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Syracuse Stage General Operating and Multiple Program Support


In the Spotlight ($50,000 and above) Syracuse University Impresario Circle ($25,000 - 50,000) Central New York Community Foundation (The Grapes of Wrath) The Richard Mather Fund New York State Council on the Arts The Post-Standard Shubert Foundation Time Warner Cable Stage Benefactor ($20,000 - $24,999) National Endowment for the Arts Major Underwriters ($15,000 - $19,999) Onondaga County Residence Inn by Marriott

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Actor in the Classroom Program Stage Partner ($2,500 - $4,999) Time Warner Cable Patron ($100 - $299) Wood, etc...

Syracuse Stage 2004-2005 Study Guide education office: 443-1150 or syracusestage.org/education.html





2004 Children’s Tour The Great Peanut Butter Radio Hour Stage Partner ($2,500 - $4,999) Lockheed Martin Employees Federated Fund Stage Manager ($1,000 - $2,499) Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, Central New York Region Business Spotlight ($500 - $999) Carrier Corporation Robert D. Willis, DDS, PC, Children’s Dentistry Actors Circle ($300 - $499) Diamond & Theil Construction Co. Wegman’s Zeller Corporation

JPMorgan Chase Young Playwrights Festival Stage Leader ($10,000 - $14,999) JPMorgan Chase Foundation Business Patron ($100 - $299) Clippinger Law Offices, Smyrna Full Cast Audio Dirk Sonneborn

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Stage Partner ($2,500 - $4,999) The Nottingham Retirement Community and Skilled Nursing Facility

The Harrison Center Outpatient Surgery Signed Interpreted Performance Series Stage Partner ($2,500 -$4,999) Harrison Center Outpatient Surgery

Page2Stage Spotlight ($500 - $999) CNY Eye Care Actor's Circle ($300 - $499) Critical Link, LLC Patron ($100 - $299) Baldwin & Sutphen, LLP Delavan Art Gallery Fins & Tails Gourmet Seafood, LLC Personal Fitness, Inc. Purcell's Wallpaper & Paint Co.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. — George Bernard Shaw I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. — George Bernard Shaw

Syracuse Stage

S y r a c Suys er aSctuasgSet a g e

Season Study Guide


Theatre and Education


Theatre Etiquette and Frequently Asked Questions


Who’s Who


Plot of My Fair Lady


Meet the Creators: Lerner and Loewe


Meet the Creators: George Bernard Shaw


Shaw timeline


Evolution of Pygmalion


Ovid’s tale


Why Two Pianos?




Money in Eliza’s time


Pre-war England


In the Classroom

Syracuse Stage 2004-2005 Study Guide 4 education office: 443-1150 or syracusestage.org/education.html


Theatre and Education "Theatre brings life to life." — Zelda Fichandler

world. Then artists come along and discover it the same way all over again." — Eudora Welty

Ultimately, there is a fundamental difference in the psychological responses aroused by electronic media and theatre because the former presents pictures of events whereas the latter performs the actual events in what amounts to the same space as that occupied by the audience. This difference results in one unique characteristic of theatre: its ability to offer intense sensory experience through the simultaneous presence of live actors and audience. "The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature." — Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn Pedagogically, theatre can be used in a variety of ways. In many respects the teacher in the classroom is much like the actor onstage - with an audience (hopefully attentive), a script (lesson plan), props and set (classroom setting and teaching tools). The environment of the teaching experience can change day to day, and can be impacted by weather, mood, outside events — in other words, each day is a unique, active, sensory occurrence, just like a play. From this perspective all of what can be taught can be taught theatrically, whether it is having young children creating a pretend bank to learn about money, to older students acting out a scene from a play. Theatre provides an opportunity to teach, and any play provides an opportunity to teach more.

Bringing your students to productions at Syracuse Stage, and utilizing this study guide in teaching about the plays, fulfills elements of the New York State core requirements. We know that as educators you are the more qualified to determine how our plays and study guides blend with your lesson plans and teaching requirements. We hope that you find lots of possibilities to cover a variety of disciplines. As you bring your students to the shows, you might want them to examine not merely the thematic elements of the written word, but also how production elements explore these themes. Everything you see on this stage has been created specifically for this production — there are no standard sets for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, no codified method for presenting Big River, no rules for costuming Grapes of Wrath. How, for example, will we represent the mighty Mississippi in Big River? How will the costumes differentiate between characters? Our designers meet with our directors months before rehearsals start, and shows are built to their specifications, which are in line with their vision of the work. In our detailed study guides for our school shows, we will try to give you some previews of this process, but you might want to explore discussing all of the design elements with your students as a way of opening the door to the production they will be seeing. You probably know all of the elements that make up a show, but to recap: Sets Props Choreography

Costumes Sound Music

Lights Painting Casting

And of course, the one thing that is vitally necessary for any piece to be theatre: AN AUDIENCE Without this last, most important element, the theatre ceases to be. Welcome to Syracuse Stage's Educational Outreach Programs.

"Children, like animals, use all their senses to discover the

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Syracuse Stage

When the first cave dweller got up to tell a story, theater began. Almost every culture has some sort of live performance tradition to tell stories. Television and film may have diminished the desire for access to theater, but they have not diminished the importance. Live theater gives each audience member an opportunity to connect with the performers in a way he or she never could with Tom Cruise or Lindsay Lohan. The emotions can be more intense because the events are happening right in front of the audience.

