellowed at the top of their
lungs, these men and women offered everything from live goldfish, to fruits, to knives.
Flower Girls
Joining the ranks of London’s hawkers were the flower girls, who moved up and down the streets
with heavy cane baskets full of violets, lavender, and carnations. Though old gypsy women
sometimes sold flowers, most flower girls were quite young, ranging in age from six to twenty
years old. These girls bought their flowers at large open-air markets like Covent Garden and then
arranged them into small bouquets to sell at higher prices.
In an 1861 report on the London Poor, author Henry Mayhew described
“two classes of flower girls.” According to his notes about the flower
sellers who took to the street later in the night, some women used this
profession as a pretense to meet men for “immoral purposes.” Their
activities led many Londoners to regard flower girls as licentious, a
negative perception that Eliza does her best to counter in My Fair
Ladywith her cries of, “I’m a good girl, I am!”
A “better class of flower-girls” certainly existed, many of them coming
from Eliza’s neighborhood, Lisson-Grove. With innocent intentions, these girls sold their flowers in the
West End, the suburbs, and other business hubs. The money they made often went right to their
parents. According to Mayhew, “They [were] generally very persevering, more especially the younger
children, who [ran] along, barefooted.”
Servicemen
Outside of the shops, the working class also included an array of servicemen. Traveling from house to house and street to
street, they delivered milk and coal, carried the mail, swept chimneys, and even offered knife and scissor sharpening services.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/05b5ea56-7523-4e20-8811-02c3c39b196c-150709160518-lva1-app6891/75/Teacher-Study-Guide-My-Fair-Lady-13-2048.jpg)
Teacher Study Guide- My Fair Lady
- 1. 1 Kamaya Jane &Diane Zeps in honor of Elaine Lipinsky Teresa and Merle Fischlowitz County of San Diego SAN DIEGO | OLD TOWN 619.337.1525 • WWW.CYGNETTHEATRE.COM TEACHER STUDY GUIDE Written and Researched by Taylor M. Wycoff Sponsors THE BELOVED CLASSIC MUSICAL
- 2. 2 About this Guide ThisStudy Guide contains a variety of resource material to accommodate different classes and levels. Teachers need not use all the material found here but rather choose the most appropriate materials given their current curriculum. Topics may be used separately or in any combination that works for you. Table of Contents page(s) About the Play………………………………………………………………………………………….….………...3 Play Synopsis………………………………………………………………………………………….….…….3 Characters ………………………………………………………………………………………………….…..4 Glossary of Terms……………………………………………………………………..……..………………...5 Our Production…………………………………………………………………………………………...………….6 The Artistic Team…………………………………………………………….…………………………….......6 The Cast……………………………………………………………………….………………….……….…….6 The Band………..….………..………………………………………….……………………….…..………….6 About the Playwrights: Lerner and Loewe…………………………………….………….…………….….….….7 Adaptations: The Myth, The Play, The Musical…………………………………………………………………..9 The Story of Pygmalion and Galatea……………….……….…………………………………………..…...9 Shaw’s Pygmalion………………………………………………………….…………………………………10 “The Perfect Musical”………………..………………………………………………………………………..11 Setting the Scene: 1930s England……...………………………………………………………………….……12 Language and Social Class………………………………………………………………………………….12 British Women in the 1900s………………………………………………………………………………….12 Flower Girls and Dustmen: London’s Working World…………………………………………………..…12 Wouldn’t it be Loverly: The Early Feminist in England……………………………………………………14 On Speaking…………………………………………………………………..……………………………………16 Bell’s Visible Speech………………………………………………………………………………………….16 The International Phonetic Alphabet………………………………………………………………………..16 Theatre Etiquette…………………………………………….……………………….…….………………..........17 Recommended Resources………………………………………………………………………………….…….18 Cygnet Theatre Company values the feedback of teachers on the content and format of its Study Guides. We would appreciate your comments or suggestions on ways to improve future Study Guides. Comments may be directed to Taylor M. Wycoff by email at taylor@cygnettheatre.com.
