When My Fair Lady opened on Broadway in 1956, it was immediatelyrecognized as a masterpiece. Onecritic described it as, "a legendaryevening". Brooks Atkinson, The NewYork Times reviewer called it "one ofthe best musicals of the century." Besides critical accolades, it was ahuge box office hit that went on to become the greatest commercial triumph the American theatre hadknown up until that time. The show ranfor over seven years, for a total of2,717 performances, breaking therecord of Rodgers and Hammerstein’sOklahoma! At the end of its first Broadway run,the show had been seen by over threemillion patrons, and had earned overforty million dollars. It was nominatedfor ten Tony Awards, and won six. Theoriginal cast recording sold over threemillion copies. It remained on the USBillboard Top 200 charts for 480weeks, making it the third-longest sell-ing album, in any category, of all time!The 1964 film version directed byGeorge Cukor and starring AudreyHepburn and Rex Harrison won eightOscars, including Best Picture, BestDirector and Best Actor. My Fair Lady is based on GeorgeBernard Shaw's play, Pygmalion, whichhas its roots in the ancient Greek mythof Pygmalion, a sculptor who falls inlove with Galatea, one of his creations.The play and musical are a variation ofthe Cinderella fairytale and tell thestory of a Cockney flower girl whotakes speech lessons from an phonetics professor to improve her lotin life and pass as a lady. My Fair Lady was an artistic and financial smash, but the road to success was long and bumpy. AlanJay Lerner and Frederick (Fritz)Loewe were already establishedBroadway collaborators when theytook on the challenge of adapting Pygmalion into a musical. The projecthad been turned down by a number of

distinguished colleagues, includingNoël Coward, Cole Porter, Dietz andSchwartz, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. After struggling to find a way of enlarging what was essentially a drawing-room comedy, they realizedthat the play violated several key rulesfor constructing a musical: there wasno love story; no place for an ensemble and the lead male characterseemed too cerebral and unemotionalto sing.The challenge was too daunting;Lerner and Loewe gave up and wenttheir separate ways for two years. In1954, they decided to try again butwith a different approach. Rather thanworking with Shaw’s play, they de-cided to base the musical on Shaw’s1938Academy Award-winning screen-play, retaining several scenes writtenespecially for the film, including theEmbassy Ball sequence and the ending. And, this time, by George,they got it! One of the main strengths of the musical is the thoughtful use ofShaw's original play and screenplayand the brilliance of the well-integratedlyrics and score. Loewe’s melodicstyle ranged from the exuberance ofthe English music hall to the eleganceof Strauss waltzes. The classic scoreincludes Wouldn’t It Be Loverly, With aLittle Bit Of Luck, I Could HaveDanced All Night, On the Street WhereYou Live, Get Me To The Church OnTime and I’ve Grown Accustomed ToHer Face. Lerner and Loewe had, in-deed, created a very fair lady.

References: www.wikipedia.orgwww.musicals101.com Broadway, the American Musical; Kantor, Michaeland Maslon, Laurence; Bullfinch Press, 2004 Loverly, The Life and Times of My Fair Lady; McHugh,Dominic; Oxford University Press, 2012

music theatre

Audience GuideSee the guide in color online atwww.skylightmusictheatre.org

2015-2016Our 57th SeasonIssue 2, November/December 2015IN THIS ISSUE

AUDIENCE GUIDEResearch/Writing by Justine Leonard

for Enlighten,Skylight Music Theatre’s Education ProgramEdited by Ray Jivoff

www.skylightmusictheatre.org

Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay LernerMusic by Frederick Loewe

Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s playand Gabriel Pascal’s motion picture

PYGMALIONOriginal Stage Direction by Moss Hart

Skylight Stage Direction by Dorothy DannerThis production is generously sponsored by