Questions and Answers


Syracuse Stage

and theatre etiquette as well...


eachers: please speak with your students about the role of the audience in watching a live performance. Following are answers to some commonly asked questions that you might want to share with your students, and some helpful suggestions to make the day more enjoyable. When should we arrive? We recommend you arrive at the theatre at least 30 minutes prior to the performance. Student matinees begin promptly at 10:30 am - we do not hold the curtain. Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the Management. Where do we get off the bus? Busses not staying should load and unload on East Genesee Street. Bus parking is available along East Genesee Street at the bagged meters. Parking at bagged meters is for busses only cars will be ticketed. Please do not park in the Centro Bus Stop. You may exit the bus, but have your group stay together in the lobby. Where do we sit? Will we have tickets? There are no tickets - ushers will direct you to the seats. Students will be asked to fill in the rows and not move around once seated. We request that teachers and chaperones distribute themselves throughout the students and not sit together. Remember, we have to seat 500 people as quickly as possible, so your help in seating is greatly appreciated. What can be brought into the auditorium? We do not allow backpacks, cameras, walkmans, recording devices, food or chewing gum. We do not have storage facilities for these items so it is best if these are left at school or on the bus. May we take pictures? Taking photographs or recording the performance is illegal, disruptive to other audience members and dangerous to the actors. All cam-

eras and recording devices are prohibited and will be confiscated. Is there someplace we can snack or eat? When possible, soda and snacks will be available for sale during intermission, at a cost of $1.00 (exact change appreciated.) Food is not allowed in the auditorium. Where are the restrooms? There are restrooms in the main lobby. We ask that students use the facilities before the show and during intermission only and not get up during the show.

What is the audience’s role? A performance needs an audience. It is as much a part of the theater event as our actors, our designers, our technicians and crew. Each playwright asks you to come into the world he or she has created — but this world is different than television or movies. The actors need your responses — your laughter, your applause — but as you can imagine such things as conversations, cell phones, beepers and other distractions will disrupt the world that is being created. If any student becomes disruptive to the point of interference with the performers or other audience members, a chaperon will be asked to remove that student. If you play your part well, the actors can play their parts well and you both will enjoy the show!



James A. Clark

Robert Moss

Producing Director

Artistic Director


My Fair Lady MUSIC BY


Alan Jay Lerner

Frederick Loewe

George Bernard Shaw




Anthony Salatino

Robert Moss

Dianne Adams McDowell



Adam Stockhausen

Nanzi Adzima




Tyler Micoleau

Jonathan Herter

Stuart Plymesser


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Syracuse Stage


Rarified World Who’s who in My Fair Lady Eliza Doolittle: A cockney flower girl from Lisson Grove, Eliza works outside Covent Garden. Her potential to become “a lady” becomes the object of a bet between Higgins and Pickering. Henry Higgins: A British, upper class professional bachelor, Higgins is a world-famous phonetics expert, teacher, and author of Higgins’ Universal Alphabet.


Colonel Pickering: A retired British officer with colonial experience, Pickering is the author of Spoken Sanskrit.

Freddy Eynsford-Hill: An upper class young man, Freddy becomes completely smitten with Eliza. Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: A friend of Mrs. Higgins, Mrs. Eynsford-Hill is Freddy’s mother. Mrs. Higgins: Henry’s long-suffering mother. Professor Zoltan Karpathy: A former student of Higgins, he is a rival phonetics expert. Mrs. Pearce: Henry Higgins’ housekeeper.

Alfred P. Doolittle: Eliza’s father, Doolittle is an elderly but vigorous dustman/chimney sweep.

credit: Utah Shakeare Festival

Production History Perhaps the most popular musical of the 1950s, My Fair Lady came into being only after Hungarian film producer Gabriel Pascal devoted the last two years of his life to finding writers who would adapt George Bernard Shaw's 1914 play Pygmalion into a musical. Rejected by the likes of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and Noël Coward, Pascal finally turned to the younger, but very talented duo, of Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner. My Fair Lady opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on March 15, 1956 and enjoyed a run of 2,717 performances which lasted more than nine years. The original production featured Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins and Julie Andrews as Eliza. The 1964 film version starred Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway and Audrey Hepburn. It was revived in 1976 and ran for 377 performances, revived again in 1981 with Rex Harrison reprising his role and finally in 1993, when it ran for 165 performances.

Awards Tony Awards 1957 Best Musical Best Actor in a Musical, Rex Harrison Best Scenic Design, Oliver Smith Best Costume Design, Cecil Beaton Best Direction, Moss Hart 1956 Theatre World Award



Plot of My Fair Lady


Liza's father, Doolittle, and his pals have been drinking, and he asks Liza to give him money. Liza has now come to live with Professor Higgins, who devotes himself painstakingly to teaching her how to act like a lady. Higgins convinces both her and her father that, beyond this experiment, he has no further interest in her.

Meanwhile, Higgins is upset to discover Liza has left and wonders why women behave the way they do. When next he does see Liza, it is at his mother's house, where Liza has come for a brief visit. He would like her to come back to him, but when Liza informs him that Freddy has asked to marry her, he loses his temper. Liza retorts that she can marry anybody she wishes, and she can get along in life without Mr. Higgins.

Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison

At long last Liza responds to Higgins' instruction and manages to drop her cockney accent. At Ascot race track, Pickering informs Mrs. Higgins that her son will soon make his appearance with the transformed Liza. Within the enclosure, elegant gentlemen and ladies are watching the races â&#x20AC;&#x201D; their reactions reflected in the song, "Ascot Gavotte." Eliza now appears on Higgins' arm. Beautifully gowned, and very much the lady, she instantly captures the heart of young Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Smitten, Freddy later haunts Higgins' house for a sight of Eliza.

At his home, at dusk, Higgins realizes how much Eliza has come to mean to him. Without her, he is lost and lonely. Liza slips silently in as he is thus musing. When he finally notices her he barks: "Liza! Where the devil are my slippers?!"

