My-Fair-Lady

JOURNALING:

My Fair Lady

1. The Venue: My sister, mother, and I went to see the production of “My Fair Lady” on Sunday, 9/17/17. The venue Northland Performing Arts Center (NPAC), is very close to where my sister and mother live.

2. The Professor: Cabot Rae, former co-anchor for the local NBC affiliate, played Professor Henry Higgins – super job. He has a BA degree from Otterbein University in music.

3. The Title Heroine: Veronica Stiffler playedEliza Doolittle, the professor’s protégé. She earned a vocal performance degree from Penn State University.

4. The Audience: Just a few of the Sunday audience who enjoyed the musical. My sister and mother are toward the back of this group.

5. The Father: Michael Ruehrmund was delightful as Alfred P. Doolittle, Eliza’s father. He also is a graduate of Otterbein University with a BA in theatre.

6. The Producer: Kent D. Stuckey, producer, also played Colonel Pickering. He is the founder of NPAC and a board member of Imagine Productions.

Fun Facts

“My Fair Lady” opened on Broadway in 1956 and played over 2500 performances.

The role of Eliza Doolittle made Julie Andrews a Broadway star.

Henry Higgins’s distinctive “speak-singing” was written specifically for star Rex Harrison who was not a singer.

Julie Andrews wasn’t famous enough to play Eliza in the movie so Audrey Hepburn got the nod and her singing was dubbed.

Because of his “spoken” songs, Rex Harrison couldn’t pre-record his songs and lip-sync during filming. This made everyone else’s lip-syncing too obvious so editors later altered Harrison’s vocal track just a little so he would be a little “out of sync” like everyone else.

The musical’s original title was “Lady Liza” but Rex Harrison refused to be in a show titled after the female lead, hence the title change.

CREDITS: KIT: "La Folie", Lynn Grieveson; inspired by Country Living Magazine table of contents.