My Fair Lady Ending — Page 3

Well, none of this sounds as bad as what has been done with the CAROUSEL revival. Still, history should not be rewritten for these times. History is just that, history. 

Angry just to be angry. I feel like I'm reading 4Chan or something.

Updated On: 3/22/18 at 10:29 PM

justoldbill said: "Let me get this straight- she walks out the night before, she walks out again at Mrs. Higgins' house, then she comes BACK to Wimpole Street to walk outAGAIN??? What is the main cultural reference here- GROUNDHOG DAY?"

I thought it all added to Eliza's humanity. She wasn't some indignant, ungrateful student of Higgins' who deserted him as soon as she became a skilled speaker. She came back multiple times, persistently hoping he'd have seen the errors of his ways, yet he persistently let her down. I thought it also makes sense given Eliza's general optimism, hopefulness, and desire for something better. But she's a human being and has a breaking point—which Higgins understandably pushes her to time and again.

BroadwayConcierge said: "justoldbill said: "Let me get this straight- she walks out the night before, she walks out again at Mrs. Higgins' house, then she comes BACK to Wimpole Street to walk outAGAIN??? What is the main cultural reference here- GROUNDHOG DAY?"

I thought it all added to Eliza's humanity. She wasn't some indignant, ungrateful student of Higgins' who deserted him as soon as she became a skilled speaker. She came back multiple times, persistently hoping he'dhave seen the errors of his ways, yet he persistently let her down. I thought it alsomakes sensegiven Eliza's general optimism, hopefulness, and desire for something better. But she's a human being and has a breaking point—which Higgins understandably pushes her to time and again."

These people clearly didn't watch this production so they really have no idea what they're complaining about. They're just letting their imaginations run wild about it and want to complain and go on some conservative-tinged rant.

Updated On: 3/23/18 at 01:02 AM

Updated On: 3/23/18 at 12:06 PM

After Eight said: "I thought exactly the opposite."

Dude, you haven't been able to comment on literally any single aspect of the production other than its ending. Everybody knows you haven't seen the show.

sdrick said: "Elfuhbuh said: "Since a couple people expressed boredom/annoyance with the discussions over the ending of My Fair Ladyon the revival’s previewsthread, let’s move the discussion over to here so the other thread can get back on track. "

Thanks Elfuhbuh. I am enjoying this discussion. I had seen PYGMALION the movie with Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller before I saw, MY FAIR LADY. And personally, I was thinking then that the ending of MY FAIR LADY should have been more like PYGMALION."

Sdrick, you may not be aware, but the end of the 1937 movie of PYGMALION, unlike the end of Shaw's play (as it was originally performed and as he insisted it continue to be performed), is identical to the ending of MY FAIR LADY (as it was originally and usually performed).  Lerner took his final curtain, in which Eliza returns to Higgins, finds him listening to her voice on the gramaphone, and then turns the recording off to finish her lines, directly from the final scene of the screenplay of the Howard-Hiller movie.  
But the ending of both the film and of MY FAIR LADY is not the ending of Shaw's play, in which Higgins is left alone on stage after Eliza leaves him, laughing about Eliza's threatened prospect of marrying Freddy.
 

 

Updated On: 3/23/18 at 03:49 PM

enjoyable2 said: "Can someone who saw the show answer this about the ending?

"

SPOILER ALERT: ENDING SPECIFICS

 

 

Elfubuh wrote "if I may ask, how does this ending take away Eliza’s humanity."

 

In Eliza's penultimate scene with Higgins, she tells him that he will not see her again. If that's the case, then why bother going back to his house other than to reconcile? And if it's not to do so, it's just twisting the knife in to go to his house and walk out on him without saying a word. That doesn't enhance her humanity to me; that diminishes it.

And if she comes back with the intention of reconciling, and slips into his room surreptitiously to find him listening to her recorded voice, and if she then decides she can't go through with a reconciliation, then she should explain that to him, and not turn on her heels and walk out of a house she never should have bothered to enter in the first place had she remained true to her original declaration.

But all these considerations are beside the point, because they deal with hypotheses about a botched ending that is is not Lerner and Loewe's, and is not My Fair Lady's.

It is not Lerner and Loewe's and is not My Fair Lady's.

That is the essential problem.

And all the rest is talk.

Updated On: 3/24/18 at 12:15 AM

"Dude, "

Kindly do not address me as "dude."

"you haven't been able to comment on literally any single aspect of the production other than its ending. "

The distinction between not wishing to and not being able to seems to elude you.

"Everybody knows you haven't seen the show. 

"Everybody," you say? I find it hard to believe that "everybody" would be so arrogant and foolish as to claim to "know" something that isn't true. I certainly don't put it past you, but "everybody?" I don't think so.

Updated On: 3/24/18 at 12:27 AM

After seeing this on Wednesday, it becomes more and more obvious with every post that those complaining about the ending seriously either didn’t actually watch this production or are too stupid to get it. For those of you who watched it, you’d know what I mean. This ending really makes so much sense if you see how every actor is directed and how every previous scene is played. The more AfterEight and others post criticizing the ending, the more I am convinced they did not bother to watch this current production at all unless they are total idiots who cannot actually see what they are observing.

By the way, this is a production that made me root for Higgins and Eliza more than any other version and I still came away with the ending being the only correct one because of Harry Hadden-Paton and Lauren Ambrose’s absolutely true acting choices directed by Sher who made them a Higgins and Eliza to root for but also understand that Ambrose’s Eliza tried so hard to give Higgins every opportunity to make her stay and Hadden-Paton totally charming and endearing and even unintentially sensitive and even sexually attractive (I seriously grew a crush on him) performance not being enough.

To me, the more AfterEight and others people posts, the more I am convinced he and others did not watch it. If you see the show for yourself, you’ll understand what I mean. And honestly, I suspect that those who don’t get this ending either did not watch this production or are so far removed from the female experience that nothing can help them with that. It’s like an expressed form of misogyny that should be studied by academia. That sounds harsh but it’s true.

Updated On: 3/24/18 at 01:03 AM