The night of the embassy waltz arrives. It is here that

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t is a blustery March evening outside the Opera at Covent Garden. Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower girl tries to sell some flowers to Colonel Pickering. Professor Henry Higgins from a distance is painstakingly writing down her speech, for he is a distinguished phonetician. He insists he can place any Englishman within six miles of his home by the quality of his speech. Spurred on by a wager with Pickering, Higgins decides to transform Liza in speech, manner and dress into a duchess.

Liza is to meet her final test. In every sense the wellgroomed lady, Liza carries herself with the utmost poise. Her triumph is complete. Later the same night, back at Higgins' place, Pickering is exuberant over Liza's triumph, while Liza herself nostalgically recalls the pleasures of that evening. But before long she turns angrily upon Higgins for not having left well enough alone by allowing her to remain a flower salesgirl. For, now that she is a lady, what will become of her? Higgins suggests she marry some nice young man. This serves only to arouse Liza further. Packing her things, she storms out of Higgins' house to stumble outside into Freddy. He protests that he is in love with her, but Liza brushes him off. In an attempt to find her true identity she returns to the flower mart, where she is not recognized, even by her own father. When he does he gives her news that he is getting married.

Meet Lerner and Loewe

SyracusStage Meet the creators


rederick 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, a hot spot for theater people, in 1942. One evening, Loewe encountered Lerner at a nearby table. Loewe went up to him, saying "I understand you write lyrics." Lerner replied, "Well, I understand you write music.” 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 run 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 reached true success. 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."

tically and financially 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 theatregoers. Lerner and Loewe's next collaboration was on the film adaptation of the Colette novel Gigi, another success filled with songs destined to become standards. The next production, Camelot, received terrible reviews when it opened, but the director and producer of the play got the brilliant idea of having the stars, Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, and Robert Goulet appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. The next morning the ticket office was swamped with requests, and Camelot became a hit. There was more collaborating to come — the film version of the Antoine de Saint-Exupery fable The Little Prince in 1972. Loewe, who had suffered a heart attack in 1958, went into retirement. He died in 1988. The two received the prestigious Kennedy Center Award in 1985, and Lerner died the next year. Lerner wrote of his partner, "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." www.punahou.edu/theatre/curriculum /AMTWeb/lernerleowe/bio.html

Between Brigadoon and Paint Your Wagon, 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 — artis-



George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950

In 1891, at the It may not be accidental, then, that Shaw's invitation of To hear George Bernard Shaw go to: plays, including Misalliance, are filled with J.T. Grein, a www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/ problematic parent-child relationships: with merchant, theprofilepages/shawg1.shtml children who are brought up in isolation atre critic, and from their parents; with foundlings, orphans, director of a and adopted heirs; and with parents who progressive wrongly presume that they are entitled to their chilprivate new-play society, The Independent Theatre, dren's obedience and affection. Shaw wrote his first play, Widower's Houses. For the next twelve years, he wrote close to a dozen plays, In 1876, Shaw left Dublin and his father and moved to though he generally failed to persuade the managers of London, moving in with his mother's menage. There he the London Theatres to produce them. A few were prolived off his mother and sister while pursuing a career duced abroad; one (Arms and the Man) was produced in journalism and writing. The first medium he tried as a under the auspices of an experimental management; creative writer was prose, completing five novels (the one (Mrs Warren's Profession) was censored by the Lord first one appropriately titled Immaturity) before any of Chamberlain's Examiner of Plays (the civil servant who, them were published. He read voraciously, in public from 1737 until 1967, was empowered with the prior libraries and in the British Museum reading room. And censorship of all spoken drama in England); and several he became involved in progressive politics. Standing on were presented in single performances by private socisoapboxes, at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park and at eties. socialist rallies, he learned to overcome his stagefright and his stammer. And, to hold the attention of the In 1898, after a serious illness, Shaw resigned as theatre crowd, he developed an energetic and aggressive critic, and moved out of his mother's house (where he speaking style that is evident in all of his writing. was still living) to marry Charlotte Payne-Townsend, an

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Meet the creators





Shaw continued


SyracusStage Meet the creators






Shaw timeline 1856 George Bernard Shaw born in Dublin, Ireland. 1871 Shaw becomes a clerk in an estate agent's office. 1876 Shaw leaves Dublin to join his mother in London. Ghostwrites music criticism. 1879 Shaw completes his first novel called Immaturity.

1908-1911Shaw writes Getting Married, Misalliance, and Fanny's First Play. 1910 Edward VII dies. 1912 Writes Androcles and the Lion and Pygmalion (for Mrs. Patrick Campbell). 1914 World War I breaks out. Writes Common Sense About the War. First production of Pygmalion (directed by Shaw and starring Mrs. Patrick Campbell).

1881 Shaw becomes a vegetarian.

1917 Shaw finishes Heartbreak House.

1883 Shaw after reading Das Kapital and various lectures becomes a socialist.

1920 Shaw completes Back to Methuselah.

1884 Shaw joins the (socialist) Fabian Society.

1923 Shaw writes Saint Joan which attracts worldwide acclaim.

1886-1889 Shaw works as the art critic for The World.

1925 Shaw is awarded Nobel Prize in Literature.

1888-1890 Shaw works as the music critic for The Star. Emerges from obscurity.

1926-1927 Shaw writes The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism.

1891 Shaw writes The Quintessence of Ibsenism, becoming the foremost English champion of Henrik Ibsen's plays.

1931 Shaw writes Too True to be Good.

1892 Shaw's first play, Widowers' Houses, is performed twice.

1932 Shaw writes The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God after visiting South Africa. 1933 Shaw writes On the Rocks and Village Wooing.

