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Dec. 21st, 2009 06:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatCan't quite decide what is more headach inducing - shopping or setting up my parents new DTV. Probably the later. DTV's just aren't made with the over-60 set in mind and lets leave it at that.
Saw My Fair Lady last night - quite a lovely production at the local Repertory Theater. Was rather impressed by it. Particularly by the actor portraying Professor Henry Higgins - who managed to make me forget Rex Harrison completely - a mean feat that.
Forgotten what a deft social satirist Shaw, and to a degree Lerner and Lowe who adapted Shaw's play into a musical - truly were. There are a few songs that skewer the English caste system or rather the English attitude towards it. Specifically: Why Can't The English Teach Their Children To Speak, Wouldn't It Be Loverly, and A Little Bit of Luck. As Higgins states to Eliza at the end - the trick is to treat everyone the same regardless of their station, race, creed what have you. For Higgins that is to treat everyone as if they are idiots are several rows beneath him, for Pickering that is to treat everyone as if they are his equal.
In some respects, Lerner and Lowe were more romantically inclined than Shaw, and a bit less heavy handed. Terry Prachett tries his hand at satire, but I'm not sure he pulls it off quite as astutely as George Bernard Shaw, Jonathan Swift,
et al. But then, my difficulty with Prachett is the constant, non-stop, overly invasive punnery - complete with footnotes explaining the puns, just in case you were dense and did not spot them. Bernard Shaw while preachy seemed to be a bit more subtle. Course it's been a while since I've read Shaw...or Prachett for that matter..and my memory being what it is...[ETA: Having just watched the 1930's Gabriel Pascale, film Pygmallion starring Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller, and written by George Bernard Shaw, based on Shaw's own play of the same name, I can state that the musical's dialogue is word for word the same as the play. The endings are the same. The only differences are time period (early 1900s vs. 1930s), actors, musical numbers and a few minor changes ...that's it. In some respects, the musical is funnier, and far more entertaining, but that may just be because by the time I watched the film again - I knew the dialogue by heart.]
Weather is mild, clear, and lovely down here. No complaints. Rather dreading going back to the icy snow-bound north...apparently Long Island had white out conditions last week? Lovely.
Saw My Fair Lady last night - quite a lovely production at the local Repertory Theater. Was rather impressed by it. Particularly by the actor portraying Professor Henry Higgins - who managed to make me forget Rex Harrison completely - a mean feat that.
Forgotten what a deft social satirist Shaw, and to a degree Lerner and Lowe who adapted Shaw's play into a musical - truly were. There are a few songs that skewer the English caste system or rather the English attitude towards it. Specifically: Why Can't The English Teach Their Children To Speak, Wouldn't It Be Loverly, and A Little Bit of Luck. As Higgins states to Eliza at the end - the trick is to treat everyone the same regardless of their station, race, creed what have you. For Higgins that is to treat everyone as if they are idiots are several rows beneath him, for Pickering that is to treat everyone as if they are his equal.
In some respects, Lerner and Lowe were more romantically inclined than Shaw, and a bit less heavy handed. Terry Prachett tries his hand at satire, but I'm not sure he pulls it off quite as astutely as George Bernard Shaw, Jonathan Swift,
et al. But then, my difficulty with Prachett is the constant, non-stop, overly invasive punnery - complete with footnotes explaining the puns, just in case you were dense and did not spot them. Bernard Shaw while preachy seemed to be a bit more subtle. Course it's been a while since I've read Shaw...or Prachett for that matter..and my memory being what it is...[ETA: Having just watched the 1930's Gabriel Pascale, film Pygmallion starring Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller, and written by George Bernard Shaw, based on Shaw's own play of the same name, I can state that the musical's dialogue is word for word the same as the play. The endings are the same. The only differences are time period (early 1900s vs. 1930s), actors, musical numbers and a few minor changes ...that's it. In some respects, the musical is funnier, and far more entertaining, but that may just be because by the time I watched the film again - I knew the dialogue by heart.]
Weather is mild, clear, and lovely down here. No complaints. Rather dreading going back to the icy snow-bound north...apparently Long Island had white out conditions last week? Lovely.
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Re: Interestingly enough...
Date: 2009-12-24 11:38 pm (UTC)Apparently Lerner and Lowe are American, and the musical was first peformed on Broadway - then migrated to London. It was considered the most successful musical ever at the time. (first performed in 1959). The musical unlike the play or film version of the play, takes place in 1912, while the play and film version of the play upon which it was based took place in the 1930s.
Julie Andrews wanted the role but much like Camelot, was overlooked for more established film actresses such as Audrey Hepburn and Vanessa Redgrave (Camelot).
Both of which were dubbed by Marnie Nixon (who also dubbed Natalie Wood for West Side Story). Hepburn and Wood complained, because they'd hired voice coaches and believed they could successfully sing their roles, but the studio disagreed.
The stage version of the musical is actually oddly better or I enjoyed it more - it's funnier for one thing and there's a lot more dancing. Doolittle's antics at Higgins office are hilarious on stage, yet understated in both film versions. If you ever get the chance - I highly recommend seeing either on stage.
Re: Interestingly enough...
Date: 2009-12-25 09:20 am (UTC)