My Fair Lady

“Wouldn’t It Be Loverly”: Julie Andrews in “My Fair Lady” in 1961

by

The 20- year-old Julie Andrews was experienced as a British Vaudeville actress, but “young and green” on the Broadway stage, when, in 1955, she was cast in the role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. After a rocky start during rehearsals, where she interacted with the temperamental Rex Harrison (Henry Higgins), Andrews remembers the experience as “the great learning period” of her life. She recalls an intense, uninterrupted 48-hour period during rehearsals when …

Read more

The Lusty Month of May

by

  I can’t resist marking the recent turn of the calendar page with this well-known excerpt from Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s 1960 Broadway musical, Camelot. The score includes some of Loewe’s most beautiful and soaring melodies, including The Simple Joys of Maidenhood, If Ever I Would Leave You, and I Loved You Once In Silence.  Born in Germany, Frederick Loewe began writing songs at the age of 7 and performed as a piano soloist with the …

Read more

Cheapening Broadway

by

Ticket prices and the profits generated by Broadway shows continue to soar but how does the experience compare with what audiences were getting fifty years ago? This question came to mind after a recent conversation I had with a student, following her attendance of Troika Entertainment’s touring production of West Side Story. Initially excited to see a live performance of one of her favorite shows, my student was quickly distracted and disheartened by the empty, …

Read more