1893 Shaw writes The Philanderer and Mrs. Warren's Profession. The latter is banned by the censor.

1934 Shaw writes The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles and The Millionairess.

1894 Shaw turns from "unpleasant" social dramas to "pleasant" plays: Arms and the Man and Candida.

1936 George V dies. Edward VIII abdicates. Shaw writes Geneva.

1895 Shaw writes You Never Can Tell and The Man of Destiny.

1938 Film of Pygmalion is huge success. Shaw wins Academy Award for screenplay.

1896 Shaw writes The Devil's Disciple.

1939 Beginning of WWII.

1897 The Devil's Disciple is a huge hit in the United States.

1943 Shaw's wife Charlotte dies at the age of 86.

1898 Shaw resigns as drama critic because of ill-health, and marries an "Irish millionairess," Charlotte Payne Townshend. Completes Caesar and Cleopatra and The Perfect Wagnerite.

1947 Shaw completes Buoyant Billions.

1899 Shaw writes Captain Brassbound's Conversion. 1901 Queen Victoria dies. Shaw writes Man and Superman. 1904-1907 Shaw's plays are featured at The Royal Court Theatre. Writes John Bull's Other Island, Major Barbara, and The Doctor's Dilemma.

1945 End of WWII.

1949 Shaw writes Shakespeare Versus Shaw for puppets. 1950 Shaw breaks hip while pruning trees, and dies two months later. George Bernard Shaw's Life and Works adapted from the chronology in Pygmalion, Shaw's Spin on Myth and Cinderella by Charles A. Berst

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Tackling the text

1880 Shaw completes second novel and begins years of self-education in the British Museum's Reading Room.

Evolution of a Musical My Fair Lady 1901 Frederick Loewe (composer) is born in Berlin.

S y rthe aScyurtext saSct u a gs Set a g e Tackling

1912 Shaw writes Pygmalion.

tors) Camelot induces a huge amount of stress on both men. Alan Jay Lerner went on to write other lesser known musicals and Fritz Loewe retired.

1938 Shaw adapts Pygmalion into a film script.

1964 My Fair Lady is made into a film with Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn, and wins Academy Award as Best Picture.

1942 Lerner and Loewe meet in the Algonquin Grill and start collaboration.

1967 Camelot is made into a film starring Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Harris.

1943 Oklahoma! (by Rodgers and Hammerstein II but an inspiration for Lerner and Loewe) premieres.

1973 Lerner and Loewe adapt Gigi for the stage.

1918 Alan Jay Lerner (librettist) born in New York City.

1945 Lerner and Loewe's The Day Before Spring.

1974 Lerner and Loewe collaborate on the film score for The Little Prince.

1947 Lerner and Loewe's first big hit, Brigadoon.

1986 Alan Jay Lerner dies in New York City.

1950 Shaw dies.

1988 Fritz Loewe dies in Palm Springs, California.

1951 Lerner and Loewe's Paint Your Wagon. 1952 Lerner wins a Academy Award for the screenplay, An American in Paris. 1952 Lerner writes film script for Brigadoon, the movie.

[With My Fair Lady] I was not only adapting the work of another author [than myself], but an author whose plays were as great as he himself said they were. And as famous.

1952 Lerner and Loewe being thinking about adapting Shaw's Pygmalion into a musical. 1954 Lerner and Loewe begin work on the Pygmalion adaptation in earnest. 1956 First production of My Fair Lady starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. 1958 Gigi, film written by Lerner and Loewe. It wins Oscars for Best Screenplay, Best Song, and Best Picture of 1958.

Alan Jay Lerner

By 1954 it no longer seemed essential that a musical have a subplot, nor that there be an ever-present ensemble filling the air with high C's and flying limbs. . . What causes the change? It is not the desires of the audience. It is the restlessness of authors for new forms of expression, which audiences then discover to be exactly what they were unconsciously longing for.

1960 Camelot written by Lerner and Loewe premieres on Broadway.

Alan Jay Lerner

1961 End of Lerner and Loewe’s first 18-year period of collaboration after the musical (with its rewrites, cutting, and the many health problems of the collabora-



Pygmalion Transformed On the stage


Fair Lady debuted in 1956. In adapting Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion for the musicalcomedy stage the highest standards were applied to every aspect of the musical theatre — text, lyrics, music, choreography, direction, Cecil Beaton's costuming and Oliver Smith's sets — to create as near perfect a production as human ingenuity and imagination could contrive. The result was, as the critic William [We] were determined to Hawkins said, “a legretain as much of Shaw’s dia- endary evening," or, in the words of Brooks logue as possible, which Atkinson, "one of the best musicals of the century would automatically mean ... close to the genius of there would be more diacreation."

n a poetry collection of myths concerning metamorphosis or transformation, the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD) first wrote down the Greek myth of Pygmalion, about a misogynist who creates the perfect woman as a statue. Aphrodite brings the statue to life, creating Galatea.

The first English language production, starring Mrs. Campbell and directed by Shaw, was a huge success and established Shaw as a commercially successful playwright.

logue than in any other musical to date. The only way to accomplish this . . . was to fill the score with tempo and search every emotion.

