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Music by:Frederick Loewe
Book and Lyrics by: Alan Jay Lerner
Directed by: Gary Griffin
Adapted from the play "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw
May 4th 2004 – June 27th 2004
Roger S. Berlind Theater
McCarter Theatre Center
Princeton, NJ
SYNOPSIS
A brilliantly re-conceived revival of the 1956 Lerner and Loewe classic, freshly focused on the spirited tug-of-war between a willful flower girl and the arrogant professor who may have found his match in her.
With just 10 performers and 2 pianos, this intimate My Fair Lady, beautifully suited to the scale of the Berlind Theatre, promises to be a revelation.
The Berlind Theatre
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OPENING NIGHT CAST
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Michael Cumpsty
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Professor Henry Higgins
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Kate Fry
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Eliza Doolittle
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Simon Jones
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Colonel Hugh Pickering
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Michael McCarty
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Alfred Doolittle
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Jim Stanek
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Freddy Eynsford-Hill
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Jane Connell
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Mrs. Higgins
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Patricia Kilgarriff
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Mrs. Pearce
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Brenda Martindale
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Mrs. Hopkins & Mrs. Eynsford-Hill
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Jeff Edgerton
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Harry, Prince, Charles
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Stephen Mo Hanan
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Karpathy, Costermonger, Butler
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ACT 1
The curtain opens on the exterior of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. A wealthy audience emerges from the Theatre, some searching for taxis, others standing by the columns of St. Paul’s Church. On the opposite side of the stage, the costermongers are warming their hands around a small fire as three buskers rush on to perform acrobatics and dances, hoping for money from the departing audience. Mrs. Eynsford-Hill, a domineering British matron, enters with her son, Freddy, who bumps into Eliza Doolittle, a poor flower girl. She angrily accuses Freddy of ruining her violets and attempts to get him to pay, but his mother, ignoring the girl, sends him off in search for a taxi. Eliza turns to Colonel Pickering, a well dressed, middle-aged military man, who gives her some money to pay for her ruined flowers.
Eliza, warned that a stranger has been taking down everything she says, appeals to Pickering, who comes to her aid. The man turns out to be Henry Higgins, a dialectician whom Pickering has come to London to meet. Higgins launches into a discourse on the problem of the English language: Why Can’t The English?.
Higgins, pleased that Pickering has come to London, invites this expert on Indian dialects to stay at his house on Wimpole Street. The two exit after Higgins buys Eliza’s entire basket of flowers. She counts her good fortune and dreams of a better life as she warms her hands at the Costermongers’ fire: Wouldn’t It Be Loverly.
The scene changes to a tenement section of Tottenham Court Road, where Eliza’s coarse, but charmingly roguish father, Alfred P. Doolittle, and his two friends, Jamie and Harry, are being evicted from a local pub for lack of payment. Doolittle is convinced that something is bound to turn up when he sees Eliza on her way home. He convinces her to give him some money and jubilantly celebrates with Jamie and Harry: With A Little Bit Of Luck.
The scene shifts to Higgins’ study in Wimpole Street, where Higgins is playing voice recordings to Colonel Pickering, who is growing weary of the constant guttural sounds spewing forth from the recorder. When Eliza appears, proposing to be a customer for speech lessons, Higgins boasts to Pickering that in six months, he can pass her off as a duchess at the Embassy Ball. Pickering, intrigued by Higgins’ boast, agrees to pay the expenses. Mrs. Pearce, the warm-hearted housekeeper, expresses concern for Eliza’s future, but Higgins insists he knows what is best and Mrs. Pearce takes Eliza for a thorough cleaning and some new clothes. Pickering expresses his apprehensions to Higgins and wonders if Higgins lacks character in his relations with women. Higgins assures Pickering that he is a simple man and a confirmed bachelor: I’m An Ordinary Man.
In a local pub, when Alfred Doolittle is told that Eliza has gone to live with two gentlemen on Wimpole Street he begins to see a way to make a little money from her good fortune: With A Little Bit Of Luck (Reprise). Doolittle goes to Higgins’ home to ask him for reimbursement for the use of his daughter as a "guinea pig" to Higgins’ whims. Higgins and Pickering are appalled by Doolittle’s lack of morals, but Higgins is intrigued by his philosophy and offers him ten pounds. Alfie responds that he only needs five and that’s all he wants. Higgins is amused and readily gives him the five pounds.
Higgins proceeds to drill Eliza in a series of exercises, which she soon grows to detest. She expresses her hatred of her teacher in a humorous song where she imagines all the evil things she will do to Higgins when she is a lady: Just You Wait.
The scene progresses with a variety of exercise vignettes and a chorus of servants who urge him to quit. When Eliza finally says her exercises to Higgins’ satisfaction, Pickering, Higgins and Eliza exuberantly sing: The Rain in Spain.
