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This chapter examines Lerner’s time at MGM and the early genesis of My Fair Lady. It includes correspondence with Gabriel Pascal, who owned the rights to a musical version of Shaw’s Pygmalion; with Arthur Freed, who produced Lerner’s MGM projects; with the record producer Goddard Lieberson; and with Arthur Schwartz, the composer with whom Lerner collaborated after severing ties with Frederick Loewe. It ends with an exploration of the early genesis of My Fair Lady and an extensive letter to Rex Harrison, the show’s star.

This chapter examines Lerner’s final years, in which he moved to London and started a new life. It includes a discussion of Dance a Little Closer, his unsuccessful final musical, as well as correspondence regarding a film version of The Merry Widow, a revision of Carmelina, and a musical version of My Man Godfrey, none of which came to fruition.

Chapter 2 discusses the genesis of My Fair Lady from 1954 up to opening night in 1956. It includes an explanation of how Herman Levin came to be the producer, Rex Harrison and Stanley Holloway the male stars, Julie Andrews the female lead, and Moss Hart the director. It also charts Lerner and Loewe’s final struggles to bring the show to the stage, with contractual problems and troubles in finding a production team. The chapter ends with the successful reviews of the opening night performance in March 1956.

My Fair Lady was without doubt the most popularly successful musical of its era. Before the close of its spectacular run of 2, 717 performances from 1956 to 1962 it had comfortably surpassed Oklahoma!'s previous record of 2, 248. And unlike the ephemeral success of the wartime Broadway heroines depicted in Lady in the Dark and One Touch of Venus, librettist-lyricist Alan Jay Lerner's and composer Frederick “Fritz” Loewe's fair lady went on to age phenomenally well. Over 18 million cast albums were sold and profits from the staged performances, albums, and 1964 film came to the then astronomical figure of $800 million. Critically successful revivals followed in 1975 and 1981, the latter with Rex Harrison (Henry Higgins) and Cathleen Nesbitt (Mrs. Higgins) reclaiming their original Broadway roles.

This chapter introduces Lerner’s life and work and focuses on his childhood, upbringing, education, and early years on Broadway. It briefly examines the musicals he wrote as a student at Harvard University and makes reference to newspaper articles revealing new insights into his first collaborations with Frederick Loewe, Life of the Party, What’s Up?, The Day before Spring, and Brigadoon. It also briefly explores his collaboration with Kurt Weill and ends with an overview of Paint Your Wagon.

This chapter provides an in-depth discussion of the process of adapting Pygmalion into a musical. It examines Shaw’s background and his socialist outlook, as well as some of the different versions of the play. It then reproduces several of Lerner’s scenic outlines for the musical, indicating his different ideas when putting the show together. A large portion of the chapter represents a comparison of the musical’s rehearsal script with its final published script, showing how Lerner refined the text during the last weeks of rehearsal in order to increase the ambiguity of the relationship between Higgins and Eliza. Finally, it proposes an analysis of various aspects of the script, including time scales and location.

Brigadoon was one of de Mille’s most successful musicals and one of her happiest collaborations. The show drew on many stylistic sources, including modern dance, traditional Scottish dance, and ballet. De Mille and director Robert Lewis worked closely together to create seamless transitions between dialogue scenes and dance numbers. They also staged a chase scene and a funeral dance, emphasizing a minor character, Harry Beaton, who threatens to destroy the mythical Scottish village by leaving it forever. Beaton’s character serves to complicate an otherwise sentimental plot, providing an example of the way de Mille’s choreography contributed a distinct layer of meaning to the musical as a whole.

Chapter ten begins with the early development and production of Paint Your Wagon, Paramount’s expensive treatment of a 1951 Lerner and Loewe Broadway musical. It would be loosely adapted for the screen, produced by Alan Jay Lerner and directed by Joshua (Camelot) Logan. Despite singing demands, three non-musical stars were cast: Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, and Jean Seberg. Producers faced the logistical challenge of building a full-sized town that had to collapse on cue as part of the movie’s rousing finale. Location shooting in rural Oregon proved to be costly, contentious, and prolonged. Fox’s Hello, Dolly! faced its own problems with two stars (Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau) who detested each other. Turf wars broke out between costumer, choreographer, and set designer, with director Gene Kelly unable to successfully mediate. It was, by all accounts, a rancorous shoot, complicated by the logistically hellish “Before the Parade Passes By” magnum production number.