“I wish to boast that Pygmalion has been an extremely successful play all over Europe and North America as well as at home. It is so intensely and deliberately didactic, and its subject is esteemed so dry, that I delight in throwing it at the heads of the wiseacres who repeat the parrot cry that art should never be didactic. It goes to prove my contention that art should never be anything else.” In the 1940s and 1950s, various adapters tried to turn Pygmalion into a musical, including the team of Lerner and Loewe. With the success of Oklahoma, the form of the musical changed, placing much more emphasis on the story, or book, and less on big splashy song and dance numbers. In the wake of this development, Lerner and Loewe made a second, successful, attempt at adapting Pygmalion. Six years after Shaw died, My

With these and similar critical accolades as a springboard, My Fair Lady went on to become the greatest commercial triumph the American theatre had known up until that time. On June 13, 1961, it became the — Alan Jay Lerner longest-running production in Broadway history, outdistancing the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical play, Oklahoma!, which had held that record up to then. By that time it had been seen by over three million patrons, and had earned almost forty million dollars; the long-playing recording by the original cast sold over three million discs at a price of fifteen million dollars; the motion-picture rights were sold for over five million dollars. The national tour of a second company begun on March 18, 1957, and stayed on the road several years, breaking boxoffice precedents in city after city. Numerous companies were formed to present it throughout the civilized world, including the Soviet Union in 1960.

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Tackling the text

In 1912, George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), a playwright, critic, social activist, and passionate advocate for the rights of women, wrote his version of Pygmalion. The play was written as a star vehicle for Mrs. Patrick Campbell, and was inspired by a flower girl Shaw saw outside Covent Garden around the turn of the century, and by the British phoneticist Henry Sweet.

Ovid’s tale

P SyracusStage Tackling the text

ygmalion saw women waste their lives in wretched shame, and critical of faults which nature had so deeply planted through their female hearts, he lived in preference, for many years unmarried. But while he was single, he carved a statue, with consumate skill, out of snow-white ivory, and gave to it exquisite beauty, which no woman of the world has ever equalled: she was so beautiful, he fell in love with his creation. It appeared in truth a perfect virgin with the grace of life, but in the expression of such modesty all motion was restrained — and so his art concealed his art. Pygmalion gazed, inflamed with love and admiration for the form, in semblance of the woman, he had carved. He lifts up both his hands to feel the work, and wonders if it can be ivory, because it seems to him more truly flesh — his mind refusing to conceive of it as ivory, he kisses it and feels his kisses are returned. And speaking love, caresses it with loving hands that seem to make an impression on the parts they touch, so real that he fears he then may bruise her by his eager pressing. Softest tones are used each time he speaks to her. He brings to her such presents as are surely prized by sweet girls; such as smooth round pebbles, shells, and birds, and fragrant flowers of a thousand tints, lilies, and painted balls, and amber tears of Heliads, which distill from far off trees — he drapes her in rich clothing and in gems: rings on her fingers, a rich necklace round her neck, pearl pendants on her graceful ears; and golden ornaments adorn her breast. All these are beautiful — and she appears most lovable, if carefully attired — or perfect as a statue, unadorned. He lays her on a bed luxurious, spread with coverlets of Tyrian purple dye, and naming her the consort of his couch, lays her reclining head on the most soft and downy pillows, trusting she could feel. The festival day of Venus [the Latin name for Aphrodite], known throughout all Cyprus, now had come, and throngs were there to celebrate. Heifers with spreading




Two pianos

The library commissioned Trude Rittman, an orchestrator who had worked with Lerner and Loewe on the dance arrangements for the show, to write a two-piano version of My Fair Lady. It believed Rittman knew the music better than anyone else — other than the two composers. She worked extensively on dance music, and knew how to translate a composer’s interpretation of character into music that would heighten the dramatic action and help an actor communicate to the audience. The benefit of the two-piano version is that the tender melodies, rather than lush orchestrations and big production numbers, put more focus on Eliza’s transformation. The musical numbers in My Fair Lady, including such beloved favorites as "I Could Have Danced All Night" "The Rain in Spain" and "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" — become a seamless part of her journey, rather than an interruption of Eliza’s story.

Nearly a century of music Trude Rittman, 96, a choral and dance music arranger who help shape such landmark Broadway productions as My Fair Lady, Carousel, The Sound of Music and Camelot, died Feb. 22 in Lexington, Mass. Rittman left her native Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler and arrived in New York in 1937. A composer and pianist, she landed a job as an accompanist and soon became musical director for George Balanchine's American Ballet Caravan (the precursor to the New York City Ballet), before taking a similar post with choreographer Agnes De Mille's concert company. Her resume included collaborations with Broadway's legendary teams, including Rodgers and Hammerstein II and Lerner and Loewe, as well as Jerome Robbins and Irving Berlin. She arranged or composed music for both Jean Arthur's and Mary Martin's Peter Pan (1950 and 1954, respectively) and arranged music or dance for South Pacific (1949), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), The King and I (1951), Paint Your Wagon (1951), My Fair Lady (1956) and The Sound of Music (1959).

Syracuse Stage is so proud the two-piano version allows it to share this wonderful Tony-award winning show with the Central New York community.

What is an orchestrator? Douglas Besterman, the orchestator of The Producers and other shows, explains the job as “We're the designers of the sound of a piece.” He explained, in a typical production, the composer develops the show's melodies-the contextual skeleton-for each song, mainly on piano. The orchestrator then fleshes out each piece and develops them for a mini-orchestra-usually about 24 musicians for live theater. Sometimes, a composer will pass on a fully developed piece. But often there's little more than a hum of an indication of how a song is supposed to go. To complete that translation, the composer turns to the orchestrator. "Composers carefully choose the right partner for a project," Besterman says. "It's very much a partnership."

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Broadway tickets can cost more than $100 and put the magic of theater out of many family’s hands. But even back in 1959, costs were a concern. Tams-Witmark, a New York-based music library that handles the licensing of musicals, wanted to make its new hit musical My Fair Lady accessible to anyone who loved its music and story. Costs were a concern, but so was space. Many theaters, such as Syracuse Stage, don’t have an orchestra pit. The size of a Broadway-style orchestra keeps these theaters from sharing the treasures of American culture with their regional audiences.