- 3. 3 About the Play WhenProfessor Henry Higgins wagers he can transform a Cockney flower girl into an aristocratic lady, he never guesses that Eliza Doolittle will in turn transform him. Lerner and Loewe’s classic musical features such enduring favorites as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” “On the Street Where You Live,” and “Get Me to the Church on Time.” Sean Murray and Allison Spratt Pearce in Cygnet's production of My Fair Lady. (Photo credit: Darren Scott) Plot Synopsis The play begins in Covent Garden during a rainstorm. Seeking shelter under the columns of St. Paul’s Church, Professor Henry Higgins, author of Higgins’ Universal Alphabet and a phonetic specialist, encounters the cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle. He makes a wager with his friend and fellow phonetic scholar Colonel Pickering, declaring that in three months, with lessons and tutoring from him, he could pass off Eliza as a duchess. Eliza comes to live at Higgins’ residence on Wimpole Street, and over the course of the next few months, Higgins works to transform her from a common, ill-spoken flower girl into a well-mannered beautifully eloquent Lady. He puts Eliza through countless grueling exercises in phonetics and diction. To test her knowledge and progress, Higgins brings Eliza first to Ascot where she meets his mother and her friends, and ultimately to the Embassy Ball where he attempts to pass Eliza off as royalty amongst the guests. She is beautiful, elegant and well-spoken and proves to be an enormous success particularly with the young gentleman Freddy Eynsford-Hill who falls desperately in love with her. Afterwards, seeing Higgins and Pickering celebrate the success at the ball with no regard to her feelings, Eliza feels dejected and hurt. When she slips out of the house, unnoticed, to wander the streets, she encounters Freddy and lets her anger out on him. Eliza then seeks comfort in Higgins’ mother. Higgins comes searching for Eliza at his mother’s home, but Eliza refuses to return to Wimpole Street with him. Back at home, Higgins realizes that he has become accustomed to Eliza, but cannot seem to admit it, even to himself. Suddenly Eliza appears in his study and, having forgiven Higgins and his curt nature, she decides to return.
- 4. 4 Characters ELIZA DOOLITTLE- Ayoung cockney woman in her early twenties who sells flowers in England’s Covent Garden whilst dreaming of owning her own flower shop. PROFESSOR HENRY HIGGINS- A middle-aged confirmed bachelor and scholar of phonetics and an expert elocutionist. He is abrupt of manner, impatient with high society, forgetful in his public graces, and inconsiderate of normal social niceties. ALFRED P. DOOLITTLE- Eliza’s father and a dustman who enjoys drinking. He has a very unique ‘morality’ in that he is content to be a freeloader. COLONEL HUGH PICKERING- A kindly middle-aged gentleman and expert on Indian dialects. Pickering is always considerate and genuine. FREDDY EYNSFORD-HILL- A young man and aristocrat, although he has no income of his own. MRS. HIGGINS- Henry Higgins’ mother. She is a gracious woman in her sixties and a very refined lady of the upper- middle class. MRS. PEARCE- Higgins’ housekeeper. MRS. EYNSFORD-HILL- A middle-aged aristocratic woman, Freddy’s mother, and friend of Mrs. Higgins. ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS: Bystanders, Hoxton Man, Selsey Man, Constermongers, Flower Girls, Bartender, Jamie, Harry, Mrs. Hopkins, Butler, Servants, Maids, Mrs. Higgins, Lordy Boxington, Lady Boxington, Policeman, Footman, Angry Woman, Angry Man Bryan Banville Katie Whalley Banville Ron Choularton Charles Evans, Jr. Ralph Johnson Linda Libby Sean Murray Allison Spratt Pearce Tom Stephenson Debra Wanger
- 5. 5 Glossary of Terms (inorder of appearance) Covent Garden: A district in London on the easter fringes of the West End, between St. Martin’s Lane and Drury Lane, associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square. In the beginning of the 20th century, the Covent Garden square flourished as a vegetable, fruit and flower market. Covent Garden Market c1910 Early British Monetary System: Before decimalization in 1971, there was a bewildering set of money notes and coins. Here’s a quick look at the breakdown: 2 farthings = 1 halfpenny 2 halfpence = 1 penny (1d) 3 pence = 1 thruppence (3d) 6 pence = 1 sixpence (a 'tanner') (6d) 12 pence = 1 shilling (a bob) (1s) 2 shillings = 1 florin ( a 'two bob bit') (2s) 2 shillings and 6 pence = 1 half crown (2s 6d) 5 shillings = 1 Crown (5s) Row: A heated, noisy argument. Bloomin’: A word used as an intensifier in British slang, often used as an alternative to “bloody” so as not swear. Ex. “…not blooming likely.” Tec: Short for “a detective.” Blimey: An exclamation of surprise. Brogue: A strong dialectal accent; English spoken with a strong Irish accent. Higgins’ Universal Alphabet: The role of Henry Higgins was based on the Oxford philologist Henry Sweet who wrote on phonetics (his History of English Sounds being regarded as a landmark in the field). Governor: Used to describe a person in a managerial position. Fancy: To want something. Phonograph: An early sound-reproducing machine that used cylinders to record as well as reproduce sound. Bell’s Visible Speech: A writing system developed and used by Alexander Melville Bell, who was known internationally as a teacher of speech and proper education. The system is composed of symbols that show the position and movement of the throat, tongue, and lips as they produce the sounds of language. Ascot: An affluent small town in east Berkshire, England. It is most notable as the location of Ascot Racecourse, home of the prestigious Royal Ascot meeting. Busker: A person who entertains in a public place for donations. Guttersnipe: A scruffy and badly behaved child who spends most of their time on the street.