Eliza is so excited by her achievement she is unable to agree with Mrs. Pearce’s attempts to have her sleep on the couch in the study: I Could Have Danced All Night.
Higgins decides to test Eliza’s decorum at the annual Ascot Opening Day Horse Race where his sixty-year old mother is entertaining her society friends. The chorus, elegantly costumed in black and white, demonstrates the staid manner of the upper class British by their obvious lack of enthusiasm: The Ascot Gavot.
A nervous Higgins, Pickering and Eliza arrive at Ascot to be greeted by the charmingly tolerant Mrs. Higgins. Eliza’s conversation, which by necessity only concerns health and the weather, captivates Freddy Eynsford-Hill, a guest of Mrs. Higgins. Freddy gives her a ticket assuring her that she will enjoy the race much more if she has a horse to cheer for. Eliza proceeds to scream her horse to victory by urging him to move his "bloomin’ arse." Her language causes several of the ladies to faint and Higgins to roar with laughter.
The scene shifts to the front of Higgins’ house where Freddy asks Mrs. Pearce to announce him to Eliza. He is obviously infatuated with her: On the Street Where You Live.
Six weeks later, at the Embassy Ball, The Embassy Waltz, Eliza manages to astound everyone by her decorum, charm and beauty. The highlight of the evening occurs when phony dialectician, Zoltan Karpathy, declares Eliza’s English to be too good for someone who spoke it from birth. He declares to everyone present that she is no less than a Hungarian Princess.
ACT 2
Act II opens with Higgins and Pickering congratulating themselves to Mrs. Pearce and the servants: You Did It. As everyone retires to bed, Eliza furiously throws Higgins his slippers and expresses doubts about her abilities to live and work in the world she left behind. Higgins tries to mollify her but she informs him she is leaving and he loses control for the first time in their relationship.
Eliza packs a suitcase and leaves the house. She runs into Freddy, who is still waiting in front of the house. While actually venting her anger at Higgins she confronts Freddy and instructs him on how to behave: Show Me.
Eliza returns to her past surroundings at Covent Garden, but realizes she can never go back to her old life. When she meets her father, he tells her of an American millionaire who, upon Higgins’ recommendation, left Alfie £4000 a year for being the most original moralist in England. He is on his way to marry Eliza’s stepmother, depressed that he must maintain a certain level of respectability. Eliza leaves as the chorus of friends returns to take Alfie to his wedding: Get Me to The Church on Time.
At Wimpole Street, Higgins, incredulous that Eliza has left, questions Mrs. Pearce and Colonel Pickering on the behavior of women: A Hymn To Him. Henry storms off to his mother’s house where he finds Eliza calmly having tea with Mrs. Higgins in the conservatory. After an unpleasant scene with Higgins, Eliza realizes she can get along without him: Without You. When he changes moods at the end of her song and tells her that he is proud she has become a strong woman Eliza leaves. He is confused by her behavior and calls out to his mother who cheers Eliza for besting him.
He returns home in a rage, furious that he has grown so attached to a woman. As he reaches his front door he realizes he will honestly miss Eliza: I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face.
He enters the house and turns on the recorder to hear Eliza’s voice. As he sits and listens, Eliza softly enters the room, turns off the gramophone and finishes her own words. Higgins is overjoyed but, in typical fashion, refuses to acknowledge his inner emotions, and responds by asking her where his slippers are; she smiles in understanding as the curtain falls.
(Taken from Musical Notes, by Carol Lucha-Burns)
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SONG LIST
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ACT 1
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ACT 2
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Overture
(Instrumental)
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You Did It
(Higgins & Pickering)
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Why Can't the English?
(Higgins)
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Just You Wait (Reprise)
(Eliza)
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Wouldn't It Be Loverly?
(Eliza)
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On the Street Where You Live (Reprise)
(Freddy)
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With a Little Bit of Luck
(Alfred Dolittle)
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Show Me
(Eliza)
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I'm an Ordinary Man
(Higgins)
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Wouldn't It Be Loverly? (Reprise)
(Eliza)
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With a Little Bit of Luck (Reprise)
(Alfred Doolittle & Male Chorus)
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Get Me to the Church on Time
(Alfred Dolittle & Company)
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Just You Wait
(Eliza)
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A Hymn to Him
(Higgins)
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The Servants Chorus
(Company)
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Without You
(Eliza & Higgins)
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The Rain in Spain
(Higgins, Pickering & Eliza)
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I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face
(Higgins)
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I Could Have Danced All Night
(Eliza)
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Ascot Gavotte
(Company)
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On the Street Where You Live
(Freddy)
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