Royal Opera House: England's primary international opera house, which is often referred to as Covent Garden. Covent Garden: A square in London in the midst of the West End. Buildings were erected here in 1830 to house the major fruit, vegetable, and flower market of London. Smudge-pot fire: A receptacle in which oil or another smoky fuel is burned to protect an orchard from insects or frost. Costermongers: Originally a fruit seller, but most often used for the fruit sellers who sold from barrows in the streets. By the mid-19th century, anyone who sold a product from a barrow was called a costermonger. Hoxton: Part of Shoreditch lying north of Old Street and west of Kingland Road. In the 19th century it was described as "one of the worst parts of London, where poverty and overcrowding were characteristic of practically the whole district." Also renowned for music halls. Selsey: Selsey is situated on a peninsula jutting out into the English Channel. In the summer months, Selsey has a variety of fetes, carnivals and shows. Tec: Detective Lisson Grove: A neighborhood based in a former manor house, now rather battered and squalid near Marylebone Station. Blimey: a Cockney expletive since late 19th century; a corruption of Gorblimey, in turn a corruption of "God blind me." Phonetics: branch of linguistics concerned with the production, physical nature, and perception of speech sounds. Milton: (1608-1674), English poet, whose rich, dense verse was a powerful influence on succeeding English poets, and whose prose was devoted to the defense of civil and religious liberty. Milton is often considered the greatest English poet after Shakespeare. Soho Square: An area in London lying within the boundaries of Regent Street, Oxford Street, Charing Cross Road, and Leicester Square. By the late 19th century it had become a significant core of London's nightlife. Yorkshireman: Gruff almost to the point of ill-mannered or rude with some similarities with Cockney. Cornishman: Fishermen, hardy, self-sufficient, people of the earth and the sea, from Cornwall. Bilious: Of or containing bile; irascible. Queen of Sheba: Rich, fantastic and beautiful biblical queen. If the Queen of Sheba was a historical figure,

she is likely to have traveled to Jerusalem for diplomatic and commercial reasons. Jaw: Used mid 18th-20th centuries, slightly obsolete by 1935 and gone by 1970; it has been scathingly applied to an excessively talkative person. Mews: Originally, the alley that went behind a house to the stables in back. Buckingham Palace: The London residence of the King and Queen. Hyde Park: A large park in Central London, north of Buckingham Palace. It is an open park with trees widely and regularly spaced. The park never officially closes, and thus it is home to many courting couples in the darker hours. Wimpole Street: A street in London north of Oxford Street. It is the center in London for doctors' offices and residences, and is also synonymous with the professional middle-upper class. Wallop: To beat soundly, thrash; to strike with a hard blow, impact; to defeat thoroughly. Garn: From go on, related to "oi." An expression of disagreement of disbelief. Chump: One easily taken advantage of, but used as a verb in this instance. Balmies: Crazy people. Keats: (1795-1821), English poet, one of the most gifted and appealing of the 19th century and an influential figure of the Romantic Movement. Spanish Inquisition: It was established with papal approval in 1478 at the request of King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I. This Inquisition was to deal with the problem of Marranos, Jews who through coercion or social pressure had insincerely converted to Christianity; after 1502, it turned its attention to similar converts from Islam, and in the 1520s to persons suspected of Protestantism. Wagner (Wagnerian mother): (1813-83), German composer and musical theorist, one of the most influential figures of 19th-century Europe. Wagnerian mother usually means a very large and loud woman. Cockney: A working-class Londoner, with a very pronounced accent. Ezra D. Wallingford: Wallingford is a old name of Massachusetts and Connecticut society, included in the genealogy book Families of Ancient New Have. In My Fair Lady, Wallingford is a moralist. Moral Reform League: Probably inspired by the contemporary American National Temperance Movement or Anti-Saloon Society.



Tackling the text



Costume sketches from My Fair Lady

Setting the stage

By Nanzi Adzima Syracuse Stage 19


SyracusStage Tackling the text

Glossary Blackguard: A rude or unscrupulous person, one who uses foul or abusive language. Governor: 1) In many businesses, employee slang for boss. 2) Among lower classes, especially Cockneys, a semi-respectable greeting for a stranger who appears to be from a higher class. Houndslow: A small town in Middlesex. Although historically it was a town in its own right, with the railways and extension of the tube it is now a suburb of London close to Heathrow airport. Five-pound note: Also known as a fiver; originally, the only note was the five-pound note. In general use, it is paper money. A bank note is a promissory note payable to the bearer on demand without interest. Cabinet: The group of ministers who comprise the government and head the various departments or ministries of the executive branch. Pulpit of Wales: A position in the Church of England. St. James: A church built by Wren in 1676, located one block north of St. James Square, which was developed during the Restoration as an elegant suburban site. Since the 19th century, when the Square became the center of the club world, it has been the center of London's upper-class male society and has maintained its fashionable cachet into the present day. Demosthenes: (384-322 BC) Greatest orator of ancient Greece, who led the Athenian opposition to Macedonia. According to his biographers he was afflicted with a speech impediment, and his attempts to deliver his own speeches were so unsuccessful that he resorted to unusual means to overcome his defect. Whitely's: A London emporium selling goods including dresses. Ascot Races: Ascot is a horseracing track near Windsor. For one week in mid-June (since 1711), the Royal Ascot occurred, in which members of the royal family attend the races and are joined by the most fashionable and prominent members of society. The men are dressed in their full formal wear and the women don hats and elaborate dresses. Aida: Opera by Verdi written in 1871. Gotterd채mmerung: The final work of Wagner's famous tetralogy of music dramas, known collectively as Der Ring des Nibelungen, and based on the 12th-century Middle High German epic poem of the Nibelungenlied. Paddock: A fenced area, usually near a stable, used chiefly for grazing horses; an enclosure at a racetrack where horses are saddled and paraded before a race. Royal Society: Independent body that promotes the nat-