- 6. 6 The Artistic Team Director..…………….………...…..……….SeanMurray Music Director…………………….……...Patrick Marion Choreographer………………….……….David Brannen Stage Manager………...…….....Jennifer Kozumplik°* Scenic Designer...……………………….…Andrew Hull Lighting Designer………..…….……....... Chris Rynne° Sound Designer………….………Matt Lescault-Wood° Properties Designer………………...……. Syd Stevens Costume Designer….….….…………….Jeanne Reith° Wig & Makeup Designer……...….…....Peter Herman° Dramaturg..…………………….….……...Taylor Wycoff Assistant Stage Manager……….........Marie Jahelka°* Assistant Director………………………Patrick McBride Assistant Choreographer/ Dance Captain………..Katie Whalley Banville Assistant Scenic Designer..…….Gabrielle Heerschap Assistant Lighting Designer….……..Kyle Montgomery Production Assistant……………….Marguerite Sugden Dresser & Wardrobe Maintenance……..Sarah Marion Wig Maintenance…………..………………..Katie Knox Charge Artist……………………………..Ashleigh Scott Artistic Director…………….………………Sean Murray Executive Director…………………………..Bill Schmidt Production Manager………..……..….…..Jenn Stauffer Technical Director…………….....……....…Sam Moore Lighting & Sound Supervisor……………....David Scott *Member of Actors’ Equity Association, °Cygnet Resident Artist The Cast (in alphabetical order) Bryan Banville ………...…………Busker, Hoxton Man, Harry, Servant, Chauffer, Ascot Gentleman, Mrs. Higgins Tea Server Katie Whalley Banville……………Busker, Bystander, Costermonger, Servant, Lady Boxington, Flower Girl, That One, Mrs. Higgins Maid Ron Choularton*…………………..Alfred Doolittle, Constable Charles Evans Jr………………...Freddy Eynsford-Hill, Jamie, Servant, Angry Man, Ensemble Ralph Johnson…………………..A Bystander, Selsey Man, Third Cockney, Head Butler, Lord Boxington, George the Bartender Linda Libby°*…………………….Mrs. Higgins, Mrs. Hopkins, Bystander, Costermonger, Servant, Angry Man, Man Leaning Forward Sean Murray……………………..Henry Higgins Allison Spratt Pearce*……….....Eliza Doolittle Tom Stephenson°………………Colonel Pickering Debra Wanger…………………..Mrs. Pierce, Mrs. Eynsford-Hill, Costermonger, Angry Woman, 1st Man The Band (in alphabetical order) Billy Edwall………………………………………Trumpet Amy Kalal………………………..…………..Woodwinds Sean LaPerruque……………..Keyboard2, Violin, Viola Patrick Marion……………...…….Keyboard, Conductor Sharon Taylor……………………………………….Cello Tom Versen…………………………………..Percussion *Member of Actors’ Equity Association, °Cygnet Resident Artist Our Production
- 7. 7 About the Playwrights:Lerner and Loewe Frederick Loewe, an unheralded Vienna-born composer, and Alan Jay Lerner, the lyricist-playwright son of the proprietors of an American chain of women's clothing shops, with sketches and lyrics for two Harvard Hasty Pudding shows among his major credits, met by chance at New York's Lambs Club in 1942. Had they not, Brigadoon would never have emerged from the mists of the Scottish Highlands to make the world feel "Almost Like Being in Love" . . . no one would have been there to "Paint Your Wagon" . . . My Fair Lady would still be a less than lyrical English girl from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion who couldn't sing a note. . . we might never have thought to "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" like "Gigi" . . . and Camelot would most likely have stayed within the pages of Arthurian legend. When the two, who were destined to enrich the American musical theater with some of its most poignant, rousing, and memorable lyrics, engaging books and powerful musical scores, had that chance meeting more than 50 years ago, neither was widely known. Loewe's Great Lady had had a brief run on Broadway in 1938. Lerner had added radio scripts to his Hasty Pudding Club show credits. But later collaborations after one brief failure, What's Up? (1943), and the moderately successful The Day Before Spring (1945), which ran five months on Broadway, made musical history. Alan Jay Lerner was one of three sons of Joseph J. Lerner, who founded Lerner Stores, Inc. He was educated in England and at the Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut, before entering Harvard. He studied at the Juilliard School of Music during vacations from Harvard. After graduating in 1940 with a B.S. degree, he wrote advertising copy and radio scripts for such programs as the "Philco Hall of Fame." Frederick "Fritz" Loewe was the son of Edmund Loewe, an eminent operetta tenor. When he was two, Frederick accompanied his father on a tour of the United States. The youngster played piano at four and, at nine, composed the tunes for a music hall sketch in which his father toured Europe. At 15, he wrote "Katrina," a popular song that sold 3,000,000 copies in Europe. He had begun his own concert career as soloist with some of Europe's leading symphony orchestras at the age of 13 after having studied with the noted European musician Ferruccio Bustoni and Eugene d'Albert. In 1923, young Loewe was awarded the Hollander Medal in Berlin and studied composition and orchestration with Nickolaus von Reznicek. The following year, the younger Loewe accompanied his father to America. Since neither a concert he gave at New York's Town Hall, nor a subsequent week's engagement at the Rivoli Theater led to further concert engagements, he tried teaching music and playing at Greenwich Village night clubs. When music failed to earn him a living, he worked as a busboy in a cafeteria and as a riding instructor at a New Hampshire resort. He took up flyweight boxing and failed, then went West, cowpunching, gold mining, and carrying FREDERICK LOEWE ALAN JAY LERNER
