OMIGOSH, I was IN this! And found it just because I was hoping to find a photo or two. But also, AARRRRRGGGG cause it skips over "Wouldn't it Be Loverly" where I was one of the cockneys quartet singing along with Eliza. At 23:20 that's me serving Freddie and Eliza their tea. Unbelievable, and thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to the uploader!
As I've commented above, I saw this when I was 15 and loved all of you guys. Much later I got to work as an actor with your choreographer Crandall Diehl, may he rest in peace, and spoke a few times with the Freddy, Nick Wyman who very generously related anecdotes about Sir Rex.
@@kennethwayne6857 Wow! Are you an active pro now? The thing I most remember about Nick was our chess games, where the score was something like 153 to 1. I think I did win one. Rex was never anything but a gentleman from what I saw, but of course, I didn't have the direct scene rehearsal work with him that Nick did. I do have to share, though, that I got my hands on "Loverly"... and I'm sure you might imagine what that felt like to watch myself from 40 years ago. I'm so glad you commented, thanks!
@@stanleyslawski1339 An active pro? Not exactly. Now I do most of my acting over Zoom. No pay, but working with great people. Nice to hear something positive about Rex. Not that Nick said anything negative, but I got the vibe that he could be very intimidating. I also have great memories of speaking with Ben Wrigley outside the stage door back in '81, he spent quite a while chatting with my Mom and I, giving advice to an eager young student actor. Is there more of the show available on UA-cam? I'd love to be directed to it, thanks for responding!
@@kennethwayne6857 Well, Rex was certainly a presence, but as I said, nothing but a gentleman. For example, while on tour in my home city, my mom gave a party for the cast at the house I grew up in. 40 miles out in the burbs, very modest home. Rex came when he could easily have begged off. One tidbit you might get a kick out of... Cathleen Nesbitt was 91 during rehearsals, which took place in Times Square at the peak of the drugs and porn and all that. Yet during lunch breaks, this grande dame of the English stage would walk by herself to her favorite lunch spot, McDonalds!, returning with her burger and "crisps". This clip is the only thing I have ever found on UA-cam or any other platform.
@@stanleyslawski1339 I absolutely love reading all this! Now I have a new respect for Rex Harrison and Cathleen Nesbitt. I so wish I could go back in time and see it all again, but this video will have to do. Thank heaven for UA-cam and FolliesFan. Whenever I watch the 1938 film of 'Pygmalion' I try searching for Ms. Nesbitt, but I'm not quite sure which part she plays. I have recently found out the film features the daughter and grandson of the original English Henry Higgins, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. In fact the grandson plays Freddy, David Tree- soon to become a tenor at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden after losing an arm in the war. Well, sorry for rambling on with my nerdy bits of trivia. Thanks again!
I’m so happy to finally see the famed ballroom set change designed by Oliver Smith! The double turntable reveal just as she starts to dance with the Hungarian.
Thanks loads for posting this! I was blessed to have seen this at the Uris Theatre on Broadway at the age of 15. It is exactly as I remember it! I had seen the movie on video countless times ( and once in a theatre) by then and knew most of the lines by heart. I remember being a little puzzled that a stanza of 'Ordinary Man' had been cut and that 'Get Me to the Church' ended differently, but on the whole, I had the time of my life. Thanks for the opportunity to revisit happy memories!
Well, it’s nice to know the “Make a plan & you will find she has something else in mind..” stanza was cut on purpose. I figured he may have forgot or skipped it as he was getting older. (And let’s face it, it happens all the time even with actors in their 20’s). Maybe they wanted to tighten things up, tempo wise. He definitely seems to be moving around a bit less, and at a slightly slower pace, but he was in his 70’s and had, at a minimum, about a year-long touring production. Probably pacing himself just a bit. Pretty remarkable I think!
@@swvacollings290 Remarkable that he could play the role so well at 73. I've recently learned that Howard Keel was a few years older when he did Higgins at the St. Louis Muny Opera, wish I had seen that!
Wow, thank you for uploading this! Really enjoyed it. Having watched the film version so many times, it's great to finally see a staged version. Frankly, that Ascot scene was even funnier than the film version.
