Loverly:The Life and Times of My Fair Lady (Broadway Legacies) (4 page)

It seems that Rodgers and Hammerstein decided not to take the
Pygmalion
idea any farther, but the Theatre Guild started to explore the potential of the material, as can be seen in various letters from the Guild’s papers at Yale University. The Guild was approached by Gabriel Pascal, with a view to co-producing the show. While in Hollywood on the Theatre Guild’s behalf, Armina Marshall on October 24, 1951, wrote to her husband, the Guild’s executive
director Lawrence Langner, to report on a meeting with Pascal. He said that he had the rights to make a musical adaptation of
Pygmalion
, and claimed that he could persuade Frank Loesser, composer and lyricist of
Where’s Charley?
and
Guys and Dolls
, to write the score.
¹¹
But it seems that Loesser was unwilling or unavailable (perhaps because he was preoccupied with his next show,
The Most Happy Fella
); on January 4, 1952, Langner reported that he had now contacted Cole Porter about writing the show, and said that he would meet him on January 8.
¹²
Again, though, the Theatre Guild had drawn a blank, because, as Langner suggested, Porter “anticipated difficulty in writing ‘English’ lyrics.” So on February 15 Langner wrote to Pascal with a list of composers they would be happy to employ, in order of priority: Irving Berlin, Frank Loesser, Gian Carlo Menotti, Harold Rome, Frederick Loewe, Harold Arlen, and Arthur Schwartz.
¹³
Conveniently, Langner was about to leave for the Bahamas, where their first choice, Irving Berlin, happened to be vacationing. But he, too, evidently declined. Nevertheless, the
New York Times
had reported on January 27 that the Theatre Guild was likely to produce the show, and the public announcement of their interest shows the seriousness with which they were pursuing the project.
¹⁴

Langner and Pascal now turned to Lerner and Loewe, who had written four Broadway shows together:
What’s Up?
(1943),
The Day Before Spring
(1945),
Brigadoon
(1947), and
Paint Your Wagon
(1951). The timing of the first three of these is ironic, since it reflects that of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first three shows together, and the fates of their respective shows were opposite:
What’s Up?
was a flop that opened in the same year as their record-breaking
Oklahoma!; The Day Before Spring
fared only slightly better than its predecessor and has fallen into obscurity, unlike the contemporaneous
Carousel
; and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s third show,
Allegro
, was their first critical and financial disappointment, opening in the same year as
Brigadoon
, Lerner and Loewe’s first great success.

Without
Brigadoon
, who knows what may have become of the Lerner and Loewe partnership. Neither
What’s Up?
nor
The Day Before Spring
produced anything approaching a hit song, and indeed much of the score for the former is lost.
¹⁵
Lerner and Loewe had also collaborated on
Life of the Party
in 1943, and this piece did not even make it to Broadway, so by 1947 they were badly in need of success. Thankfully
Brigadoon
became one of the longest-running musicals of the decade and gave birth to a number of standards, including “The Heather on the Hill” and “Almost Like Being in Love.” It took four years before the pair teamed up again for
Paint Your Wagon
, and here a troublesome rehearsal and tryout period led to a disappointing show. Even though a number of the songs became well known, including “They Call the Wind
Maria” and “Wandrin’ Star,” the Wild West setting was a poor fit for Loewe, and Lerner failed to resolve numerous problems with the book.

The team’s track record is ample demonstration of the reason they were included on the list of possible collaborators for the
Pygmalion
musical and also why they were not at the top of it. To turn to the old pros Irving Berlin and Cole Porter first was natural, since they had each had relatively recent smash hits with
Annie Get Your Gun
(1946) and
Kiss Me, Kate
(1948), respectively; Berlin was also represented on Broadway with
Call Me Madam
(1950). Since the task consisted of adapting a classic of English literature, one can see in particular why the composer of
Kiss Me, Kate
(partly based on Shakespeare’s
The Taming of the Shrew
) would be asked: obviously, a lyricist of sharp wit and a composer with a lightness of touch were needed. Although less experienced as a composer-lyricist—his early years were spent writing lyrics to other composers’ music—Frank Loesser was also an easy fit, given the artistic brilliance and box office success of
Guys and Dolls
. On the other hand, the triumph of
Brigadoon
had established Lerner and Loewe’s credentials, and the European pedigree of both composer (who was born in Berlin) and lyricist (who was educated in England) must have seemed an obvious fit for Gabriel Pascal and the Theatre Guild.