- 8. 8 mail on horsebackover the Montana mountains before returning to New York where he found work as a piano player. In 1935, Loewe's song "Love tiptoes Through My Heart" was accepted for the musical Petticoat Fever. His own musical, Salute to Spring, was presented in St. Louis in 1937. The next year, his Great Lady reached Broadway, but ran for only 20 performances. The first Lerner-Loewe collaboration was a musical adaptation of Barry Connor's farce The Patsy for a Detroit stock company in 1942. They called it Life of the Party and it enjoyed a nine-week hit that encouraged them to continue with the musical comedy What's Up? which opened on Broadway in 1943. Lerner wrote the book and lyrics with Arthur Pierson, and Loewe composed the music. It ran for 63 performances and was followed in 1945 by their The Day Before Spring It was when the curtain went up to the haunted strains of bagpipes on the night of March 13, 1947, and the mist-shrouded Scottish Highland village of Brigadoon first appeared, that the team of Lerner and Loewe also emerged as potentially legendary. The musical, which after its original 581 performances on Broadway, toured extensively and has been revived frequently, won the "best musical" award from the New York Drama Critics Circle the year it opened and was hailed as having "evoked magic on Broadway." Between Brigadoon and Paint Your Wagon, the next team effort by Lerner and Loewe, Lerner wrote Love Life, with music by Kurt Weill, which was selected as one of the best plays of the 1948-49 Broadway season, plus the story, screenplay and lyrics for the films Royal Wedding and Brigadoon and the story and screenplay for An American in Paris, for which he won an Oscar in 1951. Paint Your Wagon rolled in in 1951, and then, five years later, on March 15, 1956, My Fair Lady opened and became one of the most spectacular successes--artistic and financial--in the history of the American theater. Playing a record 2,717 performances on Broadway alone, it went on to break all other existing world records. This musicalization of Shaw's classic Pygmalion was named "outstanding musical of the year" by the New York Drama Critics Circle--and by millions of theater goers. Lerner and Loewe's next collaboration was on the film adaptation of the Colette novel Gigi, another success filled with songs destined to become standard. There was more collaborating to come--the film version of the Antoine de Saint-Exupery fable The Little Prince in 1972, but the 1960 Broadway hit Camelot which brought Arthurian England to life for its most shining hour, rang the curtain down on the phenomenon of Lerner and Loewe. Loewe, who had suffered a heart attack in 1958, went into retirement. In tribute to his long time former partner, Lerner wrote, "There will never be another Fritz. . . . Writing will never again be as much fun . A collaboration as intense as ours inescapably had to be complex. But I loved him more than I understood or misunderstood him, and I know he loved me more than he understood or misunderstood me." Source: The Kennedy Center, http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=3753&source_type=A
- 9. 9 Adaptations: The Myth,The Play, The Musical My Fair Lady is a beloved classic that has been called a masterpiece of musical comedy (New York Daily Mirror), the perfect show (BBC), and even one of the greatest musicals ever written (The Daily Mail). But did you know that this timeless musical is actually based on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion. Shaw wrote Pygmalion in 1912, but he took its name from something even older: an Ancient Greek myth. The Story of Pygmalion and Galatea by Heather Julian “If you gods can give all things, may I have as my wife, I pray…one like the ivory maiden.” ~Pygmalion Pygmalion, the mythical king of Cyprus, had many problems when dating women. He always seemed to accept dates from the wrong women. Some were rude, others were selfish; he was revolted by the faults nature had placed in these women. It left him feeling very depressed. He eventually came to despise the female gender so much that he decided he would never marry any maiden. For comfort and solace, he turned to the arts, finding his talent in sculpture. Using exquisite skills, he carved a statute out of ivory that was so resplendent and delicate no maiden could compare with its beauty. This statute was the perfect resemblance of a living maiden. Pygmalion fell in love with his creation and often laid his had upon the ivory statute as if to reassure himself it was not living. He named the ivory maiden Galatea and adorned her lovely figure with women’s robes and placed rings on her fingers and jewels about her neck. At the festival of Aphrodite, which was celebrated with great relish throughout all of Cyprus, lonely Pygmalion lamented his situation. When the time came for him to play his part in the processional, Pygmalion stood by the altar and humbly prayed: “If you gods can give all things, may I have as my wife, I pray…” he did not dare say “the ivory maiden” but instead said: “one like the ivory maiden.” Aphrodite, who also attended the festival, heard his plea and she also knew of the thought he had wanted to utter. Showing her favor, she caused the altar’s flame to flare up three times, shooting a long flame of fire into the still air. After the day’s festivities, Pygmalion returned home and kissed Galatea as was his custom. At the warmth of her kiss, he started as if stung by a hornet. The arms that were ivory now felt soft to his touch and when he softly pressed her neck the veins throbbed with life. Humbly raising her eyes, the maiden saw Pygmalion and the light of day simultaneously. Aphrodite blessed the happiness and union of this couple with a child. Pygmalion and Galatea named the child Paphos, for which the city is known until this day. Pygmalion by Jean-Baptiste RegnaultPygmalion et Galatée by Étienne Maurice Falconet Depiction of Ovid’s narrative by Jean Raoux.
