The common lament was Broadway will never be the same! when My Fair Lady finally ended its stellar run the night of Sunday, September 30, 1962. Millions of people had seen the show over six years and had helped break box-office records, even though Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, Stanley Holloway, and Robert Coote did not stay with the cast throughout the six-year run. MyFair Lady used the substance and wit of George Bernard Shaw to add a new dimension to the Broadway libretto.

This text considers one of the most popular musicals of all time, Lerner and Loewe's 'My Fair Lady.' Using previously-unpublished letters and documents, author Dominic McHugh presents a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the show, revealing the tensions that went into the making of this beloved musical.

Keith Garebian peers behind the curtain of My Fair Lady to reveal the story behind the making of the musical. Beginning with George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Garebian traces the development of the musical idea. We read with interest about Lerner and Loewe's writing difficulties, and about how Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison were selected as leads. Then it's on to a full-dress reconstruction of opening night on Broadway. Garebian's next chapter follows My Fair Lady after its Broadway start, and he concludes with a close analysis of the structure, words, and music of the play.

"An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him, The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him." - Henry George Bernard Shaw famously refused to permit any play of his "to be degraded into an operetta or set to any music except its own." Allowing his beloved Pygmalion to be supplanted by a comic opera was therefore unthinkable; yet Lerner and Loewe transformed it into My Fair Lady (1956), a musical that was to delight audiences and critics alike. By famously reversing Shaw’s original ending, the show even dared to establish a cunningly romantic ending. Keith Garebian delves into the libretto for a fresh take, and explores biographies of the show’s principal artists to discover how their roles intersected with real life. Rex Harrison was an alpha male onstage and off, Julie Andrews struggled with her ‘chaste diva’ image, and the direction of the sexually ambiguous Moss Hartcontributed to the musical’s sexual coding.