My Fair Lady Backdrops For Rent

The History of My Fair Lady Musical

My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins, a phoneticist, so she can pass as a lady.

It premiered on Broadway March 15, 1956, at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in New York City. It transferred to the Broadhurst Theatre and then The Broadway Theatre, where it closed on September 29, 1962 after 2,717 performances, a record at the time. Moss Hart directed and Hanya Holm was choreographer. In addition to stars Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, the original cast included Stanley Holloway, Robert Coote, Cathleen Nesbitt, John Michael King, and Reid Shelton. It was followed by a hit London production, a popular film version, and numerous revivals. It has been called “the perfect musical”

‘My Fair Lady’ tells the story of the over-confident Professor Higgins and his experiment that attempts to transform a cockney girl, Eliza, into a proper-speaking lady. Higgins and his friend Colonel Pickering make great progress with the girl and even take her to the horse races and a grand ball. Nevertheless, they still treat Eliza as a mere experiment and not as a human being. When Eliza runs away, Higgins realizes that she is more than just an experiment; indeed he is in love with the girl.