My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady
MY FAIR LADY. Musical based on George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion". 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 (phoneticist) so that she might pass as a lady. The original Broadway, London and film versions all starred Rex Harrison. 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 a hit London production, a popular film version and numerous revivals over the years that have followed. It has frequently been called "the perfect musical". The West End production, in which Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews and Stanley Holloway reprised their roles, opened on April 30th 1958 at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane where it ran for five and a half years (2,281 performances).