This chapter focuses on the musicals of songwriting teams Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Lerner and Loewe. Rodgers and Hammerstein's influence on Broadway was immense. Their format of “musical play” was all the rage at one point, and even daffy musical comedy became rationalized. Some shows seemed to be their work in all but name; Loewe and Lerner's Brigadoon (1947) was the main one, with its powerful sense of community, its long first act and short second, its Agnes de Mille choreography, and its thematic richness—all elements of Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. The remainder of the chapter details the stories behind the making of Rodgers and Hammerstein's State Fair (1945), Oklahoma! (1955), Carousel (1956), The King and I (1956), South Pacific (1958), The Sound of Music (1965); and Lerner and Loewe's Brigadoon (1947), Gigi (1958), and My Fair Lady (1964).

Chapter two begins with background information on the making of the Broadway musical Camelot by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner, the team behind My Fair Lady. Jack Warner, intent on repeating the great success of Warner Bros.’ film version of My Fair Lady, purchased film rights to Camelot for a huge $2 million. Warner hired Joshua Logan, with Broadway and Hollywood credentials, to direct. Richard Harris was cast as King Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Guenevere, and Franco Nero as Sir Lancelot. None among the principal cast had significant musical accomplishments. John Truscott, who had never designed a film, was brought on as art director. He showed an attention to lavish detail that would skyrocket Camelot’s production budget. Camelot was partially shot among medieval castles in Spain, but the cast and crew came back with surprisingly little footage. The chapter finishes with 74-year-old Jack Warner selling his shares in Warner Bros., turning to studio over to a Canadian film distribution company.

Ed Sullivan dominated Sunday night primetime television for a quarter of a century with his extremely popular and inclusive variety show (first called Toast of the Town, then The Ed Sullivan Show). A former (and concurrent) Broadway columnist, Sullivan adored the mythology of Broadway and promoted its history—in song and performance—on practically every broadcast. Expanding on the reach of radio, television allowed for millions of Americans to get their first glimpse of Broadway magic through Sullivan’s promotion of current shows and tributes to giants of the past. The musical Bye Bye Birdie paid homage to the great impresario of the television age by writing him into the show. Sullivan’s domination of the airwaves also nearly parallels the so-called Golden Age of the Broadway musical.

When Goddard Lieberson assumed the role of executive vice president at Columbia Records in the mid-1940s, he established the greatest powerhouse for the recording of Broadway material in the twentieth century. Lieberson produced studio versions of unrecorded Broadway classics; acquired and produced some of the biggest hit albums of the 1950s and 60s; and oversaw a battalion of single releases of Broadway material for the pop charts. He also masterminded the initiatives of the Columbia Record Club and the advent of stereo, both of which enabled additional revenue streams for Broadway material. Lieberson’s masterwork was the cast album of My Fair Lady, released originally in mono, then rerecorded in stereo; it became one of the most ubiquitous and successful albums of all time.

The concluding chapter discusses de Mille’s Broadway career after the 1940s. Although she continued to work on Broadway through 1969, her work never again achieved the level of success she attained in Oklahoma!, Carousel, and Brigadoon. She developed a reputation for being a difficult collaborator, which was grounded on past behavior but may also have been influenced by her gender. Rodgers and Hammerstein put less emphasis on dance in South Pacific, the musical that followed Allegro, and did not hire de Mille again. Other choreographers, including Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse, surpassed her in prominence. Their stylistic innovations made her work seem dated.Despite this, she produced several works that were either financially lucrative or important for her legacy, including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Paint Your Wagon, and Kwamina. She also became an activist, serving as one of the founders of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, still in existence today.