My Fair Lady: A Series of Text Messages

Dirtbag HH.

costa de lolz

R u making fun of the the gender sensibilities of G. B. Shaw?*

Don’t tell “geo”!

*To be fair, GBS might be having a little/lot of fun at the expense of HH.

Ah, but according to Shaw, Eliza marries the submissive, gentle, Freddy. She is a dominant character and rejects the opportunity to be bullied by Higgins.

‘it is a truth everywhere in evidence that strong people, masculine or feminine, not only do not marry stronger people, but do not shew any preference for them in selecting their friends. When a lion meets another with a louder roar “the first lion thinks the last a bore.” …

‘This being the state of human affairs, what is Eliza fairly sure to do when she is placed between Freddy and Higgins? Will she look forward to a lifetime of fetching Higgins’s slippers or to a lifetime of Freddy fetching hers? There can be no doubt about the answer. Unless Freddy is biologically repulsive to her.. she will, if she marries either of them, marry Freddy. And that is just what Eliza did.’

http://www.bartleby.com/138/6.html

I always thought Higgins’ final line (what is it, something like ‘She’ll be back’?) is intended to be a whistle in the wind.

This post prompted me to look at something I haven’t read in years: Shaw’s Epistle Dedicatory, i.e. the preface (written in 1903) to Man and Superman. Shaw’s opinions were a mixture of the sensible with the weird and distasteful (I think perhaps increasingly the latter as he got older), but to read him in full flow, as in that preface, is an experience that no one should miss.

@14 JPT steps up to provide a demonstration of the premise.

It’s funny that several people–me included!–immediately read this as being a series of tweets, even tho the title clears says otherwise.

This concept was applied to a series of posts on The Hairpin and eventually a book called “Texts From Jane Eyre,” incredibly successfully, IMO. Please google it and give all your money to Mallory Ortberg

Tweets LOL too #GBSFTW

LFC@13: Right you are, and if anyone still thinks Shaw’s objections to Shakespeare were shallow or merely personal, let him/her read that magnificent “Epistle,” in the middle of which, over a few pages, WS’s gifts and limitations are magisterially set out. I only wish I’d remembered it during our earlier CT discussion of Shav vs. Shakes, since it would have obviated much huffing and puffing on both sides.

geo @ 23

Hard to top this for sheer deviltry, but as with all things Shavian, it was deviltry with a mortal purpose:

We laugh at the haughty American nation because it makes the negro clean its boots and then proves the moral and physical inferiority of the negro by the fact that he’s a shoeblack; but we ourselves throw the whole drudgery of creation on one sex, and then imply that no female of any womanliness or delicacy would initiate any effort in that direction. There are no limits to male hypocrisy in this matter.

It’s a lie! I love the Thundercats theme!

1) Men have names too! “Rex Harrison”, in this case.
2) The key song in the musical is “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?”; Eliza is actually being groomed for beardship.

I’m told (i.e., family lore has it) that as a v. young American child living in London during My Fair Lady’s original run, I sang the songs continually. Must have been more than a bit annoying. I have no recollection of that but still have a soft spot for the musical, though I haven’t heard it in years. Btw, the original LP of the cast recording had a striking cover with a caricature-like drawing depicting HH as a puppet/marionette master pulling Eliza’s strings.

It is but musical comedy trivia, but I forgot to add that the original production opened in New York, not London. Andrews and Harrison appeared in both, and then, notoriously, Audrey Hepburn got the nod for the film version. (This was a very big deal at the time. My Fair Lady was the biggest hit Broadway had ever seen till then, and back then Broadway was far closer to the center of popular culture.)

@33: I remember that album cover. It also shows Shaw pulling Higgins’ strings. As a kid I had no idea who Shaw was and assumed the white-haired fellow was God. Apparently I wasn’t alone in the error.

Got the links for the back cover and the movie album reversed…it’s obvious what they are, anyhow.

Trying again…here’s the 1959 front cover.

LFC: I’m told (i.e., family lore has it) that as a v. young American child living in London during My Fair Lady’s original run, I sang the songs continually.

Heh. They are catchy, to put it mildly. On my evening walk tonight I found myself humming “I’m getting married in the morning…”

Which reminded me that when I was a freshman in high school, a friend and I whiled away the boredom of morning homeroom by writing about a hundred verses to go with a chorus of “We’re sitting in tomorrow morning….so be sure and get us to the steps on time.”

Also LFC: …to read him in full flow, as in that preface, is an experience that no one should miss.

Truer words…..

@Janie M: I’m partial to “On the Street Where You Live” — nice melody, clever lyrics.

And I don’t even have to click on JPT’s link of the album cover (though I thank him anyway) b.c I now have a v. clear mental image of it.

@47: Moss Hart and everyone else with an opinion that counted wanted to cut that song. Lerner liked it (so do I). It stayed in.

Here’s an internet comment: how did Rex Harrison make a career out of talking the words to broadway musicals? He was like William Shatner with a snotty accent in place of camp value.

I actually heard Shatner’s version before the other one.

You’re right – that is pretty great JakeB

The original production was in NYC, not London.

From Wikipedia:

The West End production, in which Harrison, Andrews, Coote, and Holloway reprised their roles, opened April 30, 1958, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where it ran for five and a half years[16] (2,281 performances). Stage star Zena Dare made her last appearance in the musical as Mrs. Higgins.[17]