Pascal met with Lerner and gained his assurance of the
Brigadoon
team’s interest in the project during the time they were in Hollywood filming that particular show. It is certain, according to David Drew, that Lerner had earlier considered setting the play with Kurt Weill during the 1940s, so the material was not unknown to him.
¹⁶
Lerner’s memoir leaves out the Theatre Guild and suggests that Pascal approached him of his own accord, but in her memoir about the Pascal-Shaw relationship, Pascal’s widow, Valerie, writes more credibly that Lawrence Langner proposed Lerner and Loewe as the creative team. After a private screening of the film
Pygmalion
, she adds, they became enthusiastic about it. She then states that Lerner and Loewe “came to our house in California on March 21, 1952. During lunch they seemed very eager to tackle the musical, provided Mary Martin would accept the role of Eliza Doolittle. Without her, they felt the musical would not stand up.”
¹⁷
However, a telegram of March 22 in the Theatre Guild papers shows that it was only at this point that Langner wrote to Pascal to arrange the screening of his film for them, also making reference to having had a “very successful meeting with Lerner and Loewe” and having “succeeded in getting them very interested and excited,” so the film was probably not the start of their fascination with the project.
¹⁸

In May, serious talks took place about casting for the part of Eliza Doolittle; at this point, Eliza rather than Higgins was thought of as the lead role,
and it was to be a showcase for a great star. The two biggest female musical comedy actresses of the time were Ethel Merman, who had enjoyed success in Gershwin’s
Girl Crazy
, several Porter shows including
Anything Goes
, and Berlin’s
Annie Get Your Gun
and
Call Me Madam
; and Mary Martin, who had grown in prominence during the 1940s with shows such as Weill’s
One Touch of Venus
before her career-defining appearance in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s
South Pacific
. Merman’s stage persona was ill suited to Eliza Doolittle, but as strange as it might seem in hindsight, the subtler Mary Martin was in fact a strong possibility. This part of the story has been whitewashed over the years, however. In
The Street Where I Live
Lerner claims that Martin heard he was writing a
Pygmalion
musical with Loewe and demanded to hear the songs against the writers’ will. Lerner states that in November 1954, Martin and her husband, Richard Halliday, “had read that we were doing
Pygmalion
and [said] that they would love to hear what we had written.” Lerner relates that when the meeting took place, “they listened in silence and departed almost immediately after the last song.” Later, the lyricist asked Halliday what Martin’s reaction had been, and he reported that she had commented, “Richard, those dear boys have
lost their talent
.”

But in reality Lerner himself wanted Martin for the role two years earlier, in 1952, and actively pursued her.
¹⁹
In a letter to Pascal (who was to go to London to speak with Martin personally) on May 10, the lyricist stated that

no matter how excited I get about the play, I always stop when I come to the question: can we get Mary Martin? Although there are undoubtedly others who could play it, I do feel anybody after Mary is second choice. Liza is one of the great parts for a woman ever written. In music it will be even greater. And Mary is obviously the greatest star the musical theatre has produced—and there’s no doubt about that. Somehow it seems like a perfect marriage. It doesn’t bother me at all that she is American because if the King’s English as taught to her by the Prof doesn’t seem completely compatible with her, neither was it with Liza in the play. And the cockney she can do easily. From a show business point of view it would be a great tour-de-force for her. Then, too, Mary is the only one I know who has naturally that odd combination of the little girl and the great lady. I can’t think of another part when both these qualities could be better employed—or on the other side, when Mary could run more of a gamut of all her talents. This is one play that should be written
for
her and
with
her.