ural sciences, including mathematics and all applied aspects such as engineering and medicine, located in London, England. Diphtheria: An acute and highly infectious disease, affecting children particularly, characterized by the formation of a false membrane in the passages of the upper respiratory system. Constable: In the 19th century when regular police forces were organized, the constable was the basic police rank. In the modern police force, constables in the uniformed division are called bobbies and those who wear civilian clothes are detective constables. Nosegay: A small bunch of flowers; a bouquet. Prince of Transylvania: At this point, this may have been an honorary title for a noble of the Austro/Hungarian empire. Probably of Hungarian origins. Transylvania is a Hungarian part of present day Romania. Gibraltar: An invincible fortress or stronghold in the Mediterranean. Yavol!: German expression of enthusiasm. Brighton: A seaside town on the southern coast of England, south of London. By the turn of the 19th century, it had lost its appeal as a place for holidays for high society and became home to the lower-middle class. Blighter: A person who acts contemptibly, similar to bugger but used in more polite circles. Scotland Yard: A street in London off of Whitehall. In 1829 it was the site of the first offices of the Metropolitan Police. Now it is used as a nickname for the Metropolitan Police, although they haven't had offices there since 1891. Compiled from various sources by Jessica Rosen with Celise Kalke



Money Currency in Edwardian England There are 12 pence in a shilling. There are 20 shillings in a pound. Pence: There are 4 brass farthings in a pence, so a farthing is basically worthless. A half-pence is half a pence. So three ha'pence is 1 and 1/2pence. Tuppence is two pence. Eliza acts as if this is a bargain price for a bunch of violets.

Shillings: A florin is 2 shillings. 1/2 Sovereign is ten shillings (or 1/2 a pound) Guinea: A guinea is 21 shillings, or a little more than a pound sterling. Pounds: Basic unit of English currency. Also known as a quid. What does all this buy? Eliza sells her violets for tuppence. Eliza offers to pay Higgins a shilling an hour for lessons. Shaw says that a taxi ride costs a shilling. Eliza's friend pays a French teacher 18 pence (or a shilling and 1/2) for lessons. Higgins estimates Eliza's daily income at 2 shillings 6 pence. Shaw says Eliza's rent is 4 shillings a week. Higgins tosses at least 14 shillings at Eliza after he hears the church bells. This is less than a pound, but over half Eliza's weekly take home pay. Shaw says Pickering considers 10 pounds minimal daily pocket money. Doolittle throws out that he would sell Eliza into some kind of sexual misalliance for 50 pounds. Higgins would charge a millionaire less than 60 pounds for an hour lessons. The cost of Eliza's dress and ball accessories is 200 pounds.

Doolittle About the same as Eliza, since he isn't married. This probably means Eliza's stepmother works as well, since Higgins (in Shaw) says two people can't possibly live on £50. Mrs. Eynesford Hill Estimated annual income also around 4,000 pounds a year or less. This is an inherited income that won't pass on to Freddy. While this is a large amount to Doolittle, it is barely enough to keep up Mrs. Eynesford Hill's aristocratic lifestyle. So it's vitally important that her children marry well. Higgins His income is between £14,000 and £20,000 a year. Depending on how much he inherited from his family. But keep in mind that he has to work to earn this amount, unlike anyone else in the play except Eliza and Doolittle. Pickering Based on his attitude towards pocket money and other expenditures, I estimate Pickering's income at around £28,800 a year. That's the combination of an army pension and some sound India investments and business deals (and maybe some inherited money). Keep in mind that he had almost no expenses (as a single army officer) in India and a nice living. Given that he pays no rent in London (although by paying for Eliza's lessons he essentially supports Higgins), he is quite well off. An Edwardian millionaire Given an income of 150 pounds a day, the Edwardian millionaire had an annual income of £54,000 pounds.

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Tackling the text

Crowns: There are 10 pence in a crown, so it's slightly less than a shilling. So a half-crown would be 5 pence.

Annual Incomes Keep in mind that annual income has very little to do with class rank, which is hereditary. One can be a very rich cockney, but also a very poor aristocrat. Eliza Between £38 and £48, based on her rent, and Higgins' estimate. So Eliza offers to pay what Higgins thinks is 40% of her daily income for lessons.

Eliza’s World Pre-war England

S e t t i n gS yt rhaec u s tsaSgt ea g e


he Victorian period (1837-1901) was a time of revolution and change. It saw great expansion of wealth, power and culture. The modern idea of “invention” was invented. Religion was in doubt. Romantic emphasis was placed on self-emotion and imagination. Victorians created astonishing innovation and change in democracy, feminism, unionization of workers and socialism. The brief reign of King Edward VII (1901-1910) continued these changes. And when King George V took the throne, England society was about to break with its formal past. This is the time of My Fair Lady. Henry Higgins is a beneficiary of this power structure, but by teaching Eliza he also subverts the power structure. Higgins believes he has power over everyone he meets. He is quite wealthy but doesn't flaunt his money or a high position in society. He treats everyone the same: "I would treat a duchess as if she was a flower girl." English society expected men to treat a lady politely regardless of her class, age or ethnicity. But the society contradicted itself and treated people differently dependent on their class, age and ethnicity. Women's suffrage movements started in the early 1840's, but in the time of this play, a man still had total control over his wife and daughters. Women were second class citizens. Because they were expected to be wives and mothers, work was viewed as temporary. They weren't paid the same as men, they didn't vote, and they couldn't do the same jobs as men. Yet, the Victorian period allowed growth in women’s roles. Education became more important. And women benefited from the gradual growth of a middle class. Here are some major events of 1913: - Grand Central Terminal opens in NYC

