Loverly:The Life and Times of My Fair Lady (Broadway Legacies) by McHugh, Dominic (e reader comics TXT) 📕

see how certain decisions—such as the shift of focus from writing a vehicle for Mary Martin to creating a vehicle for Rex Harrison—ultimately changed the content of the script, score, and lyrics.

A SHAVIAN MUSICAL: PYGMALION UP TO 1950

While Oscar Straus’s 1908 adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man (1894) as Der tapfere Soldat (The Chocolate Soldier) proved that a musical based on a Shaw play had the potential for popular success, it merely confirmed the playwright’s opinion that his works should be left well alone. To Theresa Helburn’s suggestion in 1939 that he should give the Theatre Guild permission to allow Kurt Weill to turn The Devil’s Disciple into a musical, Shaw declared that after The Chocolate Soldier, “nothing will ever induce me to allow any other play of mine to be degraded into an operetta or set to any music except its own.”4 Nor had Shaw been impressed in 1921 when Franz Lehár had the notion that Pygmalion would be an excellent basis for a musical work. In his response, Shaw mentioned the Straus adaptation and stated firmly that “A Pygmalion operetta is quite out of the question.”5 Yet the playwright was not against the idea for whimsical reasons. As he explained, during the time of The Chocolate Soldier’s domination of the stage, nobody wanted to produce Arms and the Man. He continued: “Pygmalion is my most steady source of income: it saved me from ruin during the war, and still brings in a substantial penny every week. To allow a comic opera to supplant it is out of the question.” Shaw’s eagerness to protect himself financially should be borne in mind when considering his refusals to allow more of his works to be set to music. Anxiety over the potential loss of money was Shaw’s main concern from the very moment he heard of the proposed Chocolate Soldier project in 1907.6

Rehearsal for the Broadway production of My Fair Lady, January 1956 (Photofest)

The Shaw estate would ultimately receive a huge sum of money from My Fair Lady, however, and his objections often seemed to be more on artistic than practical grounds. For instance, a musical Pygmalion was also the subject of RAF serviceman E. A. Prentice’s request to Shaw in 1948. A stern reply was dispatched, forbidding “any such outrage” and adding that “If Pygmalion is not good enough for your friends with its own verbal music, their talent must be altogether extraordinary.” He advised instead that they might put on Mozart’s Così fan tutte, or Offenbach’s La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein.7 At around the same time, Gertrude Lawrence approached Shaw about a potential musical adaptation of Pygmalion, following her success as Eliza Doolittle in the play. Noël Coward was to write the score, and Fanny Holtzmann, the New York attorney for both Lawrence and Coward, communicated with Shaw on their behalf. Again, the playwright was sharply dismissive, calling it “crazy nonsense” and saying that “Noël could not conceivably interfere in my business.”8

These refusals came even after he had entrusted the cinematic adaptation of his plays to Gabriel Pascal, who made his film of Pygmalion in 1938, so we may take it that Shaw was firm in disliking the idea of his works being set to music, regardless of who approached him. But it is apparent from these letters that various people thought Pygmalion was excellent material for a musical. The initial obstacle was the playwright himself, but on his death in 1950 the possibility arose again, this time with a more realistic hope of it being brought to fruition.

THE THEATRE GUILD AND THE SEARCH FOR A COMPOSER

October 1951–May 1952

The first public mention of a musical adaptation of Pygmalion for Broadway came in the New York Times on May 20, 1951. In a gossip column dealing with show business, the journalist Lewis Funke wrote about Mary Martin’s immediate plans to take her hit 1949 show South Pacific to London. Funke went on to write that Cheryl Crawford, who had previously produced Weill’s One Touch of Venus for Martin, “has spoken to her about a musicalized version of Pygmalion… [I]t is understood that “feelers” have been put out to the Shaw estate on the subject. Miss Crawford, understandably, might even be nurturing the idea that she could interest Rodgers and Hammerstein in the project.”9 The story was taken up on October 5, 1951, by another Times columnist, Sam Zolotow, who wrote that “In Richard Rodgers’ opinion, the chances are ‘fairly good’ for him and his team-mate, Oscar Hammerstein II, to acquire the rights to Pygmalion from the Shaw estate. Their objective, of course, would be to convert the celebrated play into a musical.… Mr. Rodgers conceded that Mary Martin was a possibility [for the lead role].” The article continues by explaining that although an identical project had already been considered jointly by Mary Martin and Cheryl Crawford, the latter would no longer be part of the production.10

It seems that Rodgers and Hammerstein decided not to take the Pygmalion idea any farther, but the Theatre Guild started to explore the potential of the material, as can be seen in various letters from the Guild’s papers at Yale University. The Guild was approached by Gabriel Pascal, with a view to co-producing the show. While in Hollywood on the Theatre Guild’s behalf, Armina Marshall on October 24, 1951, wrote to her husband, the Guild’s executive director Lawrence Langner, to report on a meeting with Pascal. He said that he had the rights to make a musical adaptation of Pygmalion, and claimed that he could persuade Frank Loesser, composer and lyricist of Where’s Charley? and Guys and Dolls, to write the score.11 But it seems that Loesser was unwilling or unavailable (perhaps because he was preoccupied with his next show, The Most Happy Fella); on January 4, 1952, Langner reported that he had now contacted Cole Porter about writing the show, and said that he would meet him on January 8.12 Again, though, the Theatre Guild had drawn a