Lerner assured Pascal that he would fly to London with Loewe to discuss the show with Martin when they had the outline completed, and then moved on to propose Michael Kidd as the choreographer for the show—again, someone
who would be pursued more than once in this capacity. The lyricist felt that Kidd’s sense of humor (as evinced by his work on the stylized choreography for
Guys and Dolls
) would be perfect for helping to depict the cockneys and aristocrats, and commended his great sense of the theater; Lerner had already gained the choreographer’s interest in the project. After reiterating his enthusiasm about the play, Lerner ended: “I’m ready to do anything short of homicide to see Mary as Liza.”
²⁰

Langner’s letter of May 22 corroborates that Lerner and Loewe’s chief desire was for Martin to play Eliza. He also underlined the team’s excitement about the project and stated that they had already written a scenario.
²¹
The letter continues by suggesting alternatives to Mary Martin, should she turn the project down (as Lerner suspected, according to the letter). These included the Hollywood star Judy Garland, whose film work was on the wane and was willing to do the show for six months, but Lerner and Loewe did not like the idea; Garland’s Hollywood contemporary, the soprano Deanna Durbin; and the leading musical comedy actress Dolores Gray. Of the latter suggestion, the letter indicates that Lerner was willing to accept her if an “exciting man” could be found for Higgins; George Sanders and Noël Coward were suggested. Eventually, Lerner indeed pursued Coward for the part of Higgins, first in the summer of 1952, then in late 1954, and again for the London production, but he met with refusal every time.

The letter also mentions the possibility of starting the show in England and then opening it on Broadway later on, which excited Lerner and Loewe. They were available to start work immediately and suggested first Robert Lewis (who had directed
Brigadoon
) and then John C. Wilson (director of two hit shows, Cole Porter’s
Kiss Me, Kate
and Jule Styne’s
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
, as well as producer of Lerner and Loewe’s own
The Day Before Spring
) to direct the production. Finally, the letter clarifies the terms on which Lerner and Loewe were to participate in the project—initially they demanded 8 percent without Mary Martin and 6 percent with her, but Pascal over-optimistically thought they would accept 6 percent regardless of their desire for Martin—and underlines their tremendous enthusiasm yet again.

With the fire sparked inside them, ultimately Lerner and Loewe’s association with
Pygmalion
was unstoppable, and the Theatre Guild proceeded to arrange a production of Shaw’s play for June 1952 to give them some extra inspiration. On May 30, the
New York Times
announced the Guild’s intention to produce a
Pygmalion
musical, and would in the meantime stage the play with three musical theater names: Dolores Gray (who had appeared in Jule Styne’s
Two on the Aisle
), Tom Helmore (whose Broadway credits included
The Day Before Spring
), and John C. Wilson.
²²
The next day, Lewis Funke’s column
added to the report, saying that “Unless plans become badly unhinged somewhere along the way, it appears likely that Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe will be the team to do the musicalizing. … Should all end with signatures properly affixed, production will begin as soon as the pair have successfully wooed the muse.”
²³
But in the meantime, the Guild still needed to find a star for their show.

All seemed to be going swimmingly. In June 1952 Langner and Marshall went to London to speak with Mary Martin, who remained their first choice for Eliza, and to meet with Elizabeth Barber of the Shaw estate to negotiate terms over the rights to
Pygmalion
. On June 17 Langner wrote to Theresa Helburn to say that according to Barber, Gertrude Lawrence—star of Weill’s
Lady in the Dark
and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s
The King and I
, in addition to numerous works written by her childhood friend Noël Coward—was also interested in playing the role of Eliza Doolittle, and in fact was upset at not being asked in the first place. In Langner’s letter the first mention is made of Cecil Beaton as a possible designer.

The letter also indicates that “long discussions” were taking place about Mary Martin but that negotiations with her were stuck until more of the cast and production team could be formed. “We are trying for Rex [Harrison],” writes Langner, “but if he is not interested we understand Michael Redgrave sings well and is interested.” Evidently, Martin would not consider signing the agreement to appear in the show until the following Monday, by which time it was anticipated that more artists would have committed to the show; indeed, the star’s power over the team was extraordinary. The next day, Marshall wrote to Helburn in the wake of a meeting with Barber to say that the Guild’s relationship with the Shaw estate was solid, also indicating that there was a general consensus to keep the potentially meddlesome Pascal out of the picture (everyone in London “resented him inching in,” Marshall added).
²⁴