Hugh Laurie for Higgins? — Page 4

Rex Harrison was a more gifted publicist (for himself) than anyone he could have hired.

LISTEN to Rex Harrison's performances. He seamlessly blends "speaking" with singing, every note clearly on pitch -- so artfully that people will listen to his tracks and then say, gee, he talked his way through that entire song.

But he did NOT!!! He sang, using his speaking voice for some of the vamps. He was so good at this that people are convinced that he "Could Not Sing," and that he fudged and faked it, because he was a "good speaker."

Geez. He was being self-deprecating ('can't sing more than a step and a half'). Listen to the intervals in "I'm An Ordinary Man" -- he nails the perfect fifths and fourths in series effortlessly, and I'm talking about the OBC album, not the film.

I'm sorry if my remark sounded condescending -- it's just so frustrating when people listen to stuff people SAY about a performer ("he didn't really sing, he mostly spoke...") instead of LISTENING to the actual PERFORMANCE. If you do that with Rex Harrison's Higgins, I believe that you will hear a Singer...

...not a sonorous baritone like Paulo Szot, but a guy who hits his pitches better than most finalists on American Idol. (And he did it night after night.)

Would love to see Hugh Laurie in a musical, whether film or on Broadway!

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I like Hugh Laurie, but...

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Double post...sorry.

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Updated On: 12/21/08 at 04:33 PM

In the past few years we have been forunate to see the resurgence of movie musicals. However, the down side of this is that mass media and the titans of Hollywood have seen fit to replace musical talent with box office draw. One can hardly blame them. We NY actors are not well known or well received in middle America. With those choices have come mixed results. Some projects have been artistically decent, others have been pretty bad. Since there is nothing to be done about this trend I will not grouse. Instead I will say that the original screenplay referenced Eliza as being 'about 21' and Harrison was clearly old enough to be a grandfather to a 21 year old. We all ignored it and enjoyed the movie anyway. For this project to work, Higgins must be a bit arrogant, more than a tad elitist and blissfully ignorant of his egocentric life. He should also have some physical height or size to dominate Eliza or at the very least a very strong, charismatic presence. I am not sure who I would cast but I don't know that it would be Laurie. Additionally there is the box office draw issue. Laurie is a TV star in the U.S. but not a movie star. I wonder if he could make the jump. Just musings for a Sunday evening.

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You don't need that great of a range, but you need a nice upper register IMO.

Eh, I don't like Freddie, either. He's kind of creepy. At least Henry was starting to become less of a jerk, though Eliza shouldn't stay with him if he keeps acting that way.

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Sorry, I didn't see that someone had already mentioned Audrey's age. I need to learn to read whole threads.

As for the ending, I'm with Lerner and Mrs. Patrick Campbell -- Shaw and heaven forgive me.

https://www.hattonoperatic.org/prognote/mflady.htm

After seeing the clip of Anna Friel, I vote for her!

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Well, I've always thought that she'd already proved how strong she was by standing up to him, and that when she came back, it was because she wanted to. And I very much doubt that he ever dominated her again after that -- I believe that she would always give as good as she got forever after.

MCfan2 and H.Higgins: I agree.

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I don't see how they can use the Shaw ending along with 'I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face.' Pygmalion ended with Higgins saying, "She's going to marry Freddy!" and laughing loudly, so at least it was a little bit comical. But Higgins sitting alone moping would be a realy down-note ending. I suppose they could move the song to before his conversation with Eliza, but I don't think that would work either.

B*TCH CHECK!

I understand how it all works. Thanks.

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Ooo! I love the idea of Maggie Smith! Good suggestion!

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