- 10. 10 Shaw’s Pygmalion Myths suchas Pygmalion are fine enough when studied through the lens of the centuries and the buffer of translations and editions, but what happens when one tries to translate such an allegory into Victorian England? That is just what George Bernard Shaw does in his version of the Pygmalion myth. In doing so, he exposes the inadequacy of myth and of romance in several ways. For one, he deliberately twists the myth so that the play does not conclude as euphorically or conveniently, hanging instead in unconventional ambiguity. Next, he mires the story in the sordid and mundane whenever he gets a chance. Wherever he can, the characters are seen to be belabored by the trivial details of life like napkins and neckties, and of how one is going to find a taxi on a rainy night. These noisome details keep the story grounded and decidedly less romantic. Finally, and most significantly, Shaw challenges the possibly insidious assumptions that come with the Pygmalion myth, forcing us to ask the following: Is the male artist the absolute and perfect being who has the power to create woman in the image of his desires? Is the woman necessarily the inferior subject who sees her lover as her sky? Can there only ever be sexual/romantic relations between a man and a woman? Does beauty reflect virtue? Does the artist love his creation, or merely the art that brought that creation into being? Famous for writing "talky" plays in which barely anything other than witty repartee takes center stage (plays that the most prominent critics of his day called non-plays), Shaw finds in Pygmalion a way to turn the talk into action, by hinging the fairy tale outcome of the flower girl on precisely how she talks. In this way, he draws our attention to his own art, and to his ability to create, through the medium of speech, not only Pygmalion's Galatea, but Pygmalion himself. More powerful than Pygmalion, on top of building up his creations, Shaw can take them down as well by showing their faults and foibles. In this way, it is the playwright alone, and not some divine will, who breathes life into his characters. While Ovid's Pygmalion may be said to have idolized his Galatea, Shaw's relentless and humorous honesty humanizes these archetypes, and in the process brings drama and art itself to a more contemporarily relevant and human level. -Source: http://www.bestreferat.ru/referat-209494.html
- 11. 11 “The Perfect Musical” Inthe mid-1930s, film producer Gabriel Pascal acquired the rights to produce film versions of several of George Bernard Shaw's plays, Pygmalion among them. However, Shaw, having had a bad experience with The Chocolate Soldier, a Viennese operetta based on his play Arms and the Man, refused permission for Pygmalion to be adapted into a musical. After Shaw died in 1950, Pascal asked lyricist Alan Jay Lerner to write the musical adaptation. Lerner agreed, and he and his partner Frederick Loewe began work. They quickly realized, however, that the play violated several key rules for constructing a musical at the time: the main story was not a love story, there was no subplot or secondary love story, and there was no place for an ensemble. Many people, including Oscar Hammerstein II, who, with Richard Rodgers, had also tried his hand at adapting Pygmalion into a musical and had given up, told Lerner that converting the play to a musical was impossible, so he and Loewe abandoned the project for two years. During this time, the collaborators separated and Gabriel Pascal died. Lerner had been trying to musicalize Li'l Abner when he read Pascal's obituary and found himself thinking about Pygmalion again. When he and Loewe reunited, everything fell into place. All the insurmountable obstacles that stood in their way two years earlier disappeared when the team realized that the play needed few changes apart from (according to Lerner) "adding the action that took place between the acts of the play". They then excitedly began writing the show. However, Chase Manhattan Bank was in charge of Pascal's estate, and the musical rights to Pygmalion were sought both by Lerner and Loewe and by MGM, whose executives called Lerner to discourage him from challenging the studio. Loewe said, "We will write the show without the rights, and when the time comes for them to decide who is to get them, we will be so far ahead of everyone else that they will be forced to give them to us". For five months Lerner and Loewe wrote, hired technical designers, and made casting decisions. The bank, in the end, granted them the musical rights. Lerner settled on the title My Fair Lady, relating both to one of Shaw's provisional titles for Pygmalion, Fair Eliza, and to the final line of every verse of the nursery rhyme "London Bridge Is Falling Down". Recalling that the Gershwins' 1925 musical Tell Me More had been titled My Fair Lady in its out-of-town tryout, and