Loverly:The Life and Times of My Fair Lady (Broadway Legacies) (29 page)

The big news of the letter is that we are practically finished with your second act number and our collective enthusiasm is boundless. I think it’s going to be one of the most important things you’ll do in the show—funny, touching in an odd way, and “Higgins” to a tee. We wrote a new song, which frames an entire interlude of a soliloquy that contains bits of “I Can See Her Now” and “I’m an Ordinary Man,” all with new lyrics, of course. We want to let it marinate for a few days after it’s finished, which is our custom … [T]he melody itself is very simple (only twenty bars).
⁵⁸

Lerner later claimed that “By the first week in December, Fritz and I had … begun work on what was eventually to become ‘I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.’… We finished ‘Accustomed’ a few days before Christmas.”
⁵⁹
Clearly this is not completely accurate, since Lerner’s letter is explicit in both having found the “Accustomed” theme (lasting “only twenty bars”) and having decided to return to existing themes. They must have begun work in mid-October or November.

That fits in well with Outline 4 (from around September 1955). Scene 6 of act 2 is set on the Embankment of the Thames at sunset, with Higgins and “Passersby (number to be determined).” The reference to the “Passersby” becomes clear in the rehearsal script. Between the sixth and seventh scenes of the second act is a page describing the scene change:

(In the darkness the female voices of the Ensemble are heard singing gaily)

GAY FEMALES

There’ll be spring every year without you.

England still will be here without you.

I can still have a dream

And it’s liable to seem

Even more like a dream

Without you.

I can do … I can do … (repeat)

Without you … (repeat three times)

(The voices trail off, as the next scene begins)

This was rather an odd transition—anonymous voices floating out of nowhere—though psychologically it illustrated how Eliza’s song was echoing round Higgins’s head. This little reprise was kept in the show until a fairly late stage: it is included in the copyist’s piano-vocal score of “Accustomed to Her Face” used in rehearsals (several copies survive in the Warner-Chappell Collection), and there is also a five-part choral score (SSSAA) for the number, consisting of the “Without You” reprise.
⁶⁰
The original version of the song began with the same two-bar flourish that the published version begins with; but instead of going to “Accustomed” via a short orchestral blast of the “Let a woman in your life” theme, the original had the “Without You” reprise, in G major (
ex. 5.8
). The repeated cries of “without you” at the end were written
a cappella
and ended on a G-major chord followed by a fermata. From there, Higgins was to launch into “Accustomed” without further introduction or transition.

Notably, the original version does not contain Higgins’s opening words from the definitive version: “Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn!” A photocopy of a copyist’s score marked up by Rittmann for Bennett’s use shows that initially, although the “Without You” reprise was to be removed, it was not yet replaced by the thirteen-bar orchestral passage and Higgins’s cries of “Damn!” (lasting three bars, making a total of sixteen). Rittmann simply crossed out the “Without You” material and above the first bar of the melody of “Accustomed” wrote: “orch. alone,
rich
but
mellow
.” This brings the bar into line with the published version, in which Higgins says “I’ve grown accustomed to her face!” during a tacet, before the orchestra plays the first bar of music; then Higgins sings the next line (which Rittmann also indicates with “He sings:”).
⁶¹
A separate two-page score, with “Intro to ‘Accustomed’” on the front in Loewe’s hand and the music in Rittmann’s, gives the entire revised introduction including Higgins’s opening blasts of “Damn!”
⁶²

Ex. 5.8. “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” original introduction.

The copyist’s score contains even more unfamiliar material. Originally, Higgins’s mid-song speech in which he introduces the idea of Eliza marrying Freddy was delivered over thirty-two bars of orchestral music that anticipated the “I can see her now, Missus Freddy Eynsford-Hill” section, which immediately follows (and which had also appeared in the cut “Come to the Ball”), rather than during an orchestral tacet.
⁶³
Perhaps the most significant excision occurred to the reference to “I’m an Ordinary Man.” Originally, Lerner and Loewe used a whole verse of the song:

I’m a most forgiving man:

Not inclined to be vindictive

Or to harbour any spite;

The sort of chap who when he’s needed

Will come through with all his might
.

A lenient man am I
,

Who never bears a grudge;

The sort who never could,

Ever would,

Take a position and staunchly never budge.

Just a most forgiving man.

In the final version, lines two to seven (in italics) are cut, leaving a brief, five-line reminiscence. This allows the song to wear its looseness of form more lightly: by connecting the material more smoothly and lingering less on the “Ordinary Man” theme, it does not stand out so obviously and gains its own character rather than seeming too flagrantly pasted in from elsewhere.

There was one additional small change to the lyric, but otherwise the copyist’s score runs in line with the published version up to the end of the sung section.
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It does not, however, include the orchestral verse of “Accustomed” or the underscored reprise of “I Could Have Danced” that heralds Eliza’s return. This material was provided by Rittmann in a handwritten piano score.
⁶⁵
She addressed Bennett in a couple of sentences at the start: “Russell: At end of Soliloquy: one full chorus of “Accustomed” in F (strict Tempo di Rodgers—ma molto espressivo!!) for scene change into study (last scene of show).”
⁶⁶
She then wrote out the last two bars of this full chorus and moved onto “I Could Have Danced,” which is roughly in its final state. Below this, she wrote the familiar “Higgins: ‘Eliza, where the devil are my slippers,’” but the final six bars of the show remain in B-flat major rather than moving to the definitive key, E flat. In Bennett’s orchestration, however, the final phrase has already been changed to this key, so Rittmann or Loewe must have told him separately to do this. The orchestral score follows the copyist’s score in terms
of the lyric anomalies,
⁶⁷
but there is no sign of the “Without You” reprise having been orchestrated. The only modification made to the orchestration itself is the removal of the flute in a couple of places during the refrain, where Bennett had originally written a doubling but later removed it.