I loved this revival. Harrison was wonderful - as was the rest of the cast. The critics were unfairly "ho hum" about the production which is a pity. It deserved a longer run.
As much as I think My Fair Lady is brilliant as musical I can live happy knowing that Eliza Doolittle doesn’t stay with Higgins in the original play he is smart to the point of cruel arrogant
And yet, if we are to trust what Shaw later wrote, they remained very involved in each others' lives. Even though one of Eliza's last lines is "Then I shall not see you again, Professor. Goodbye," in his postscript Shaw says that they saw a great deal of each other. From the second paragraph: “Eliza's instinct tells her not to marry Higgins. It does not tell her to give him up.” From the last paragraph: “It is astonishing how much Eliza still manages to meddle in the housekeeping at Wimpole Street in spite of the shop and her own family. And it is notable that though she never nags her husband, and frankly loves the Colonel as if she were his favorite daughter, she has never got out of the habit of nagging Higgins that was established on the fatal night when she won his bet for him. She snaps his head off on the faintest provocation, or on none. . . . [Y]et she has a sense, too, that his indifference is deeper than the infatuation of commoner souls. She is immensely interested in him. She has even secret mischievous moments in which she wishes she could get him alone, on a desert island, away from all ties and with nobody else in the world to consider, and just drag him off his pedestal and see him making love like any common man. We all have private imaginations of that sort. But when it comes to business, to the life that she really leads as distinguished from the life of dreams and fancies, she likes Freddy and she likes the Colonel; and she does not like Higgins and Mr. Doolittle. Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relation to her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable.”
@@mx4690 Which is why I refused to see it. That is just PC woke reimagining at its worst. You want the Pygmalion ending, then go see Pygmalion. MFL is the vision of Lerner and Loewe and Lerner was quite adamant that the musical was designed for Eliza and Higgins to end up together (using the ending of the 1936 film version of Pygmalion).
@@kennethwayne6857 Destroying both "Camelot" AND "1776" in the same season is enough to make me avoid all revivals in the future. I'd rather see an amateur production that sticks to the original text.
@5:27 “by right she should be taken out an swung.” I’m interested about this change. Whether hung to swing was 1. Something changed or 2. unintentional. Either way it removes the improper use of hung as opposed to hanged. (Obviously hung and tongue rhyme which is why Lerner wrote it that why). It has always bothered me that Higgins is so particular about the English language (the recent Broadway production leaned into the idea that Higgins behavior and disdain for non RP English stemmed from being on the spectrum which I find an interesting way to look at HH, but I digress), but yet he would make an error that he would no better not to make considering the term being more prevalent in the contemporary vernacular in Higgins lifetime in Edwardian England than it would be now.
Aaron Booth It was an intentional change. For more information on this revival, I highly recommend “The Incomparable Rex,” written by Patrick Garland, the director of this production.
@@brandonthomsen A marvelous book that you mention. One thing that Mr. Garland brings up I'm inclined to question. He contends (perhaps in defense of Harrison's behavior) that one cannot be a modest, retiring person and at the same time be a leading actor. A good point perhaps, but then what of Paul Scofield or Albert Finney who were very much shy, modest men?
Apparently, on opening night in New York, it was still "hung." It was commented on by John Simon in his review. Perhaps that spurred Lerner to make the change or perhaps Harrison made the change himself. I've read much of The Incomparable Rex but I don't own a copy so I'm not sure exactly what is said there about this. What about: I'd be equally as willing For a dentist to be drilling Than to ever let a woman in my life. Two grammatical errors right there.
Thanks for noticing that. I noticed the change and went back and checked. I remember Alan Jay Lerner mentioning this issue with the word "hung" in a book. After some googling, I found this quote from Mr. Lerner on the Alan Jay Lerner Wikipedia page: "I thought, oh well, maybe nobody will notice it, but not at all. Two nights after it opened, I ran into Noël Coward in a restaurant, and he walked over and he said, "Dear boy, it is hanged, not hung." I said, "Oh, Noel, I know it, I know it! You know, shut up!" So, and there's another, "Than to ever let a woman in my life." It should be, "as to ever let a woman in my life," but it just didn't sing well."