John Shannon and Jan Serr

MY FAIR LADY, A Broadway Masterpiece

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick (Fritz)Loewe created some of the most popular and enduring musicals including Brigadoon (1947); Paint YourWagon (1951); My Fair Lady (1956); thefilm, Gigi (1958) and Camelot (1960).Although their creative chemistry wascomparable to other great Broadwayteams such as Rodgers and Hammer-stein and the Gershwins, they were anunlikely pairing. Seventeen years olderthan Lerner, Fritz Loewe had struggledfor years to gain a foothold in musicaltheater. When they met, Lerner wasjust 24, an eager young writer with bigBroadway ambitions. Alan Jay Lerner was born in New YorkCity in 1918, into the family that ownedthe Lerner Stores, a national chain ofdress shops. He attended the Choate School in Connecticut, Harvard University and studied composition atJuilliard. His career in musical theater beganwhen he and fellow student LeonardBernstein worked on the annual Harvard Hasty Pudding musicals.While attending Harvard, Lerner lostthe sight in his left eye in a boxing accident and could not serve in WorldWar II. Instead, he went to work writingscripts for radio shows.Frederick (Fritz) Loewe was born in1901 in Berlin, Germany, to Vienneseparents Edmond and Rosa Loewe. Hisfather was a noted operetta star whoperformed throughout Europe and theAmericas. Loewe learned to playpiano by ear and began composing atage seven. At thirteen, he was theyoungest piano soloist to appear withthe Berlin Philharmonic.In 1924, Loewe moved to New YorkCity, determined to write for Broadway.This proved to be difficult. Fritz oftenslept on benches in Central Park andwas on the verge of starvation manytimes. He eventually went to Montanaand delivered mail on horseback. Returning to New York, he did oddjobs, including working as a boxer,horseback riding instructor and playingpiano for musical productions. In the1930s, he worked with Earle Crooker

on two musicals, Salute To Spring andGreat Lady. But nothing clicked until hemet Alan Jay Lerner.Lerner recalls their first meeting, whenhe was writing the annual show at theLamb’s Club, a club for New York theatre people. ''A man came up to mytable and said, 'You're Alan Jay Lerner.I hear you write lyrics.' I said, 'I try.' Hesaid, 'I’m Fritz Loewe. I write music,and I don't have a lyric writer. Whydon't we try it together?”So began a great partnership. Theirfirst effort, What’s Up? (1943) flopped.But their next show, The Day BeforeSpring ran on Broadway for fivemonths in 1945.Their first hit was Brigadoon (1947),a romantic fantasy set in a mysticalScottish village. They did over 50“backers auditions” before they raisedthe funding they needed. Their persistence paid off: the show ran for581 performances and introducedstandards including The Heather onthe Hill and Almost Like Being In Love.The 1954 film version starred GeneKelly and Cyd Charisse.In 1951, the team scored their secondsuccess with Paint Your Wagon, set in amining camp in Gold Rush-era Califor-nia, which included such songs asThey Call The Wind Maria and I Talkto the Trees. A film version starringLee Marvin and Clint Eastwood wasreleased in 1969. In Edward Jablonski's biography,Lerner explained how he and Loewecomposed their musicals: ''We have adetailed outline, and we know wherethe important musical revelationsshould be, and what they should say.Then I give Fritz a song title and hewrites a melody for it. When he's done,I begin to write the lyrics.” Lerner often struggled for months overthe lyrics for a song. Unlike his othercollaborators, Loewe never pressuredhim and Lerner described their working relationship as pleasant and respectful. Lerner suffered from chronic bouts ofinsecurity about his talent, and his

personal life was a shambles. Fornearly twenty years he battled an amphetamine addiction; during the1960s he was a patient of a doctorknown as "Dr. Feelgood," who administered injections of vitaminswith "enzymes," that were in fact amphetamines. He married eight times; four of hiswives were actresses. Lerner wrote inhis autobiography, The Street Where ILive, "All I can say is that if I had noflair for marriage, I also had no flair forbachelorhood.” Lerner and Loewe’s partnershipreached its pinnacle with My FairLady, often called the perfect musical.Their involvement with producingshows was very hands-on, includingoverseeing choreography, direction,costuming, sets and casting. Whenthey began their work musicalizingPygmalion, they wisely cast the principal roles before they wrote them. Mary Martin was an early choice forEliza Doolittle, but declined. The teamsoon found Julie Andrews, who hadjust been "discovered” in her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend.Noël Coward was the first to be offered the role of Henry Higgins, butturned it down, suggesting Rex Harrison. The team tailored patter-style songs meant to be spoken rather than sung to fit Harrison’s non-singing voice andcaustic, supercilious delivery.

