Loverly:The Life and Times of My Fair Lady (Broadway Legacies) (14 page)

The third scene is initially more familiar from both play and musical: Higgins and Pickering sit in the study listening to phonetic noises in the darkness, and the Colonel is tired of the exercise. But then Lerner introduces something new—a visit from Mrs. Higgins with Miss Clara Eynsford Hill, neither of whom ever sets foot in Higgins’s residence in the finished musical. Mrs. Higgins’s attempt to encourage Higgins to marry Clara is also an innovation, probably based on Shaw’s stage direction in act 3 of
Pygmalion
that Clara “considers Higgins quite eligible matrimonially.” (Indeed, in the play she goes on to flirt with him during act 3, which depicts Mrs. Higgins’s tea party; much of the scene is transferred to Ascot in
My Fair Lady
.)
³⁴
This gives rise to Higgins’s song “Please Don’t Marry Me.” The number signals the start of a much more conventional discussion of romance in the show, which continues with Pickering’s song about the impossibility of living without “the warmth and affection of the opposite sex” in scene 5, Freddy’s song about loving Eliza (which obviously became “On the Street Where You Live”) in scene 8, Higgins’s and Pickering’s song of praise and flattery, “Lady Liza,” in scene 9, and Eliza’s “Say a Prayer” in the final scene of the act. Originally, the latter song had a more overtly romantic lyric that referred to Eliza praying “that he’ll discover / I’m his lover / For now and evermore,” hence the song belongs in the same category (see chap. 4).

Also of importance is the description of the end of the first act: “Liza appears at the top of the stairs, dressed like a queen. … In seemingly regal serenity, she requests Higgins’ arm, and the three start off for the ball.” In this formulation, Lerner has Eliza
requesting
Higgins’s arm, but the published script suggests quite the reverse: “[Higgins] starts briskly for the door. At the threshold, he pauses, turns and gazes at Eliza. He turns to her and offers his arm.”
³⁵
The mere presence of this scene is also significant, because Lerner later claimed it was an invention during the New Haven tryouts to cover the cutting of the ballet, “Come to the Ball,” and “Say a Prayer.”
³⁶
Instead, it seems from this outline to have been a reinstatement of an idea that had been thought of early on.

Outline 2 probably dates from roughly the same period as its predecessor; the substance of the first act is almost exactly the same in both, hence scenes 2–9 are omitted in the reproduction of Outline 2 in
tables 3.2
and
3.3
. Evidently, this second outline is an elaboration of Outline 1, as well as adding Lerner’s plans for act 2.
³⁷
Aside from the way in which it diverges from the final show,
Outline 2 is notable largely for Lerner’s clarity regarding the derivation of the script’s different components. For instance, in act 1, scene 1, Lerner writes “From here to end of scene, same as play,” and in the final scene of the act he indicates: “This will be portion of scene that occurs in play in Act V.” Elsewhere, reference is made to the “motion picture.” So although the events depicted in act 1 of Outline 2 are largely the same as in act 1 of Outline 1, Outline 2 acts as a kind of loose map around the
Pygmalion
play and film that Lerner proposes as the basis for his adaptation.