also had a musical number under that title as well, Lerner made a courtesy call to Ira Gershwin, alerting him to the use of the title for the Lerner and Loewe musical. Noël Coward was the first to be offered the role of Henry Higgins, but turned it down, suggesting the producers cast Rex Harrison instead. After much deliberation, Harrison agreed to accept the part. Mary Martin was an early choice for the role of Eliza Doolittle, but declined the role. Young actress Julie Andrews was "discovered" and cast as Eliza after the show's creative team went to see her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend. Moss Hart agreed to direct after hearing only two songs. The experienced orchestrators Robert Russell Bennett and Philip J. Lang were entrusted with the arrangements and the show quickly went into rehearsal. The musical's script used several scenes that Shaw had written especially for the 1938 film version of Pygmalion, including the Embassy Ball sequence and the final scene of the 1938 film rather than the ending for Shaw's original play. The montage showing Eliza's lessons was also expanded, combining both Lerner and Shaw's dialogue. The artwork on the original Playbill (and sleeve of the cast recording) is by Al Hirschfeld, who drew the playwright Shaw as a heavenly puppet master pulling the strings on the Henry Higgins character, while Higgins in turn attempts to control Eliza Doolittle. -Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Fair_Lady#Background Poster of the original Broadway production
- 12. 12 Setting the Scene:1930s England Though typically staged during Edwardian England (the period from 1901-1910 that marked King Edward VII’s reign) director Sean Murray decided to set Cygnet’s production of My Fair Lady in 1937. So what does this mean for Eliza Doolittle’s story and what was going on at that time? These pieces from Arena Stage’s study guide and website are extremely helpful in shedding light on life in early- twentieth century London. The operas and horse races of London’s high society give the world of My Fair Lady its elegance and luxury, but the musical’s streets are full of their own energy and character. A basket of flowers for sale, a rowdy dance outside a pub, crowded tenements in the distance—these memorable images from the script are classic elements of working class life in London of the early 1900s. In the face of harsh poverty, the members of London’s lower classes worked long hours in tiring conditions simply to provide food and basic necessities for the families. Read on to learn more about the work that defined their days. Language and Social Class There was a chasm between classes in England in the early 1900s with little chance of social mobility. The upper class was a world of gracious manners, garden parties, fashion, balls and diversions like horseracing. Membership came with many advantages, especially education in which students cultivated “The Queen’s English” and mingled with those who shared that dialect. Where Eliza grew up, just streets away, language education was almost non-existent because desperate poverty meant children worked. The working class lived in slums and was nicknamed “The Great Unwashed” because of the scarcity of clean water and soap. One of the easiest ways to tell a person’s class was the way they spoke. For example, people in lower class regions might drop the “h” sound (such as a “’urricanes ‘ardly ‘appen”), while higher classes dropped the “r” sound (“proper” sounds almost like “prop- ah”). Prejudice based on speech was common and still exists today. British Women in the Early 1900 Women’s roles in British society were slowly changing. In 1869, the first petition for women suffrage (voting rights) was presented to Parliament, and from 1911 10 1915 the movement reached a frenzy. Suffragists did radical things like smashing windows, planting bombs and going on hunger strikes to get attention. The movement was mostly led by women who had the ability (money) to do so. Women like Eliza, who made only 38 pounds a year, could not afford to get an education. This paralyzed them in a low social class and made them dependent on marriage. Becoming a lady in a flower shop would mean Eliza could make 300 pounds a year, but how could she make this transition? How could poor women assert their independence? In what ways were upper-class women also trapped? Flower Girls and Dustmen: London’s Working World By Addie Mahmassani
- 13. 13 Shops A common wayto make a living was to set up shop on one of London’s busy streets. Those lucky enough to own their own shops were on the highest social level of the working world. In an era before supermarkets, small shops that specialized in one or two specific goods were the order of the day. From the baker to the butcher, shop owners often lived in flats above their shops and employed their family members, making the line between home and work difficult to discern. A typical workday was also infused with a good deal of gossip and small talk, as socializing was an expected element of the shopping routine. Gathering household items was considered women’s work, but mothers sometimes sent their children to run quick errands. With the pawnbroker, the ironmonger, the cobbler, and countless others in one space, there was no shortage of variety in a London street market. The sights and sounds on a typical day were surely exciting, if not slightly chaotic. Making for a long day of buying and