MY FAIR LADYLerner and Loewe

Alan Jay Lerner (1918-1986)(photo courtesy of IBDB, the Internet Broadway Database)

When My Fair Lady opened in 1956,critics called Loewe’s astonishinglyrich score one of the great masterpieces of the American musical.In Loewe’s 1988 obituary in The NewYork Times, Stephen Holden said “Theteam's songs are marked by a contemporary conversational fluencyand precision of phrase joined to anOld World melodicism that looks backto the turn-of-the-century operetta.”Lerner and Loewe's run of successcontinued with their next project, the1958 film Gigi, based on the stories ofFrench author Colette. Starring LeslieCaron, Louis Jourdan, Hermione Gingold and Maurice Chevalier, thefilm won all of its nine Oscar nominations. The superb score includes The Night They InventedChampagne, I Remember it Well andthe Oscar-winning Gigi. Their last great collaboration wasCamelot (1960), adapted from The OnceAnd Future King, T.H. White's story ofKing Arthur. Their most lavish show, itopened with an advance sale of $3million, the largest in Broadway historyat that point. Starring Julie Andrews,Richard Burton and Robert Goulet, itran for 874 performances over twoand a half years. Beyond its success, Camelot came tosymbolize the administration of President John F. Kennedy. After hisassassination, Jacqueline Kennedytold Life Magazine that his administration reminded her of the

"one brief shining moment" referred toin Camelot. The show is still invoked todescribe the idealism, romance andtragedy of the Kennedy years.After Camelot, Loewe retired to hishome in Palm Springs, California. Hetold The New York Times, “Too manypeople have gone in for this senselesschasing of rainbows. How many rainbows does one need? I don’t needthe glory, I don’t need money.”In the early 1970s, Loewe came out ofretirement to join Lerner and write ascore for the film version of The LittlePrince, based on the children's book byAntoine de Saint-Exupéry. The filmwas a critical and box office failure.Although Lerner is remembered for hispartnership with Loewe, he achievedsuccess with several other collaborators. He won an AcademyAward for his screenplay for An American In Paris (1951). That sameyear, he worked with composer BurtonLane on Royal Wedding, a movie musical starring Fred Astaire and JanePowell. It included the famous numberwith Astaire dancing on the ceiling andthe song with the longest title in any Hollywood film, How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love YouWhen You Know I've Been a Liar AllMy Life.

After Loewe retired, Lerner workedwith other composers but was neverable to attain the same level of success. With composer Burton Lanehe wrote On A Clear Day You Can SeeForever (1965) and Carmelina (1979). In 1969, he and Andre Previn wroteCoco, which starred Katharine Hepburn as fashion designer CocoChanel. In 1976 he collaborated withLeonard Bernstein on the flop, 1600Pennsylvania Avenue. Although On AClear Day…was adapted into a motionpicture in 1970 starring BarbraStreisand, none of these showsachieved any success.Aside from their professional relationship, Lerner and Loewe remained close friends. Their finalpublic appearance was in December1985, when they received a KennedyCenter Honor, six months beforeLerner's death.Lerner said of Loewe: "There willnever be another Fritz...Writing willnever again be as much fun. A collaboration as intense as ours inescapably had to be complex. But Iloved him more than I understood ormisunderstood him and I know heloved me more than he understood ormisunderstood me.” When Lerner died in 1986, Loewe wastoo ill to attend a memorial tribute atthe Shubert Theater. But the composer sent a message that wasread by Kitty Carlisle Hart: ''I was always amazed how good we wereand how simple it was,'' he wrote, andconcluded with a fragment of a Lernerlyric: ''I loved you once in silence.Farewell, my boy.'' Loewe died in 1988.If they had written nothing else, My FairLady would be achievement enoughfor both of their lives. As Gene Leeswrote in Inventing Champagne: TheWorlds of Lerner and Loewe: “Ah, thesongs! What a legacy to leave.”

References: www.wikipedia.orgLerner, Alan Jay. The Street Where I Live; NewYork: Da Capo Press, 1994.

