Editing My Fair Lady (section)

==Background==
In the mid-1930s, film producer [[Gabriel Pascal]] acquired the rights to produce film versions of several of [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s plays, [[Pygmalion (play)|''Pygmalion'']] among them. However, Shaw, having had a bad experience with ''[[The Chocolate Soldier]]'', a Viennese operetta based on his play ''[[Arms and the Man]]'', refused permission for ''Pygmalion'' to be adapted into a musical. After Shaw died in 1950, Pascal asked lyricist [[Alan Jay Lerner]] to write the musical adaptation. Lerner agreed, and he and his partner [[Frederick Loewe]] began work. But they quickly realised that the play violated several key rules for constructing a musical: the main story was not a love story, there was no subplot or secondary love story, and there was no place for an ensemble.<ref>Lerner, p. 36.</ref> Many people, including [[Oscar Hammerstein II]], who, with [[Richard Rodgers]], had also tried his hand at adapting ''Pygmalion'' into a musical and had given up, told Lerner that converting the play to a musical was impossible, so he and Loewe abandoned the project for two years.<ref>Lerner, p. 38.</ref>

During this time, the collaborators separated, and Pascal died. Lerner had been trying to musicalize ''[[Li'l Abner]]'' when he read Pascal's obituary and found himself thinking about ''Pygmalion'' again.<ref>Lerner, p. 39.</ref> When he and Loewe reunited, everything fell into place. All of the insurmountable obstacles that had stood in their way two years earlier disappeared when the team realized that the play needed few changes apart from (according to Lerner) "adding the action that took place between the acts of the play".<ref>Lerner, pp. 43–44.</ref> They then excitedly began writing the show. However, [[Chase Manhattan Bank]] was in charge of Pascal's estate, and the musical rights to ''Pygmalion'' were sought both by Lerner and Loewe and by [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]], whose executives called Lerner to discourage him from challenging the studio. Loewe decided, "We will write the show without the rights, and when the time comes for them to decide who is to get them, we will be so far ahead of everyone else that they will be forced to give them to us."<ref>Lerner, p. 47.</ref> For five months Lerner and Loewe wrote, hired technical designers, and made casting decisions. The bank, in the end, granted them the musical rights.

Various titles were suggested for the musical. Dominic McHugh wrote: "During the autumn of 1955, the show [was] typically referred to as ''My Lady Liza'', and most of the contracts refer to this as the title."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dominic |first1=McHugh |title=Loverly: the life and times of My fair lady |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=20–48}}</ref> Lerner preferred ''My Fair Lady'', relating both to one of Shaw's provisional titles for ''Pygmalion'' and to the final line of every verse of the nursery rhyme "[[London Bridge Is Falling Down]]". Recalling that the Gershwins' 1925 musical ''Tell Me More'' had been titled ''My Fair Lady'' in its out-of-town tryout, and also had a musical number under that title, Lerner made a courtesy call to Ira Gershwin, alerting him to the use of the title for the Lerner and Loewe musical.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

[[Noël Coward]] was the first to be offered the role of Henry Higgins, but he turned it down, suggesting the producers cast [[Rex Harrison]] instead.<ref>Morley, Sheridan. ''A Talent to Amuse: A Biography of Noël Coward'', p. 369, Doubleday & Company, 1969.</ref> After much deliberation, Harrison agreed to accept the part. [[Mary Martin]] was an early choice for the role of [[Eliza Doolittle]], but declined the role.<ref>[http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/cvvpw/gallery/martin1.html "Extravagant Crowd: Mary Martin"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615105320/http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/cvvpw/gallery/martin1.html |date=2010-06-15 }}, Beinecke Library, Yale University, accessed December 9, 2011.</ref> Young actress [[Julie Andrews]] was "discovered" and cast as Eliza after the show's creative team went to see her Broadway debut in ''[[The Boy Friend (musical)|The Boy Friend]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dame Julie Andrews |url=https://achievement.org/achiever/julie-andrews/ |access-date=April 26, 2022 |website=Academy of Achievement}}</ref> [[Moss Hart]] agreed to direct after hearing only two songs. The experienced orchestrators [[Robert Russell Bennett]] and [[Philip J. Lang]] were entrusted with the [[arrangements]], and the show quickly went into rehearsal.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

The musical's script used several scenes that Shaw had written especially for the [[Pygmalion (1938 film)|1938 film version of ''Pygmalion'']], including the Embassy Ball sequence and the final scene of the 1938 film rather than the ending for Shaw's original play.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://theworld.org/stories/2014-07-09/how-pygmalion-went-feminist-manifesto-chick-flick |title=How Pygmalion went from feminist manifesto to chick flick |last1=Lawton |first1=Jenny |last2=Wernick |first2=Adam |date=July 2014 |access-date= November 5, 2022 |quote=... the ending of the play was misinterpreted and altered in a way Shaw loathed.}}</ref> The montage showing Eliza's lessons was also expanded, combining both Lerner's and Shaw's dialogue. The artwork on the original Broadway poster (and the sleeve of the cast recording) is by [[Al Hirschfeld]], who drew the playwright Shaw as a heavenly [[puppeteer|puppetmaster]] pulling the strings on the Henry Higgins character, while Higgins in turn attempts to control Eliza Doolittle.<ref>{{citation | url=https://www.alhirschfeldfoundation.org/piece/my-fair-lady-2 | title=My Fair Lady: Pygmalion and beyond | author=David Leopold | website=The Al Hirschfeld Foundation}}</ref>