My Fair Lady Ending- Page 3

[MichelleCraig]

Posted: 3/22/18 at 9:44pm

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. 

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/22/18 at 9:44pm

It sure wouldn't be a perfect Rent 2, but I kind of want to see a movie or a play now where the soul of one man's lover inhabits the body of another man's lover, and the soul is a gay man in the body of a straight woman, and everyone kind of has to work out this complicated new dynamic and figure out what's what.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 3/22/18 at 10:29pm

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

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

[justoldbill]

Posted: 3/22/18 at 11:34pm

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 out AGAIN???  What is the main cultural reference here- GROUNDHOG DAY?

They need to add one more song from the Lerner and Loewe catalogue, namely "What's Goin' On Here?"- as an audience sing-along.

Also, as to the question of any "abuse" on Higgins' part, READ THE SCRIPT.  The student is the first to admit that the teacher has not treated her badly.

Updated On: 3/22/18 at 11:34 PM

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 3/23/18 at 12:49am

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.

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 3/23/18 at 12:55am

I don't see anything wrong with this ending. It's not as if Sher cut out the final scene entirely to make it a stone cold direct reflection of Pygmalion; he kept the lines intact and found a creative way to make it work to where it might reach the sensibilities of today's audiences. (After all, it's not as if the script specifically states that Henry and Eliza end up together romantically.) Weren't people over on the Carousel thread complaining about how certain problematic lines were just cut instead of worked with to give the story a more sensible, modern edge? Well, working with the full text is exactly what Sher did here.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 3/23/18 at 1:02am

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

[After Eight]

Posted: 3/23/18 at 7:18am

"These people clearly didn't watch this production so they really have no idea what they're complaining about."

 

I most certainly did watch this production and know full well what I'm complaining about. I'm afraid it's you who have no idea what they are complaining about.

 

Broadway Concierge wrote: "I thought it all added to Eliza's humanity." 

I thought exactly the opposite. 

 

Updated On: 3/23/18 at 07:18 AM

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 3/23/18 at 12:06pm

After Eight, if I may ask, how does this ending take away Eliza’s humanity? It’s a very human decision to leave someone you care about because they’re unwilling to change their toxic ways and stop harming you. Sometimes you have to take care of yourself, and that’s okay.

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

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/23/18 at 1:26pm

All this talk of Pygmalion made me dig out a fake blurb I wrote for a college assignment years ago...

"HAS SCIENCE GONE TOO FAR? Professor Henry Higgins has long experimented with changing the natural state of things, but when he cross-breeds a rare African chameleon to a wild pig with his steam-powered gene splicer, the Experiment escapes and runs amok in London. Now, with plucky lab assistant Eliza Doolittle, Higgins must find a way to undo what he has done... before it undoes him. Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson is Henry Higgins in Michael Bay's PIGMELEON."

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 3/23/18 at 2:47pm

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]

Posted: 3/23/18 at 3:39pm

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.  But, I am enjoying the comments, the civil ones anyway.  I may have missed it, but along the same lines and not to change the subject, has there been discussion about a black Billy Bigalow in CAROUSEL? 

 

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/23/18 at 3:49pm

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]

Posted: 3/23/18 at 11:28pm

Can someone who saw the show answer this about the ending? 

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

What is HIggins doing after he says his final line? Does he put the hat over his face? Does he realize Eliza is touching his hand? Does he react?  Thanks. I can't travel to NYC anymore so won't get to see it and appreciate the help. 

 

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 3/23/18 at 11:32pm

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

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

What is HIggins doing after he says his final line? Does he put the hat over his face? Does he realize Eliza is touching his hand? Does he react? Thanks. I can't travel to NYC anymore so won't get to see it and appreciate the help.

"

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

He stands looking after her exiting as the Higgins set is pulled to the back of the stage and the orchestra swells. Then the lights black out 

 

[enjoyable2]

Posted: 3/23/18 at 11:55pm

Thanks so much! 

[After Eight]

Posted: 3/24/18 at 12:15am

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

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 3/24/18 at 12:24am

I don't think she walks in 100% with the intention of just leaving again, based on the different takes I've heard. I think the point was that she softens sometime between those last two meetings and goes back to give him one last chance, because she cares for him and would like to have some sort of connection. However, when he says the damning phrase, "Where the devil are my slippers," that's Eliza's cue to decide for certain that this man has no intention of changing or bettering himself for her sake; even when he comes to the realization that he's "grown accustomed to her face," he still treats her like a servant who's only good for fetching his things. So, she leaves with a soft gesture to tell him that, while she does care about him and appreciates how he helped her improve her speech and mannerisms, it's best that they don't stay together.

[After Eight]

Posted: 3/24/18 at 12:27am

"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 Eight]

Posted: 3/24/18 at 12:38am

Elfuhbuh,

As I explained to you, I really have no interest in analyzing this desecration of an ending.

I only responded to you because you specifically asked me why I felt it diminished her humanity in my eyes.

I gave you my answer.

 

 

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 3/24/18 at 12:40am

Fair enough, but why engage in a thread about the ending if you're not interested in discussing it?

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 3/24/18 at 12:46am

After Eight said: "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?"

Because Eliza's a human being and we all say things we regret in the heat of the moment? Besides, even if she had the intention of ending her relationship with him then, it's not unquestionable to want to have a more amicable, friendly ending than what transpires at Mrs. Higgins' house.

After Eight said: "And if it's not to do so, it's just twisting the knife in to go to his house and walkout on him without saying a word."

As if Higgins' telling Eliza to retrieve his slippers isn't "twisting the knife" in his constant deprivation of her dignity? You're acting like Higgins has been wonderful to her all along. He's an unequivocal dick to Eliza, and he continues to be a dick in that final scene. 

After Eight said: "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."

It's hard to reconcile with someone who greets you with a perfect reminder that he's been horrible to you. "Where the devil are my slippers?" = a totally appropriate cue to bounce without explanation.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 3/24/18 at 1:03am

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

[After Eight]

Posted: 3/24/18 at 1:57am

"why engage in a thread about the ending if you're not interested in discussing it?"

To comment on the hubris.

It all boils down to hubris.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/24/18 at 6:24am

As with most posters, after8 doesn't want to have his mind changed, he wants to be right.

Here's my "conspiracy theory" on A8: this is his alter-troll persona. He's also a regular poster under a different name where he actually writes what he thinks. Then, as a8, he posts the opposite, hard to believe crap.

(Not being a conspiracy theorist, I don't actually believe this, but it would be a fabulous rouse!)