At the very end of Rittmann’s “Finale Ultimo” score are two notes written on top of each other. One, in the arranger’s handwriting, says “Fine, grâce a dieu!” Underneath, Loewe added: “Moi aussi, Ami Fritz.” Appropriately, this document—the very final page of the score—represents more clearly than any other the relationship that existed between Loewe, Rittmann, and Bennett. We know that Rittmann wrote out the music, because it is in her handwriting; we know that it was intended for and used by Bennett, because his name is on the front and he followed the score in his orchestration; and we know that Loewe saw the manuscript before it went to Bennett because he signed off on it at the bottom. If it seems surprising that some of Rittmann’s piano-vocal scores predate some of Loewe’s, here is ample evidence that the two worked in such close proximity that it did not really matter whose hand was holding the pencil; the overall authorial control was Loewe’s. It is important to differentiate between the manuscripts and to understand where Loewe’s hand is not present, but we can see from these notes at the bottom of the finale autograph that the interaction between Loewe, Rittmann, and Bennett was extremely close, and that their respect for each other was deep. Like all music theater,
My Fair Lady
was the result of collaboration.

“I’ve Grown Accustomed” is certainly the most complex piece of music in the show, at least from the point of view of structure; originally, it was an even greater summation of themes from the musical as a whole. The “Accustomed” theme acts as an outer structure heard at the beginning and end, in between which Loewe slots the “I can see her now,” “Let a woman in your life” and “I’m an ordinary man” ideas from previous songs. The themes overlap and move at breakneck speed from one to the next, which is Loewe’s way of increasing dramatic pressure at the end of the show. What makes the “Accustomed” theme particularly moving is its short melodic fragments, which almost give the impression of sobbing. It is also Higgins’s slowest song. Overall, the number is engaging because of the way Higgins’s neurotic thought processes are so vividly portrayed, and in particular the sense of loss he feels at Eliza’s rejection. Her intention to marry Freddy heightens his anger, since Higgins considers this an inappropriate match. The use of voice in the final scene is also hugely effective: we hear Eliza on the gramophone before she returns physically, which makes the contrast between Higgins’s despair (represented by having to switch on an artificial “version” of her) and his relief (at her return, when her real voice is present) all the starker. By hearing Eliza
speak her final line—“I washed my face and hands before I came, I did”—live, in her post-training accent, we are also reminded of the education she has received from Higgins. This reference to the early stages of their relationship might be read as Eliza’s capitulation to Higgins’s authority because she has remembered what he gave her, in spite of his disrespectful treatment, rather than as a sign of the characters’ romantic union.

PART II

One aspect of the show with which Shaw scholars have been particularly dissatisfied is the abbreviation of Doolittle’s role and characterization. Yet this is to ignore the vitality he gains through his two songs, “With a Little Bit of Luck” and “Get Me to the Church on Time.” The former is especially philosophical, with its rather cynical outlook, but the latter is arguably the more moving song, depicting with ruthless abruptness Doolittle’s severance from the company he has kept all his life upon entering the respectable middle class. The composition of “With a Little Bit of Luck” is easy to document.
¹
An early version of the lyric survives and is largely familiar. But there is a single verse, preceding the refrain, to which no music remains:

It’s a long and weary road we’re on, old pal.

It’s a struggle all the way, a bitter fight.

But keep your eye on your goal

And with hope in your soul

Everything will turn out right.
²

There are also some deviations from the published text. For instance, “When you’re tempted you will give right in” later became “When temptation comes you’ll give right in.”
³
There was also an extra chorus:

The Lord above made man to be a dreamer;

Gave him a bold, ambitious sort of mind.

The Lord above made man to be a dreamer—but

With a little bit of luck,

With a little bit of luck,

You will only dream the naughty kind.

As ever, Lerner’s amendments represent a high level of self-criticism, while the cutting of the verse may have been motivated by shortening the song or avoiding the risqué image of the “naughty dream.”
⁴

Loewe’s piano-vocal score is difficult to date, because it does not fit in with the other sources.
⁵
It contains the first verse, goes straight to the bridge, and ends with the final verse. The lyric follows the published version, though the place where there is a discrepancy between the rehearsal script and the published lyric shows signs of erasure. On the other hand, some of the rubbed-out letters are still legible, and it is clear that “to share his nest” did not originally say “to tend his needs” (as in the rehearsal script).
⁶
The score is very neat, and in spite of the absence of the repeat signs and first-time bar to allow for the second verse, the piano part is almost exactly the same as in the published vocal score, right down to details of articulation and dynamics. Loewe also uses the cue from the published script—“[It’s just Faith,] hope and a little bit of luck!”—rather than the one in the rehearsal script (“It’s just faith, hope and luck, boy. Faith, hope and luck.”). The score shows no indication of any attempt to set the unfamiliar verse cited above, nor is there any sign of the cut “naughty dreams” verse. Confusingly, Loewe refers to Doolittle’s friend as “Jimmy” rather than “Jamie,” but in all other respects, it seems that this document dates from after rehearsals had started. Again, we can see that relying on the composer’s manuscript alone can be problematic.