@@FolliesFan-yu8mf Do you have Angela Lansbury in The King and I in the 70s? Shirley Booth in Look to the Lillies from the late 60s? Or Carol Channing in The Vamp from the 50s?
Who plays Eliza here? I vaguely remember one of the Elizas associated with the tour was also on PBS' "Musical Comedy Tonight" and was the lead in a "Leave it to Jane" number, but my memory might be playing tricks on me.
Steve Burstein I believe Eliza is Nancy Ringham. Rex Harrison band picked British actress Cheryl Kennedy to play Eliza, (one of his conditions for returning to the role was an English actress had to play Eliza). But Cheryl Kennedy lost her voice on the pre-Broadway tour, and was forced to withdraw by the time it reached Broadway, so her understudy, Nancy Ringham was forced to take her place. Interestingly, Nancy Ringham has twice performed on opening night as an understudy, as she also had to take over from Maureen McGovern in Threepenny Opera a few years later (But Maureen McGovern did eventually return to the show, unlike Cheryl Kennedy).
@@jvcurtis And Cheryl Kennedy went back to British TV. But I can't find any record of ANYBODY dancing the lead role to the title song of LEAVE IT TO JANE on PBS in the 70s! And I remember it as if it were yesterday!
Cbristine Andreas, who played Eliza in the 1976 Broadway revival of My Fair Lady, was Jane in the Leave it to Jane sequence in the third and last installment of Musical Comedy Tonight.
OMIGOSH, I was IN this! And found it just because I was hoping to find a photo or two. But also, AARRRRRGGGG cause it skips over "Wouldn't it Be Loverly" where I was one of the cockneys quartet singing along with Eliza. At 23:20 that's me serving Freddie and Eliza their tea. Unbelievable, and thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to the uploader!
As I've commented above, I saw this when I was 15 and loved all of you guys. Much later I got to work as an actor with your choreographer Crandall Diehl, may he rest in peace, and spoke a few times with the Freddy, Nick Wyman who very generously related anecdotes about Sir Rex.
@@kennethwayne6857 Wow! Are you an active pro now? The thing I most remember about Nick was our chess games, where the score was something like 153 to 1. I think I did win one. Rex was never anything but a gentleman from what I saw, but of course, I didn't have the direct scene rehearsal work with him that Nick did. I do have to share, though, that I got my hands on "Loverly"... and I'm sure you might imagine what that felt like to watch myself from 40 years ago. I'm so glad you commented, thanks!
@@stanleyslawski1339 An active pro? Not exactly. Now I do most of my acting over Zoom. No pay, but working with great people. Nice to hear something positive about Rex. Not that Nick said anything negative, but I got the vibe that he could be very intimidating. I also have great memories of speaking with Ben Wrigley outside the stage door back in '81, he spent quite a while chatting with my Mom and I, giving advice to an eager young student actor. Is there more of the show available on UA-cam? I'd love to be directed to it, thanks for responding!
@@kennethwayne6857 Well, Rex was certainly a presence, but as I said, nothing but a gentleman. For example, while on tour in my home city, my mom gave a party for the cast at the house I grew up in. 40 miles out in the burbs, very modest home. Rex came when he could easily have begged off. One tidbit you might get a kick out of... Cathleen Nesbitt was 91 during rehearsals, which took place in Times Square at the peak of the drugs and porn and all that. Yet during lunch breaks, this grande dame of the English stage would walk by herself to her favorite lunch spot, McDonalds!, returning with her burger and "crisps".
This clip is the only thing I have ever found on UA-cam or any other platform.
@@stanleyslawski1339 I absolutely love reading all this! Now I have a new respect for Rex Harrison and Cathleen Nesbitt. I so wish I could go back in time and see it all again, but this video will have to do. Thank heaven for UA-cam and FolliesFan. Whenever I watch the 1938 film of 'Pygmalion' I try searching for Ms. Nesbitt, but I'm not quite sure which part she plays. I have recently found out the film features the daughter and grandson of the original English Henry Higgins, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. In fact the grandson plays Freddy, David Tree- soon to become a tenor at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden after losing an arm in the war. Well, sorry for rambling on with my nerdy bits of trivia. Thanks again!