MY FAIR LADYWORKS OF LERNER AND LOEWE

Life of the Party (1942)What's Up? (1943)

The Day Before Spring (1945)Brigadoon (1947)

Paint Your Wagon (1951)My Fair Lady (1956)

Gigi (1958) Camelot (1960)

The Little Prince (Film) (1974)OTHER WORKS OF ALAN JAY LERNER

Love Life (1948) with Kurt WeillRoyal Wedding (1951 film)

with Burton LaneAn American in Paris (1951 film)

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965)with Burton Lane

Coco (1969) with André PrevinLolita, My Love (1971) with John Barry1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976)

with Leonard BernsteinCarmelina (1979) with Burton LaneDance a Little Closer (1983)

with Charles Strouse

Frederick Loewe (1901-1988)(photo courtesy of IBDB, the Internet Broadway Database)

George Bernard Shaw (above) was aprolific Anglo-Irish playwright, often regarded as the greatest dramatist inthe English language during the firsthalf of the 20th Century. His impressive resume includes writingover 60 plays; he was also a musicand literary critic, an essayist, novelistand short story writer. He is the onlyperson to have been awarded both aNobel Prize, for his contributions to literature, (1925), and an AcademyAward, for Best Adapted Screenplay of Pygmalion, (1938). He refused all otherawards, including a knighthood. Shaw played an important role in revolutionizing British drama. At a timewhen the theatre was dominated bylight, sentimental entertainment, nearlyall of Shaw’s writings dealt with impor-tant social issues including education,marriage, religion, government, healthcare and class privilege. His playshave many elements that make themunique: his dialogue is smart, quick,witty and sharp. His literary techniquesinclude irony, sarcasm and puns. Hisstyle earned its own adjective, “Shavian,” describing a biting socialcritique leavened by humor. "My wayof joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world," Shaw said. Beyond literary prowess, he was a socialist, feminist, co-founder of theLondon School of Economics and avegetarian.

“Life isn't about finding yourself; it'sabout creating yourself.”George Bernard Shaw was born in1856 in Dublin, in a lower-middle classfamily of Scottish-Protestant ancestry.His father was a failed corn-merchant,with a drinking problem; his motherwas a professional singer. When Shawwas about sixteen, she left her husband and moved to London withher voice teacher. Shaw's older sisterLucy, who would become a successfulmusic hall singer, moved with them.Shaw remained in Dublin with his father, completing his schooling (whichhe hated passionately), and workingas a clerk for an estate office (whichhe also hated).In 1876, Shaw moved to London tolive with his mother. There he pursueda career in journalism and wrote fivenovels before publishing any. He readvoraciously, in public libraries and inthe British Museum reading room. Andhe became involved in progressivepolitics. With Beatrice and Sidney Webb, hefounded the Fabian Society, a socialistorganization dedicated to replacingcapitalism with socialism through grad-ual reform and education rather thanviolent revolution. Shaw became apassionate speaker for the Society.Standing on soapboxes at Speaker'sCorner in Hyde Park, he overcame hisstage fright and his stammer promot-ing causes such as equal rights formen and women, eliminating abusesof the working class, rescinding privateownership of productive land andhealthy lifestyles. The Fabian societywould be instrumental in founding theLondon School of Economics and theLabour Party. “I am a gentleman: I live by robbing thepoor.”

Man and Superman, Act 3Meanwhile, he worked as an art critic,then as a music critic (writing underthe pseudonym "Corno di Bassetto"),and finally, from 1895 to 1898, as atheatre critic for the Saturday Review,where his reviews appeared over theinfamous initials "GBS."

Shaw wrote his first play, Widowers’Houses in 1891, at the invitation of J.T.Grein, a theatre critic and director ofThe Independent Theatre, a progressive, new-play society. Over the next twelve years, he wroteeleven more plays, most not producedin London; a few were producedabroad and several were presented insingle performances by private societies. ARMS AND THE MAN wasproduced at an experimental theatre;MRS WARREN'S PROFESSION wascensored by the Lord Chamberlain'sExaminer of Plays (an office that, from1737 until 1967, oversaw the content ofall spoken drama in England).“The more things a man is ashamed of,the more respectable he is.”

Man and Superman, Act 1In 1898, after a serious illness, Shawresigned as theatre critic, and movedout of his mother's house to marryCharlotte Payne-Townsend, an Irishwoman of independent means. Theirmarriage lasted until Charlotte's deathin 1943.“Dancing is a perpendicular expressionof a horizontal desire.”In 1904, Harley Granville Barker, anactor, director and playwright, tookover the management of the CourtTheatre and turned it into an experi-mental theatre specializing in new andprogressive drama. There, from 1904-07, Barker produced ten ofShaw’s plays, establishing Shaw’s reputation as one of the foremost playwrights of the time. With royaltiesfrom his plays, Shaw now becamequite wealthy.Pygmalion (1914) is one of Shaw's mostpopular plays. He wrote the role ofEliza Doolittle for Mrs. Patrick (Stella)Campbell. It premiered at His Majesty'sTheatre, which was run by the actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, andTree himself played Henry Higgins.Rehearsals were difficult since Shawand his leading actors were all opinionated and uncompromising, butthe show opened to a rapturousresponse. No one cared that Campbellwas 30 years too old to play Eliza andthe audience laughed so much that