- British suffragettes are led by the Pankhursts, who spend much of the year battling the authorities in court - Roland Garros flies across the Mediterranean - The Panama Canal Opens Published in 1913: - D.H Lawrence’s Son’s and Lovers - Willa Cather’s O Pioneers - Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way - Charlie Chaplin creates his first films for Paramount - Henry Ford announces he will pay $5 a day for work in his car factory. It revolutionizes the American workforce and guarantees a liveable wage. He wrote: ”It is our belief that social justice begins at home. We want those who have helped us to produce this great institution and are helping to maintain it to share our prosperity.” - Richard Spikes invents the automated car wash and directional signals - The New York Times runs its first crossword puzzle - Formica, stainless steel and the zipper come into existence - Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra - The first refrigerator, as opposed to the simple ice box, designed for home use was the Domelre, which was manufactured in Chicago in 1913. Frigidaire brand's roots date back to the invention of the first self-container refrigerator for household use by Alfred Mellowes in 1915. - Two different men, Ernst Alexanderson and Reginald Fessenden, invent radio receivers - Thomas Alva Edison invents sound motion pictures - Niels Bohr publishes his model of the atom, based on energy states described by one quantum number



Questions for Discussion How are Pickering and Higgins foils for each other? How do Henry Higgins and Alfred Doolittle get educated during the play? What does this play suggest as possible results of education? Do teachers and students alike need to be concerned about those results? What does the play suggest about the differences between social classes? What does it suggest about marriage and family? Do the differences that exist between the classes in 1913 still exist today? If they do, how does it affect your life? How does it affect our city? The country?

Think of the different accents people speak with. Do people make judgements of others who may speak with an accent? Why are some accents cool and others not? Is Eliza Doolittle a feminist character? Why or why not? How does the musical show us Eliza’s transformation? Which is the most important transformation? This version of My Fair Lady made the chorus smaller and deleted some of the big production numbers. How may this have changed the production? How might it have changed the focus of the show? The story of Pygmalion has inspired many movies: Trading Places, Educating Rita, Can’t Buy Me Love, Overboard, Mannequin, Pretty Woman, She’s All That and The Princess Diaries. Can you think of others? What’s the common theme in all these films? How do they differ? Does it matter if the Eliza character is a man or a woman? How does that change the development? Write your own script outline for a story inspired by Pygmalion. Think of the inventions of 1913 and think of the way Audrey Hepburn people lived then, how will these inventions impact the way Eliza and others would live (if they were real). How does the story foreshadow some of these changes?

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In the classroom

Why did Shaw pick Pygmalion as the title of his play? How does this source material compare to the story of Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins in the musical?

Further Reading Web sites www.eusa.ed.uk/societies/filmsoc/films/my_fair_lady.html eonline.com/Facts/Movies/Reviews/0,1052,11908,00.html

I n t h e Scylraascs ruos So tma g e

www.flickfilosopher/oscars/bestpix/myfairlady.html www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm25.html www.landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/hist/Gentleman.html www.landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/religion/herb1.html www.landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/wmhisttl.html http://www.frederickloewe.org/fritz/bio.htm www.musicals101.com www.psd.k12.co.us/schools/rocky/mfl/story.html

Books and journal articles Bach, Steven, Dazzler: the Life and Times of Moss Hart, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2001 Citron, Stephen, The Wordsmiths: Oscar Hammerstein 2nd and Alan Jay Lerner, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995. Flinn, Denny Martin, Musical! A Grand Tour, Schirmer Books, New York, 1997. Hellerstein, Erna Olafson and Hume, Leslie Parker and Offen, Karen M. Victorian Women: a documentary account of women's lives in nineteenth-century England, France and the United States. Stanford University Press, 1981. Holroyd, Michael, The Genius of Shaw, Hodder and Stoughton, New York, Applause Theater Books, 1979. Mintz, Steven. A Prison of Expectations: The Family in Victorian Culture. New York University Press, 1983. Perkin, Joan. Victorian Women. New York University Press, 1993. Phillips, K.C. Language and Class in Victorian England. Basil Blackwell Publisher Limited, 1984.



Further Reading Edwardian London volumes one, two, three, and four edited from editor George R. Sims's Living London published by The Village Press. The Musical Theatre: A Celebration by Alan Jay Lerner published by McGraw-Hill Book Company. The Portable Bernard Shaw edited by Stanley Weintraub published by Penguin Books.

Pygmalion, motion picture, Hollywood Classics collectors edition, video-tape. Pygmalion, Shaw's Spin on Myth and Cinderella by Charles A. Berst, Twayne Publishers. Shaw's Plays in Performance: edited by Daniel Leary published by The Pennsylvania State University Press. The Street Where I Live a biography by Alan Jay Lerner published by W. W. Norton and Company. The Truth About Pygmalion by Richard Huggett (a history of the first production), published by Random House.

Adam Stockhausenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s set design for My Fair Lady

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In the classroom

Pygmalion and My Fair Lady (now together in one special edition) by George Bernard Shaw and Alan Jay Lerner (respectively) published by Signet classics.

Profile for Syracuse Stage

My Fair Lady  

My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady  

My Fair Lady