I’m so happy to finally see the famed ballroom set change designed by Oliver Smith! The double turntable reveal just as she starts to dance with the Hungarian.
Thanks loads for posting this! I was blessed to have seen this at the Uris Theatre on Broadway at the age of 15. It is exactly as I remember it! I had seen the movie on video countless times ( and once in a theatre) by then and knew most of the lines by heart. I remember being a little puzzled that a stanza of 'Ordinary Man' had been cut and that 'Get Me to the Church' ended differently, but on the whole, I had the time of my life. Thanks for the opportunity to revisit happy memories!
Well, it’s nice to know the “Make a plan & you will find she has something else in mind..” stanza was cut on purpose. I figured he may have forgot or skipped it as he was getting older. (And let’s face it, it happens all the time even with actors in their 20’s). Maybe they wanted to tighten things up, tempo wise. He definitely seems to be moving around a bit less, and at a slightly slower pace, but he was in his 70’s and had, at a minimum, about a year-long touring production. Probably pacing himself just a bit. Pretty remarkable I think!
@@swvacollings290 Remarkable that he could play the role so well at 73. I've recently learned that Howard Keel was a few years older when he did Higgins at the St. Louis Muny Opera, wish I had seen that!
Wow, thank you for uploading this! Really enjoyed it. Having watched the film version so many times, it's great to finally see a staged version. Frankly, that Ascot scene was even funnier than the film version.
When the lights came up on the Ascot scene I spontaneously started applauding. Exciting! 30:22
I loved this revival. Harrison was wonderful - as was the rest of the cast. The critics were unfairly "ho hum" about the production which is a pity. It deserved a longer run.
The critics actually raved about it. Time and Newsweek magazines gave it rave reviews.
Overall, the reviews were distinctly mixed and some of them were downright unfavorable.
Goodness, but I do love bootleg! Thank you for the upload.
Thanks for uploading this
As much as I think My Fair Lady is brilliant as musical I can live happy knowing that Eliza Doolittle doesn’t stay with Higgins in the original play he is smart to the point of cruel arrogant
And also in the LCT revival!
And yet, if we are to trust what Shaw later wrote, they remained very involved in each others' lives. Even though one of Eliza's last lines is "Then I shall not see you again, Professor. Goodbye," in his postscript Shaw says that they saw a great deal of each other.
From the second paragraph:
“Eliza's instinct tells her not to marry Higgins. It does not tell her to give him up.”
From the last paragraph:
“It is astonishing how much Eliza still manages to meddle in the housekeeping at Wimpole Street in spite of the shop and her own family. And it is notable that though she never nags her husband, and frankly loves the Colonel as if she were his favorite daughter, she has never got out of the habit of nagging Higgins that was established on the fatal night when she won his bet for him. She snaps his head off on the faintest provocation, or on none. . . . [Y]et she has a sense, too, that his indifference is deeper than the infatuation of commoner souls. She is immensely interested in him. She has even secret mischievous moments in which she wishes she could get him alone, on a desert island, away from all ties and with nobody else in the world to consider, and just drag him off his pedestal and see him making love like any common man. We all have private imaginations of that sort. But when it comes to business, to the life that she really leads as distinguished from the life of dreams and fancies, she likes Freddy and she likes the Colonel; and she does not like Higgins and Mr. Doolittle. Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relation to her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable.”
@@mx4690 Which is why I refused to see it. That is just PC woke reimagining at its worst. You want the Pygmalion ending, then go see Pygmalion. MFL is the vision of Lerner and Loewe and Lerner was quite adamant that the musical was designed for Eliza and Higgins to end up together (using the ending of the 1936 film version of Pygmalion).
@@epaddon That is nothing in comparison to what has been done to 'Camelot'. I'm quite disappointed in Bartlett Sher.
@@kennethwayne6857 Destroying both "Camelot" AND "1776" in the same season is enough to make me avoid all revivals in the future. I'd rather see an amateur production that sticks to the original text.