MY FAIR LADY

George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) http://www.nobelprize.org

Shaw was worried that the play wouldnever get going again. During the 1914 run, Tree changedShaw's ending, first blowing a kiss toEliza as she exited and eventuallygoing to the window and tossing abouquet down to her. "My endingmakes money; you ought to be grateful," protested Tree. "Your endingis damnable; you ought to be shot."was Shaw’s response.Shaw fought against a Higgins-Elizahappy-ending as late as the 1938screenplay. He wrote a sequence thathe felt offered a compromise: a tenderfarewell scene between Higgins andEliza, followed by one showing Freddyand Eliza happy in their flower shop.At the sneak preview, he saw that theproducer had added a final scene inwhich Eliza returns to Higgins andquotes her previous self saying "Iwashed my face and hands before Icome, I did". This became the endingof My Fair Lady.“You see things and you say, 'Why?'But I dream things that never were andsay, 'Why Not?'”

Back to Methuselah,Act IThe outbreak of war in 1914 changedShaw's life. For him, the war repre-sented the bankruptcy of the capitalistsystem and a tragic waste of lives, allunder the guise of patriotism. He ex-pressed his opinions in a series ofnewspaper articles under the titleCommon Sense About the War. Thisproved to be a disaster for Shaw'spublic standing: he was treated as anoutcast and there was even talk of hisbeing tried for treason. His dramaticoutput ended, and he wrote only onemajor play during the war years,HEARTBREAK HOUSE, which reflectedhis despair about British society.After the war, Shaw found his dramaticvoice again and began to rebuild hisreputation with Back to Methuselah, aseries of five plays dealing with the"creative evolution of humanity.” In1923 he wrote Saint Joan and in 1925 hewas awarded the Nobel Prize for Liter-ature. According to the citation, "Hisideas were those of a somewhat ab-stract logical radicalism...In him theseideas combined with a ready wit, a

complete absence of respect for anykind of convention...” He donated thecash portion of the award to Swedishplaywright August Strindberg, who hadnever been recognized with a NobelPrize by the Swedish Academy. “There are two tragedies in life. One isnot to get your heart's desire. The otheris to get it.”

Man and Superman, Act 4Shaw lived the rest of his life as an international celebrity, travelling theworld, continually involved in local andinternational politics. He was invited byJosef Stalin to visit the Soviet Union.He visited the US at the invitation ofWilliam Randolph Hearst, delivering alecture at the Metropolitan OperaHouse in New York. He continued towrite over a dozen more plays andthousands of letters.Shaw corresponded with a wide assortment of people, including poetLord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas (the intimate friend of Oscar Wilde), prominent actress Ellen Terry, boxerGene Tunney and writer H.G. Wells.His most famous letters were to andfrom actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell.Shaw developed an infatuation for

“Mrs. Pat” that resulted in a passionate, yet platonic, love affair ofmutual fascination. This legendary exchange of letters was adapted intothe play, Dear Liar: A Comedy of Lettersby Jerome Kilty. His correspondencewith Lord lfred Douglas was alsoadapted as Bernard and Bosie: A MostUnlikely Friendship by Anthony Wynn. “We don't stop playing because wegrow old; we grow old because we stopplaying.”A writer till the end, Shaw was workingon yet another play in 1950, when atage 94, he fell off a ladder while trim-ming a tree on his property at Ayot St.Lawrence outside of London. He dieda few days later of complications fromthe injury. Shaw’s estate was dividedbetween the National Gallery of Ireland, the British Museum and theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art. Royalties from Shaw's plays and themusical My Fair Lady have been asource of income for these institutionsever since.“There is only one true happiness inlife, to love and be loved.”