selling, shops stayed open until about 8:00 PM. Very few items were pre-packaged, so a flurry of weights and scales could be heard clanking and sliding at every corner. Bakers walked around their shops in white caps and aprons while butchers swept sawdust around the floor. Glass bottles of colorful liquid decorated the display windows of chemist shops where all sorts of medicines could be found. Meanwhile the corn-chandlers, who sold animal food, ladled various feeds into paper bags according to their customers’ specifications. On a much lower social level than shop owners were merchants who did not have permanent workplaces. Peddlers added to the noise of the town with street cries, which they sang to draw customers in. In simple rhymes bellowed at the top of their lungs, these men and women offered everything from live goldfish, to fruits, to knives. Flower Girls Joining the ranks of London’s hawkers were the flower girls, who moved up and down the streets with heavy cane baskets full of violets, lavender, and carnations. Though old gypsy women sometimes sold flowers, most flower girls were quite young, ranging in age from six to twenty years old. These girls bought their flowers at large open-air markets like Covent Garden and then arranged them into small bouquets to sell at higher prices. In an 1861 report on the London Poor, author Henry Mayhew described “two classes of flower girls.” According to his notes about the flower sellers who took to the street later in the night, some women used this profession as a pretense to meet men for “immoral purposes.” Their activities led many Londoners to regard flower girls as licentious, a negative perception that Eliza does her best to counter in My Fair Ladywith her cries of, “I’m a good girl, I am!” A “better class of flower-girls” certainly existed, many of them coming from Eliza’s neighborhood, Lisson-Grove. With innocent intentions, these girls sold their flowers in the West End, the suburbs, and other business hubs. The money they made often went right to their parents. According to Mayhew, “They [were] generally very persevering, more especially the younger children, who [ran] along, barefooted.” Servicemen Outside of the shops, the working class also included an array of servicemen. Traveling from house to house and street to street, they delivered milk and coal, carried the mail, swept chimneys, and even offered knife and scissor sharpening services.
- 14. 14 Among this cohortof servicemen were dustmen like Alfred Doolittle, charged with collecting garbage throughout the city on a weekly basis. Ringing a bell to announce their presence, they went from one silver dustbin to the next on horse-drawn dustcarts. Since their work was inevitably dirty, they wore hats with leather flaps to keep as much of their skin covered as possible. Refuse collection was far from glorious, but dustmen at times had the good fortune of finding profitable trash. In fact, the potential for discovering “treasure” at the bottom of dustbins was so great that William Pyne, a writer on everyday life in England, described the job as a coveted position in 1805. Though perhaps overly-optimistic, his account reads, Time has brought to light, that industry, aided by experiment, can turn everything to advantage, and that rubbish and filth, the former pests of the city, are now become a source of utility and wealth. The people who perform the duties of scavenger, and dustman, now pay a sum of money for the contract, and for being allowed the exclusive privilege of carting away rubbish. After Work Though work dominated the lives of London’s poor, there were, of course, other elements of lower class culture. At night, many men gathered in pubs around the town for beer and socialization. They also sometimes met in the newsagents —small shops that carried newspapers and tobacco— to talk over the day’s news. Children played games in the streets; families went to church on Sundays; women worked on sewing projects, and much more. To explore everyday life in more depth and find more information about a typical workday, be sure to check out Florence Cole’s extensive survey of London in the 1900s. Also, for more photos, take a look at this collection. Addie Mahmassani is an artistic development fellow at Arena Stage. She recently graduated from Georgetown University with a B.A. in American Studies. Early in the first act of My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle strikes a courageously feminist blow. A rough-cut product of London’s slums, she offers to pay Henry Higgins one shilling in return for an hour of English lessons. Tired of selling flowers on a London street corner, she’s determined to “talk more genteel” to land a job in a local flower shop. Eliza’s sincere (if paltry) offer is met with ridicule from Higgins. He does not acknowledge her effort to make something of herself. He takes the opportunity to underscore his superiority instead. Even so, Eliza experiences a kind of empowerment, born of pride and backbone. She is not, after all, asking for charity, nor does she stoop to begging. In exchange, she expects to be taken seriously and treated like a lady. Small steps, to be sure, but, in the context of her times, meaningful all the same. My Fair Lady represents a moment in feminist history when women had one foot familiarly planted in the past and the other stretched eagerly toward the future. Set in 1912 but dealing with issues that are still relevant, it is a take on women’s struggle to rise above powerlessness in a society dominated by bull-headed and sometimes bullying males. Though playful, the story has serious undertones. It urges us to ask how much power, if any, did Eliza have? Living in a society that offered her no financial safety net, and no obvious path to securing one, how was she to muster the necessary resources to better her plight? And how were other women poised to do the same thing? Queen Victoria’s reign ended at the dawn of the 20th century, a time when women did not have the right to vote or own property. At least in the upper class, most women led lives Wouldn’t It Be Loverly: The Early Feminist In England By Karen Deans
