My Fair Lady Ending — Page 4

But After Eight, didn't you feel any guilt at all when you forced Harry Potter to carve "I MUST NOT TELL LIES" into his own forearm?

The excitement of opening night had me thinking more about this revival and its ending, specifically whether it's in Higgins's mind or whether Eliza really comes back.

I don't see the final scene at all as being played as if it's in Henry's mind.

I was almost convinced by the argument that Eliza's leaving the house through "the wall" suggested that what we were watching was Henry's daydream.
But there's a reason why I ultimately disagree.

One of my favorite moments in this revival is the segue from the ball to Henry's house. We see Eliza leaving the ball alone, downstage with the house far upstage. And we see Eliza entering the house through the same "wall" she ultimately makes her final exit from (with, as I recall the house meeting her halfway).

Certainly Eliza's return home after the ball isn't in Henry's imagination. Sher has, in staging Eliza's return home from the ball, not only given us a gorgeous stage picture by itself, but exquisitely set up the final curtain.

As to why Eliza comes back after the climactic scene at Mrs. Higgins's house, to me it was clear. She is giving Henry one more chance. He neither passes this test nor fails it. He is simply true to himself. Eliza's response? She is true to herself. She understands and loves him but now knows for certain that there is no longer any place for her in his house.

In his life, as Shaw himself fully acknowledged, is another question, and one we are left with.

Updated On: 4/20/18 at 07:49 AM

I had the same thoughts as Henrik about the 4th wall/the final blocking. I noticed the same "break" after the ball, and actually that Higgins did it as well (after the scene at the mothers?) WOULD I have noticed it had I not been aware of it through this thread? No idea, actually.

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When Congress passed the new federal copyright law in 1976, superseding the laws in all the states, they did not include protection of stage directions or stagecraft among the list of protected content. However that list was non-exclusive. No federal judge has held that stage directions are entitled to copyright protection, but from several non-binding comments in court cases, it is thought that stage directions are protected as part of the licensing of a play. And the playwright or publisher of a play can explicitly include stage directions in any licensing agreement with a producer.

Myself, I thought that it was out of character for Eliza to make the trip to Higgin's home just to turn her back on him and walk out. The "slippers?" Did Eliza expect Higgins to have changed overnight? She knew what he was.

But this point can be debated (and is being debated) forever.

Some might be surprised that after the contentious break between Eliza and Higgins that Shaw might see any further connection between the two as unlikely, unproductive and unhappy.

Yet, although marriage between the two is forbidden,

Eliza's instinct tells her not to marry Higgins. It does not tell her to give him up. It is not in the slightest doubt as to his remaining one of the strongest personal interests in her life.

This quote is from the prose Epilogue that Shaw tacked on to the end of Pygmalion in reaction to theater owners inventing an audience-pleasing romantic end to the play.

I want to see the show again, both because I mostly enjoyed it and because I want to get a full picture of the direction instead of the moment to moment critique I was engaged in during my first viewing. In case it's unclear from my posts, I am a feminist and relatively progressive. I wasn't angry at the ending and I didn't find the show or the direction offensive. But neither did I find it that uplifting or powerful.

Frankly, I thought the ending was a cop out. Maybe they thought it looked better for her to make her exit that way based on the configuration of the theater. But to me, that exit felt like taking a "third option" that did not at all exist in the world of the play. To me, it avoided making a comment either way by leaving the world of the play. It had the same laziness as having the suffragettes march on stage. If you're going to say something, have the courage to say something. Don't make a vague gesture that I have to all the work to try and interpret favorably and then expect a pat on the back.

VintageSnarker said: "I want to see the show again, both because I mostly enjoyed it and because I want to get a full picture of the direction instead of the moment to moment critique I was engaged in during my first viewing. In case it's unclear from my posts, I am a feminist and relatively progressive. I wasn't angry at the ending and I didn't find the show or the direction offensive. But neither did I find it that uplifting or powerful.