Table 3.1.
Outline 1, Act 1 only

Table 3.2.
Outline 2, Act 1

New musical numbers are indicated here, too. In place of “I’m a Good Girl, I Am,” Outline 2 has “The Like of ’im and the Like of Me,” which presumably indicates Eliza’s view of the social distinction between her and Higgins. It is reprised in act 2 at the end of the scene of the argument between the two characters in the same position as the tearful reprise of “Just You Wait” in the published script; it is interesting that the expressive function of a reprise at this point in the show was in place early on. Also, Pickering’s act 1 “ballade” is reprised twice in the second act, signaling his more prominent function in this early version. Scene 4 seems also to be roughly in its definitive state, but scenes 5–8 are quite different because of a crucial change to the story: Doolittle’s wedding becomes a focal point. Upon discovering Eliza has fled, Higgins traces her to her father’s wedding; the gathering of the significantly “Middle Class” guests outside the church is a way of illustrating Doolittle’s social mobility; Doolittle blames Higgins for his new circumstances to his face (as in
Pygmalion
) rather than via Eliza (as in
Fair Lady
); there is no scene at Mrs. Higgins’s house (the argument takes place outside the church instead); and Eliza leaves “triumphantly” with Freddy after her argument with Higgins, rather than departing alone and reappearing at Higgins’s house in the final scene. The ending, however, seems to have been conceived as the proper conclusion for the musical all along, hinting that Lerner always saw the close of the
Pygmalion
movie as his preferred ending to the piece.

Like Outline 1, Outline 2 portrays romance between Higgins and Eliza in a different way than in the published show. Suddenly, Eliza’s feelings seem to matter: Pickering says that “she’s perfectly equipped now to find a job in a flower shop,” indicating a concern with her future that is not portrayed in the final show, and he “maintains it isn’t fair to Liza to allow her to go through with [the bet].” Higgins agrees with this, apparently mirroring Pickering’s compassion and common sense, and then is secretly “delighted” when she decides to go on, indicating how emotionally bound up with her he is (though the experiment is unquestionably a huge motivator here too, of course). A significant difference between Outlines 1 and 2 is that whereas the first indicates that Eliza “requests Higgins’ arm,” this second outline merely has the
three “departing for the ball.” Ultimately, Lerner would reinstate the gesture with the arm and give it huge significance.

The outline of act 2 continues the overall trend toward overt discussions of love. We see, for instance, the crucial inclusion of a duet for Higgins and Eliza—something missing from the final show, and yet something that would have united them in music in a classic gesture of romance. Pickering’s character is strikingly at odds with his
Fair Lady
persona: he is “amused” at Higgins’s behavior, intimating that the motivation for the Professor’s irritability is romantic jealousy. He reprises his first-act song and “facetiously suggests to Higgins that he try it again with another flower girl—create another woman precisely to his own taste,” whereupon Higgins “stomps off” and Pickering “laughs.” This outline also reveals initial plans for the ball scene: whereas the definitive show ends the first act in the middle of the dance and tantalizes us with Eliza’s fate until “You Did It” at the start of act 2, Outline 2 shows the events in real time. “You Did It,” of course, is a great showcase for Higgins and Pickering in which they relate the evening’s events to Mrs. Pearce and the servants, but Outline 2 has all this happen onstage instead, and even includes reference to Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody in the same ironic way that Loewe would eventually evoke it in “You Did It.” The third scene of act 2 is also unfamiliar, in the sense that it depicts the trio in a “period limousine” with Pickering driving, but Higgins self-satisfied behavior is familiar from both
Pygmalion
and the published
Fair Lady
.

Outline 3 (reproduced in
table 3.4
) also comes from Herman Levin’s papers. It gives less specific information about the action, has no mention of songs, no title or date, and takes up only three pages. However, the outline does show a mixture of some scenes held over from the previous outline and some advanced to the familiar scenario, implying it must be an intermediate version. Act 1, scene 9 contains a note: “I am hoping that by the time we come to England, we will have a choreographer, and this sequence might be a little more precise than it is at the moment.” This strongly implies that the document dates from either the end of 1954 or early 1955, because it is likely to be an explanation to Rex Harrison—whom Lerner and Loewe visited in London—of how the scene might play. Therefore, Lerner’s subsequent claim that he and Loewe recommenced the composition of
Fair Lady
in autumn 1954 because they had decided they “could do
Pygmalion
simply by doing
Pygmalion
” (i.e., following the progress of the film “and adding the action that took place between the acts of the play”), in fact he simplified the matter.
³⁸
Clearly, more work was done on the story than Lerner would have us believe.

Table 3.3.
Outline 2, Act 2