- 15. 15 confined to themanagement of busy households and the pursuit of hobbies such as embroidery, music and volunteer work with local charities. A woman was also expected to be chaste, pious and devoted to her children and husband. In 1912 laws and attitudes held over from the Victorian era proscribed the reach of a woman’s ambition. At the same time, society was changing in ways that provided openings for efforts to move beyond these limitations. The Women’s Suffrage movement was picking up steam. There were two women's organizations devoted to women's enfranchisement: The National Union of Women's Suffrage Society (begun in 1897) and its more militant branch, the Women's Social and Political Union (1903-1917). It is unlikely that Eliza would have been involved in either of these groups. The majority of their members were educated, married women with time on their hands and money to spare. Their efforts materialized slowly. When women won the right to vote in 1918, this right was restricted to women over 30. It then took another 10 years for women to have the same voting rights as men. The Industrial Revolution resulted in jobs for working class women in workplaces that traditionally had been the exclusive domain of men. The earnings and working conditions of textile mills, mines and garment factories weren’t enough to raise women from the ranks of the lower class. The jobs provided income to support their families, though, laying the foundation for the fight for equal pay and equal treatment, a struggle that continues in varying degrees around the globe today. Neither married nor attached to a family, Eliza is a prime example of these working women who were slowly but surely paving the way toward gender equality. She is a young woman, single and poor, determined to pull herself up by her bootstraps. With few resources and virtually no education, she bridles against the legacy of her drunken father and becomes a flower girl on a street corner in downtown London. Against this backdrop, Eliza represents both the ambitions and limitations of early working class women in Britain. The tragedy and triumph of her plight are cast in high relief through our modern day lens. She is a bit player in a bet between two upper class and relentlessly chauvinistic men, with few options and scant resources. And yet, she succeeds in rising above her station, at least for a time. By learning how to speak proper English in a society highly stratified by class, improving one’s speech was a ticket to a better life. Given where she began and what she had to work with, that is no small achievement for Eliza Doolittle. Atlanta native Karen Deans is an art history graduate from the American University of Paris and has studied theater painting at Cobalt Studios in New York. She is the owner of an art business, Wooden Tile, and the author of two children's books. Karen lives in Bethesda with her husband and their three children.
- 16. 16 Theatre Etiquette When wevisit the theatre we are attending a live performance with actors that are working right in front of us. This is an exciting experience for you and the actor. However, in order to have the best performance for both the audience and the actors, there are some do’s and don’ts that need to be followed. And remember that we follow these rules because the better an audience you can be the better the actors can be. 1. Don’t allow anything that creates noise to go off during the performance—cell phones, watches, etc. 2. Don’t take pictures or video recordings during the performance. All of the work is copyrighted by the designers and you could face serious penalties. 3. Don’t eat or drink in the theatre. 4. Don’t stick gum on the bottom of the seat. 5. Don’t place things on the stage or walk on the stage. 6. Don’t put your feet up on the back of the seat in front of you. 7. Don’t leave your seat during the performance unless it is an emergency. If you do need to leave for an emergency, leave as quietly as possible—and know that you might not be able to get back in until intermission. 8. Do clap—let the actors know you are enjoying yourself! 9. Do enjoy the show and have fun watching the actors! 10.Do tell other people about your experience and be sure to ask questions and discuss what you experienced after the show!
- 17. 17 Recommended Resources Books andArticles: Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw The Making of My Fair Lady by Keith Garebian Websites and Organizations: Arena Stage’s My Fair Lady Study Guide http://www.arenastage.org/education/education-programs/student-study-guides/12- 13/STUDY%20GUIDEs-%20myFairLady%20Web.pdf Movies and Video Clips: Pygmalion (1938 film) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmdPj_XbF30 My Fair Lady (1964 film)