@5:27 “by right she should be taken out an swung.” I’m interested about this change. Whether hung to swing was 1. Something changed or 2. unintentional. Either way it removes the improper use of hung as opposed to hanged. (Obviously hung and tongue rhyme which is why Lerner wrote it that why). It has always bothered me that Higgins is so particular about the English language (the recent Broadway production leaned into the idea that Higgins behavior and disdain for non RP English stemmed from being on the spectrum which I find an interesting way to look at HH, but I digress), but yet he would make an error that he would no better not to make considering the term being more prevalent in the contemporary vernacular in Higgins lifetime in Edwardian England than it would be now.
Aaron Booth It was an intentional change. For more information on this revival, I highly recommend “The Incomparable Rex,” written by Patrick Garland, the director of this production.
@@brandonthomsen A marvelous book that you mention. One thing that Mr. Garland brings up I'm inclined to question. He contends (perhaps in defense of Harrison's behavior) that one cannot be a modest, retiring person and at the same time be a leading actor. A good point perhaps, but then what of Paul Scofield or Albert Finney who were very much shy, modest men?
Apparently, on opening night in New York, it was still "hung." It was commented on by John Simon in his review. Perhaps that spurred Lerner to make the change or perhaps Harrison made the change himself. I've read much of The Incomparable Rex but I don't own a copy so I'm not sure exactly what is said there about this.
What about:
I'd be equally as willing
For a dentist to be drilling
Than to ever let a woman in my life.
Two grammatical errors right there.
Thanks for noticing that. I noticed the change and went back and checked. I remember Alan Jay Lerner mentioning this issue with the word "hung" in a book. After some googling, I found this quote from Mr. Lerner on the Alan Jay Lerner Wikipedia page:
"I thought, oh well, maybe nobody will notice it, but not at all. Two nights after it opened, I ran into Noël Coward in a restaurant, and he walked over and he said, "Dear boy, it is hanged, not hung." I said, "Oh, Noel, I know it, I know it! You know, shut up!" So, and there's another, "Than to ever let a woman in my life." It should be, "as to ever let a woman in my life," but it just didn't sing well."
Incredible, does anyone know if this entire production can be found anywhere on video???
@@FolliesFan-yu8mf hey I want it too!!!
@@FolliesFan-yu8mf Do you have Angela Lansbury in The King and I in the 70s? Shirley Booth in Look to the Lillies from the late 60s? Or Carol Channing in The Vamp from the 50s?
@@RLucas3000 I have the first posted already, the other two unfortunately not.
Jack GWILLIM played Pickering.
Who, interestingly enough, did at least two movies with Wilfrid Hyde-White, who played the role in the film version.
Wow how old was Rex here! He already seemed older in the movie!
He was 73 at the time.
1971FolliesFan wow! How old was Eliza!?
looks like Rex is waking through this
WaLking thru. Definitely. I saw him earlier in Chicago - even more so. A few flashes of fun, but not enough.
Who plays Eliza here? I vaguely remember one of the Elizas associated with the tour was also on PBS' "Musical Comedy Tonight" and was the lead in a "Leave it to Jane" number, but my memory might be playing tricks on me.
Steve Burstein I believe Eliza is Nancy Ringham. Rex Harrison band picked British actress Cheryl Kennedy to play Eliza, (one of his conditions for returning to the role was an English actress had to play Eliza). But Cheryl Kennedy lost her voice on the pre-Broadway tour, and was forced to withdraw by the time it reached Broadway, so her understudy, Nancy Ringham was forced to take her place. Interestingly, Nancy Ringham has twice performed on opening night as an understudy, as she also had to take over from Maureen McGovern in Threepenny Opera a few years later (But Maureen McGovern did eventually return to the show, unlike Cheryl Kennedy).
@@jvcurtis And Cheryl Kennedy went back to British TV. But I can't find any record of ANYBODY dancing the lead role to the title song of LEAVE IT TO JANE on PBS in the 70s! And I remember it as if it were yesterday!
Cbristine Andreas, who played Eliza in the 1976 Broadway revival of My Fair Lady, was Jane in the Leave it to Jane sequence in the third and last installment of Musical Comedy Tonight.
@@lilyhogwart Thank You!
@@lilyhogwart And she's from NEW JERSEY! A pretty good "English Rose" type for someone who's not from Britain!