My Fair Lady My Fair Lady My Fair Lady is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion", with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins, a phoneticist, so that she may pass as a lady. The original Broadway and London shows starred Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. The musical's 1956 Broadway production was a notable critical and popular success. It set a record for the longest run of any show on Broadway up to that time. It was followed by
My Fair Lady (Shelly Manne album) issued on the Contemporary label. "My Fair Lady" itself was redone over the years by other jazz artists, starting very soon after the Manne hit. Billy Taylor and Quincy Jones brought out "My Fair Lady Loves Jazz" in 1957, and this was followed by albums of "My Fair Lady" music by Nat King Cole ("Nat King Cole Sings My Fair Lady") ; Wild Bill Davis; Dick Hyman with Ruby Braff; Oscar Peterson ("The Oscar Peterson Trio Plays "My Fair Lady""); and others. Manne himself worked with arranger John Williams to present a different whole-album treatment of the musical in 1964,