MY FAIR LADY

SELECTED PLAYS OF G.B. SHAWWidowers' Houses (1892)

Mrs Warren's Profession (1893)Arms and the Man (1894)

Candida (1894)You Never Can Tell (1897)The Devil's Disciple (1897)Caesar and Cleopatra (1898)Man and Superman (1902–03)John Bull's Other Island (1904)

Major Barbara (1905)The Doctor's Dilemma (1906)

Misalliance (1910)The Dark Lady of the Sonnets (1910)

Androcles and the Lion (1912)Pygmalion (1912–13)

Heartbreak House (1919)Back to Methuselah (1921) a series of five plays

In the BeginningThe Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas

The Thing HappensTragedy of an Elderly GentlemanAs Far as Thought Can ReachSaint Joan (1923)

The Apple Cart (1929)Too True To Be Good (1931)The Millionairess (1936)

Fashion preoccupied Edwardianwomen, especially when they hadmoney. It wouldn't be unusual for awealthy woman to change her clothesfive or six times a day. Not only dideach dining occasion carry its owndress code, but if she needed to receive a visitor, pay a call or go riding, she'd have to change herclothes and often her hairstyle as well.The costumes in My Fair Lady are abeautiful reflection of the era and theSkylight is delighted to welcome ChrisMarch, an innovative designer whobrings some refreshing, new conceptsto our production. Chris March hails from San Francisco,where he started his career as a self-taught costume designer. March is known for his appearance as a contestant on season 4 of Bravo'sProject Runway. He was also a finaliston the Project Runway All-Star Challenge.His natural talent is inspired by Diorand Chanel and his sense for designstems from his love of costuming,fashion and acting. He gained recognition for his trademark hats andwigs in the long-running Beach Blanket

Babylon, San Francisco's hilarious pop-culture musical revue. Celebratingover 15,000 performances, and seenby nearly six million people, the acclaimed production continues to delight audiences with its spectacularcostumes and outrageously gigantichats. The show was the catalyst thatsparked Chris to pursue a career inNew York, where he now lives. Hisclient list includes Madonna, Cirque du Soleil, Prince, Beyoncé (he built thecostumes for her I Am... Tour), LadyGaga, Thierry Mugler and MerylStreep. March has appeared on severalepisodes of The Real Housewives ofNew York City. He was also featured onMad Fashion, a show about his work asa costume designer, on the BravoNetwork in 2011. His costume designshave also been recognized with aDrama Desk Award nomination in 2002for Christmas With The Crawfords.

MY FAIR LADYCostume Designer Chris March: Making a Fashion Statement

Costume designs by Chris MarchPhotos by Mark FrohnaNatalie Ford as Eliza Doolittle

Q: How did you and the Skylightconnect? CM: Another Project Runway alum,Cesar Galindo, designed the costumes for Skylight's production ofCinderella last season. He recommended me for My Fair Lady. Q: You’re well-known for your extensive experience in TV and runway design. But you’ve alsodone a wide-range of work in thetheater. Please talk more about thatand the different challenges it presents.CM: I do a lot of theater in New YorkCity (costume design, acting, producing and directing) and differenttypes of projects all over the country. Regional theater has its challenges,mostly time constraints, and designinglong distance can be tricky. But I'vedone it several times with Cirque duSoleil in Las Vegas and theatricalfashion shows in Minneapolis, Chicago,San Francisco and Los Angeles.Q: How does designing for thestage differ from designing TV orrunway shows? CM: You develop an eye for whatworks with the visual sense of theater,which is different from photography,television and film. Theater also hasmany practical hurdles (like quickchanges) that stretch your creativityand skill. Q: What research and referencesdid you call on for My Fair Lady?CM: Of course the 1964 musical film,but also couture fashion shows, histor-ical photos, and recent trends at Ascotfrom the last few years. Q: Your hat designs for My Fair Ladyare spectacular and fun. Where didyou find the inspiration for them?Was Beach Blanket Babylon an influence? CM: Cecil Beaton's sensibility was ajumping off point for the attitude of theAscot scene. I have my own twist onthe socialite set trying to "out-fashion"

each other with their outrageous outfits, often to the brink of ridiculous-ness. Beach Blanket has always keptmy eye towards the outrageous andit's certainly come in handy here. Q: My Fair Lady is a traditional musical and audiences may be expecting a very traditional look.Will your designs for the showbring a few surprises? CM: We've tried to make the class differences very severe so that Eliza'stransition is really pronounced. Therich are richer and the poor are poorerand the hats are bigger (!).Q: If regional theaters, such as theSkylight, bring in designers whosework is recognized from TV andother social media, do you think ithelps attract younger audiences tolive theater?CM: I think regional theater can bemore creative and risk taking in placeswhere Broadway and more expensiveproductions cannot. Hopefully the audiences are ready for something alittle new, a little different. My Fair Ladyis still an entertaining show, we're justgiving the audience some new thingsto think about along with it.

