My Fair Lady Revival thoughts

John Lithgow

I dunno - Lithgow is too over-the-top for me (and too old). I'd rather see someone like Mark Harelik or, well, actually I can't think of anyone at the moment. I wasn't really thinking about performers when I started this thread - just wondered how popular the show would be at this particular time.

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I vote for J. Mark McVey who has charisma, is younger, handsome and he can sing! Yup, J. Mark McVey is who I'd want - -

Changing the age of Higgins mucks up the whole dynamic of the show. He has spent years alone and blithely seeing women pass him by. A bachelor set in his ways. That much is established in the scenes with his mother. Plus Bernard Shaw may have known better than us

Lucky Americans can expect to see the National Theatre production on tour this year. It finishes in the UK shortly I believe then embarking on a US tour to celebrate the anniversary. If any production ends up on Broadway I would expect it to be this magical interpretation. And if you are really lucky you would all get to see Alex Jennings as Higgins with Jo Riding as his Eliza.

Thank you!!!

This is one show that does not need "sexed up" (well that didnt work too well with the WMD dossier but never mind!). Its not there to begin with.

well said, Morosco

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PhilCrosby - you expressed exactly the way I feel about the show. There is definitely romantic interest there on both their parts. Maybe not in Pygmalion, but it is evident in My Fair Lady.

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The scripts of both Pygmalion and My Fair Lady describe Higgins as "a robust, vital, appetizing sort of man of forty or thereabouts."

Yes, it's true that Herbert Beerbohm Tree was 60ish when he created the role, but then Mrs. Patrick Campbell, for whom the role of Eliza was written, was close to 50. And Shaw describes Eliza as 18 or 20, "hardly older." Shaw was in love with Mrs. Patrick Campbell and was perhaps blinded a bit. But mostly it was a different time. Audiences were much more forgiving of these things. And there was only about 12 years between Tree and Campbell.

Harrison was 48 when the original production opened. Leslie Howard was 44 or so when he made the movie. Forty to 50 seems a perfectly fine age for Higgins. But not much older, unless the actor genuinely looks younger. Lithgow is 61 and Pryce will be 59 next month. Neither looks significantly younger.

People accepted Harrison in the movie, even though he looked 50-55. But times have changed. We really don't want to see that big an age difference between Eliza and Higgins. Twenty years or so is acceptable. Thirty or 35 years gets a little much. Not to mention that everyone knew that Audrey Hepburn, though she looked younger, was over 30, simply by virtue of how long she had been a star.

Any bachelor of 40 is pretty set in his ways. I'd like to see a Higgins who looks no more than 45.

Updated On: 5/24/06 at 11:21 AM

Henry and Eliza's relationship was platonic. Period!

Right. :)