My Fair Lady

[maddiemookins16mum]

I’d forgotten just how vile (bullying, sexist etc) Henry Higgings is to Eliza.
Shame as the costumes were great.
(and of course the fact Julie Andrews should have had the role instead of Audrey Hepburn who was dubbed by Marni Nixon (the Mother of Andrew Gold).

If you're going to set something in the 18thc they should behave like 18th century people, otherwise just put them in modern dress.

Yep, stop being lazy and just write a contemporary story based on the themes..... Instead of totally fucking up classics. Classics that are intensely rooted in their historical context.

He was a bit pale etc for me.

He seemed to be very true to SH though, if a little bit serious. He got the intensity, but not much of the occasional humour and quirkiness came through.

True - we don't know how well they sang - just that others sang a bit better.

I was just thinking this because I am a real cockney and I’ve said it over and over trying to make it sound like My Fair. It kind of does if you stretch the end of May, I say it Ma-eee.

I think maybe my great grandparents spoke more like this, the accent was more pronounced then. Have you ever watched Goodnight Sweetheart? There were two actresses, and one did a more modern cockney than the other. I could barely recognise the first accent as cockney.

One thing I do find quite accurate are the scowling noises. 😐 I make those quite involuntarily when stressed! Haha!

didn’t hear you = ayyeeeeeee

Just to add, I found him a bit cold to be dishy .... But in that he also was probably on key; SH's character seemed pretty emotionally detached and also asexual.

I saw My Fair Lady on tour in Edinburgh recently. The Eliza was not black, so maybe a different tour. She was astonishly good - clear soprano, beautiful and great actress. Her father, who usually steals the show, was also brilliant. Higgins was quite young and attractive, which did alter the vibe. The ending was ambiguous - after the slippers line, Eliza kisses Higgins on the cheek and walks off stage….

in any case, it is a great musical, so many banging tunes: I’m Getting Married in the Morning, Wouldn’t it be Loverly, I could Have Danced All Night, The Street Where You Live, Accustomed To Her Face. Wonderful.

Persuasion is Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds. It just is. Why Amanda Root isn't more widely known is a mystery to me.

@beguilingeyes , she's been in lots of things but is a character actor. There are actors that seem to be in everything, but I think it is because they have a certain look or air about them. She's more subtle.

If someone is on a prime time tv programme, they're noticed more than someone working on a stage.

There are quite a lot of clips on YouTube of Audrey Hepburn singing stuff from MFL and Breakfast At Tiffany before they overdubbed her. I think she sounds fine.

Agree about that Amanda R and Ciaran Hinds Persuasion being excellent — though they’re both far too old for the characters, it’s the only adaptation I’ve seen where Anne actually looks properly faded and on-the-shelf at the beginning.

But elements of that Dakota Johnson Persuasion were brilliant, even if it was godawful in general. Richard E Grant was born to play Sir Walter, and I thought the reinvention of hypochondriac Mary as consciously passive-aggressive and bitchy was genuinely funny.

But let us not speak of Anne being a combination of Bridget Jones and Fleabag.

Amanda Root was one of the best things about the generally excellent Forsythe Saga remake.

I know Julie Andrews did it in the West End but I can really only see Audrey Hepburn in the film. JA is Maria Von Trapp and Mary Poppins and a bit prim and posh, definitely not Eliza Doolittle, for me. I think the cockney accent was quite accurate for 1913, it would have been much broader then. Her accent matches quite well with Stanley Holloway's in it, who is almost a cockney himself.

Also dubbing of actor's voices was very common at the time. Marni Nixon sang for lots of people.

What annoys me now watching again is bloody Rex Harrison talking his way through it. He can't sing a bloody note.

I'm not sure if AR and CH were that much older than the characters they played in persuasion. I read Anne as being about 28, and I think AR would have been about 33. The Pride & Prejudice TV series had actors and characters with the same sort of age difference.

Both persuasion actors have characterful faces that might not fit what we think of as 'a young face', if that makes sense. I'm not saying they looked old.

Rex Harrison could sing.

I'd've married Colonel Pickering.

I think Colonel Pickering was a confirmed bachelor.

Yes, but Grease was meant to be set in the early 50s which wasn't a 'woke' time. What is funny about Grease is that the 'college kids' are all played by actors who are mostly in their late 20s. The premise that a 'babe' in very tight leather and a fag on is properly attractive to a man isn't one I like much. Interesting that the original "bad' girl has quite a good image and is played by a good actor . She has a good song. Sorry I can't remember it but it's about pre marital sex being ok. A bit tricky being before the advent of the contraceptive pill.

@ppeatfruit , There are worse things I could do sung by Rizzo (Stockard Channing then aged 33)

no with Grease they both change
he changes out of the greasy clothes and black leather and she changes into them,
to try and entice each other!

He does some sports at school and puts on a cardigan. She reinvents herself as Slutty Barbie.

Thanks Duchess. Stockard Channing ! She's probably the best person in the film which is not the best film I've ever seen. surprising that it's the best musical ever fgs. (voted by listeners on radio 2) !!!!

Yeah Trofie ! I suppose we mustn't take it seriously it's more of a cartoon than anything else.

Ref Rex Harrison in My Fair, he knew he couldn't sing and was taught to "sing talk" like someone else in another film.

Many years ago my dad directed Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw which it's based on and A.H's cockney accent is correct for those days. The best scene is the first one by the theatre in Covent Garden IMO.

She was the strongest character, but my favourite was Sandy.
At the time I didn't realise that they were meant to be schoolkids. I thought they were college students, like 'tech' students, and not necessarily still teenagers.
A bit like Friends, I suppose. I found the Friends characters a bit immature as the actors are mainly older than me,

If I had to pick my favourite (film) musical, I think it could be MFL, but it would be hard to choose. If I had to pick a favourite song from a musical, I'd need to think long and hard.

My all time favourite song from a musical is "If I loved you" from Carousel.