MY FAIR LADYAn Interview with Costume Designer Chris March

Costume designs by Chris MarchPhotos by Mark FrohnaNatalie Ford as Eliza Doolittle

In Eliza Doolittle’s day, the late nine-teenth century, life for most womenwas the same as it had been for theirmothers and grandmothers. The idealwoman was the “angel in the house,” avirtuous wife and mother in need ofmale protection provided by a husband or father. Independence wasa man’s privilege.Women were expected to be marriedby their mid-20s. Society had a horrorof single women, and being “left on theshelf” was a fate worse than death.Unmarried women lived at home orwith relatives for the rest of their days. Married women were higher up in thesocial hierarchy, no matter the class orage. A divorced woman was a womanof “lost reputation” in society.Women of all classes received very lit-tle education. Upper class women, inaddition to elocution, comportmentand needlework, learned geography, alanguage and a little arithmetic. This“higher” education aimed to make hera charming conversationalist to herhusband, and nothing more. Poorerchildren would only go to elementaryschool to learn to read, count, cookand clean. For most lower-classwomen, jobs were either in a factory orin service.As for Eliza Doolittle, her lot was simi-lar to the other women who earned aliving selling flowers in the open mar-kets, restaurants or door to door atLondon homes. Girls as young as sixyears old sold small bunches of violetsor single roses. Adult flower sellerslike Eliza, selling bouquets, corsagesand potted plants, would have madeabout 38 pounds per year, while a ladyin a shop could earn up to 300 poundsper year. But it was also a time of great change,particularly for women. With the onsetof the industrial revolution, as morewomen joined the workforce, therewere greater opportunities in educa-tion and political activism for upperclass women.In the later part of the nineteenth cen-tury, women acquired more rights. Just

after the turn of the century, thewomen’s suffrage movement began togain momentum, though women wouldnot get the vote in the UK until 1918.Women in the United States gainedthe right to vote in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment to theConstitution.

The suffrage movement also questioned the inequity of laws thatbarred women from seeking divorce orfrom retaining child custody in theevent of a divorce. The MarriedWomen’s Property Act of 1882 allowedwomen to keep all their earnings andhold property in their own names. Priorto that, the earnings or an inheritanceof a woman automatically became theproperty of her husband. The late-nineteenth century markedthe rise of the “new woman”- well-edu-cated women who wished to supportthemselves, live independently andmanage their own money. Upper classwomen began to attend universities:women were first admitted to study atCambridge in 1869, though they werenot allowed to take degrees. These “new women” rejected restric-tions on dress, moving away from tightcorsets and confining garments. Theintroduction of bloomers allowed in-

creased physical activity. Cycling be-came very popular, as well as tennisand other games, and women couldeven choose to smoke or drink, unthinkable to proper Victorians. The "new woman" appears frequentlyin literature and art, and there aremany examples in George BernardShaw’s plays:Major Barbara: Salvation Army MajorBarbara rebels against the values ofher father, a munitions mogul. Candida: The title character, a charm-ing, intelligent matron, beguiles bothher stodgy, minister husband and aself-dramatizing young poet.Misalliance: Set in the posh countryhome of a wealthy businessman, aglamorous Polish acrobat drops out ofthe sky in an emergency plane landingand throws the family order into comicchaos.Mrs Warren's Profession:A pragmaticyoung woman, a graduate of high-classboarding schools, learns that her educationhas been built on the earnings of hermother, Mrs. Warren, a former prostitutewho has become a high class madam.Caesar and Cleopatra: The clever and am-bitious Cleopatra pursues Caesar for politi-cal reasons when she realizes that he hasthe power to help her steal the throne fromher brother. Saint Joan:Shaw makes this saint ahuman, fallible adolescent character whorefuses to dress, speak or act according totraditional notions as she leads the fight todrive the English out of her native France.

References: Chesterton, G.K. George Bernard Shaw; Oxford:House of Stratus Inc, 1956. Sharon Biggs Waller, author of A Mad, WickedFolly, w.sharonbiggswaller.com www.mccarter.org

MY FAIR LADYWomen in Eliza Doolittle’s Day

The first Eliza Doolittle, Mrs. Patrick Campbell in PygmalionSketch Magazine, 1914