| PYGMALION endings over the years....Part one, to 1937 | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 10:28 am EST 03/09/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Changes to MY FAIR LADY that were and weren't made for the most recent Broadway production - Michael_Portantiere 10:02 am EST 03/09/21 | |
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| Here's the history up to 1937. 1912--GBS wrote PYGMALION. 1913--Vienna, world premiere (in German); Franz Ferdinand in attendance. GBS wanted a foreign premiere because the critical reviews he had been getting on his London premieres hurt the future sales of foreign language editions. It worked. Swedish, Czech, Polish, and Hungarian productions immediately followed, with one in Berlin, too. April 1914--London premiere, starring Herbert Beerholm Tree and Mrs. Patrick Campbell. And the romanticizing of the ending began there, though maybe it was at one of the German language productions--more below. GBS was so furious with Tree playing HH as "a bereaved Romeo" that he left before curtain calls. As several weeks past, he continued to embellish the role, throwing flowers at Eliza, making goo-goo eyes, blowing kisses, and romantic ad-libs galore. Mrs. Campbell wrote GBS, "Come back soon or you'll not recognize your play," but she was responding to Tree's romantic HH, too. She had taken to clutching Higgins' ring to her heart, practically swooning. And she added a line to the ending that proved difficult to remove. Here's the real ending of the 1914 original. After their final showdown at Mrs. H's, Eliza returns to the mock formality she used earlier: Liza: Then I shall not see you again, Professor. Goodbye. (goes to the door) Higgins then says, "oh, by the way, Eliza..." and rattles off an order of ham, cheese, and that he also needs a new tie and gloves. (cheerful, careless, incorrigible are GBS's stage directions) Liza: (disdainfully) Buy them yourself. (She sweeps out.) Mrs. H: I'm afraid you've spoilt that girl, Henry. Never mind, dear, I'll buy the tie and gloves. Higgins: (sunnily) Oh, don't bother. She'll buy 'em all right enough. Goodbye. As his mother leaves, the audience sees a "self-satisfied" HH, rattling the change in his pocket. Mrs. Patrick Campbell's interpolation? Eliza pops back through the door and sweetly asks, "What size?" Tree radiates his happiness in return. GBS returned for the 100th performance and went ballistic. When Tree heard of this, he wrote, "My ending makes money; you should be grateful." GBS thundered back: "Your ending is damnable; you should be shot." It's even possible the "What size?" line originated in one of the German productions; there's a letter of GBS complaining about something like that even before the London opening. But it was so hugely popular with the audiences that Mrs. Campbell said, "Frankly, I'm afraid to omit the line" and used it in not only in the last months of the London, but the Broadway production. GBS deserves a bit of the blame for muddling audience expectations: the play was subtitled, "A Romance in Five Acts." To GBS, this romance meant the fantastical transformation of Eliza, not mushy lovey dovey stuff. Here's GBS on that kind of romance: "I was sent into this world expressly to dance on romance with thick boots; to shatter, stab and murder them." So take those flowers and shove them. As soon as the Vienna production opened, translations began. Not just for the other European productions mentioned, but apparently the NY Times printed chunks in what GBS called "vilest American." (One of these days, I'm going to track those down.) After the London opening there were both authorized and unauthorized editions in English magazines. His actors' shenanigans with his work prompted GBS to write his now famous essay on the sequel to PYGMALION, which appeared in the 1916 published edition. GBS felt having a middle-aged, mother-obsessed bully involved with a teenaged flowergirl was a "revolting tragedy." I919--GBS complained to a friend that he'd never be able to get rid of that "silly and vulgar gag" about the gloves, implying HH-ED romance. 1920--yet he did let Mrs Patrick Campbell reprise her role in a revival--with a new ending. He told her to maintain Eliza's pride, not to relapse, but to exit with disdain (per the original), then HH would watch her leave and exclaim, "Galatea!" Thus, he said, both actors could have "the last word." About this time, he gave instructions to his Spanish translator to end the play with HH watching ED leave, declaring with pride, "Finished and come to life! Bravo, Pygmalion!" These endings didn't work; the English was never adopted in any production beyond this one. I have no idea if you wanted to stage it in Madrid today if you'd get this or something based on the later published English revisions. Was the classical allusion too obscure, even in an era with such an emphasis on Greco-Roman antiquity? Early 1930s--GBS didn't think PYGMALION would work as a movie: too long and Doolittle seemed an unlikely film character. The French came calling first--but their proposed screenplay added new scenes and (merde!!!) tacked on a romantic ending. GBS thought, "Aha! I shall do my own screenplay, and therefore what I want for the ending will be the ending on the screen." And that's what his contracts said, for the German, Dutch, and English film adaptations: that they were supposed to stick to his screenplay, completed in 1934. The screenplay emphasized a wedding for Eliza and Freddy. The contract was signed in February 1935, the German film directed by Erich Engel debuted that September, the Dutch in early 1937. Meanwhile, before seeing that German film, GBS made a deal with Gabriel Pascal, who seemed honest, but was broke. The British film would be delayed while he raised money. When GBS finally saw Engel's work, he was irked they had ignored his contract and tacked on a romantic ending with Higgins, not Freddy (the Dutch would do the same). He hoped he would have better control over the Pascal-produced British version, set to star Wendy Hiller and Leslie Howard. Meanwhile, both the German and the Dutch films were financial successes. Laura |
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