Frankly, I thought the ending was a cop out. Maybe they thought it looked better for her to make her exit that way based on the configuration of the theater. But to me, that exit felt like taking a "third option" that did not at all exist in the world of the play. To me, it avoided making a comment either way by leaving the world of the play. It had the same laziness as having the suffragettes march on stage. If you're going to say something, have the courage to say something. Don't make a vague gesture that I have to all the work to try and interpret favorably and then expect a pat on the back."

You might want to read Holdren's review. She spelt out pretty much everything I thought about the production the three times (so far) I saw it. http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/theater-review-an-unaccustomed-new-approach-to-my-fair-lady.html

^I agree. I thought this production had a truly happy ending with Eliza, quite literally, running off into the sunset as an empowered woman ready to take on the world. She don't need no man.

I saw this from house seats and I had the fortune of Eliza walking right by me as she made her exit.

(My Eliza BTW was Kerstin Anderson - who did a splendid job)

First of, I have never heard such a hush during the moments of silence that preceded Eliza's exit. The theater was waiting with collective breath held to see what would happen.

And when Eliza walked by me --- she had a wonderful half grin on her face, it was almost an expression of triumph -- or victory. At least that is how I perceived it!!

Just wonderful to be so close to the performer to see this nuanced reaction.

What you say is interesting, deislily, although I can't answer your question. I was there for Lauren's final performance yesterday before a sold out house, and I regretted that Harry was off. This was my fifth time and the previous time that I had seen the show I had gotten the impression that Harry was softening Higgins, and making him more sympathetic. I guess I'm referring to the last confrontation at his mother's house. I thought that he was less bellicose and seemed genuinely shaken a bit when he said that he hadn't known that she would be not be staying at his house.

(As the curtain call ended, I told the woman on my left that I had seen the show five times. She countered that she had seen it nine times and then, as a justly proud parent, told me that she was Lauren's mother. Well, she had the straight red hair. I wish I had known earlier as there were many questions I would have liked to ask. As it was, in the minute or so that we talked she repeated several times that Lauren had really wanted to make this movie.)

By this point Higgins had totally fallen for Eliza. He jealously raves about her choosing Freddy over him and imagines his revenge. Then he sings his love song. Sinatra used to refer to George Harrison's "Something" as one of the finest love songs which never used the word "love." "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" is another for that list. He then returns home and sits in the dark playing the recording of her voice over and over and mooning over the girl. That night he probably went to the local tavern and told the barkeep to "Set 'em up Joe. Make it one for my baby...."

About the closing exchange, I like what mpkie wrote:

Anyhow, I thought it was very touching ending... I interpreted that she stayed loyal to him by coming back, but was free in her own way by leaving (she's literally coming and going as she pleases). "Eliza, where the devil are my slippers" was more of a sentimental comment to a friend, rather than a command to a subordinate.

Again, the previous time that I had seen the show it struck me that Higgins had not sounded haughty when he made the "slippers" remark. The Columbo moment here is that he was not asking her to find his slippers for him. It was afternoon. She had hit him with a rather sentimental statement from their first encounter in his house, and he had replied with the statement that was the immediate cause of severance between the two.

In any event, I agree with what Dame Diana said in an interview: that the ending remained deliciously ambiguous and that was the beauty of it.

I kind of view the ending as a reset of the Eliza/Higgins relationship. Eliza is starting over in life. She's learned "how to be a lady" and much more, and Higgins has also learned from Eliza. What will happen between them is totally up in the air.

This is Shaw's play and you would think that if he had an opinion on the outcome it would finalize the matter. But Shaw loved to deal you the unexpected. The ending that he added on to the play, in answer to how theaters had been presenting the ending is probably the least likely and the least satisfying to people here.

Eliza takes her new found strength and independence and marries Freddie? And for two years the couple can't make enough to put food on the table and survive through the largesse of Pickering. Didn't we see her aiming at something higher. And Shaw's having her back regularly to Wimpole Street, with Higgins remaining an important part of her life? But now Eliza is the one bullying Higgins?

It may be time to remember that in the room in which he died was a framed photograph of Joe Stalin on the mantle. The two, says Shaw, were friends.

@OlBlueEyes -- Beautifully stated. "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" is one of my favorite songs in all musical theater.

So you saw it five times? How did Hadden-Paton play the final scene?