dagblog - Comments for "PYGMALION, A SHAVIAN MASTERPIECE"

Indeed. Reminds me of one

MrSmith1 — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 02:55:43 +0000

In reply to Yeah, but this is fun stuff

Indeed. Reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of Black Adder III, where Black Adder loses Samuel Johnson's dictionary and tries to recreate it overnight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on9U_tdRIeU

Yeah, but this is fun stuff

Richard Day — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 02:26:29 +0000

In reply to "By law she should be taken

Yeah, but this is fun stuff Smith!!!

Theatre has a culture of its own.

And English theatre is a subculture of all of this, though its originator. ha

And I spent 5 years attempting to learn Latin attempting to conjugate my verbs and I still do not understand hung and hanged. ahahahahah

Today we say: a history. I had learned:an history. That is declensions

I grew up with the statement: I graduated from H.S. Now it's: I graduated H.S.

Shaw would win any argument as far as your line.

He could always hide in some satire: I was being ironical.

And that is probably why I love Chaucer and Malory and Shakespeare.

Frankly my dear, none of them gave a damn. They made up their own rules as they went along.

And as far as playwrites...

The writers would appear in their own plays and put together shows with anything and anyone available and were out only to bamboozle the public. hahahahaah

Language changes daily in this day and age.

Hung sounds perfectly fine as far as I am concerned.

Noah Webster who used to visit Jefferson while writing his American dictionary, intentionally changed English spelling. ahhaahahahah

Just to piss them off!!

I tell ya though Smith, we could split a bottle of good good scotch and have fun for hours. ahahahahah

I remember Noel Harrison

Donal — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 02:08:12 +0000

In reply to "By law she should be taken

I remember Noel Harrison doing a Pygmalion-like plot in the Girl from U.N.C.L.E.

"By law she should be taken

MrSmith1 — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 01:39:41 +0000

In reply to Oh absolutely it is.George

"By law she should be taken out and hung, For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue."

I know a number of lyricists that absolutely cringe at that line. They argue that being a language expert, Higgins would know that the proper usage should be 'hanged' and not 'hung'. Theater people can get very nit-picky about this sort of thing.

I remember Rex Harrison reprising the role on Broadway late in his life ( early 1980's) He was so old, the only woman they could get to play his mother was the woman who originated the role in 1956. At the time, I think she was in her 90's and he was in his 70's.

(I'm really showing my inner Broadway geek, aren't I? )

Ramona they play the 1938

Richard Day — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:23:00 +0000

In reply to Haven't seen it for many

Ramona they play the 1938 film on TCM a couple times a year. And of course it would be available on the net for a buck I suppose or through cable.

And, like I said, I love Audrey's memory; what a life! But she was wrong for the part in my opinion.

Rex is Rex and only he could have done the musical--even though he could never sing. hahahahah

But when I compare films, I cannot believe that Rex did not look at Howard's take on things.

As time goes on, I still think the most memorable character in the play or musical is Doolittle and nobody has ever or will ever outdo MFL's Doolittle. I just love that man. hahahah

Oh absolutely it is.George

Richard Day — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:17:59 +0000

In reply to Not at all. I enjoyed and

Oh absolutely it is.

George Bernard Shaw absolutely refused anyone the right to turn his play into a musical because past attempts at other plays were so abominable in his eyes.

The powers that be had to wait for the sonofabitch to die in 1950 before attempting such a production.

As our friend pointed out, Rogers and Hammerstein had a stab at it but gave up.

Learner and Loewe thought, what a great idea and gave up after a couple of years. They came back to the project a few years later and finally completed it in 1956 or so which is the first year it was staged.

If you listen to the words in the music, every idea comes straight from the rhythyms in Shaw's own dialogue.

When Rex sings about being accustomed to her face or about being an ordinary man or....

Shaw lives in the lyrics. I have never read anyone who thinks that Leorner & Loewe were not faithful to the text.

And the musical incorporates the ending that Shaw hated. hahahahaah

In my humble opinion, the musical is Shaw or at least Shavian.

Remember the 38 film WAS WRITTEN BY SHAW. And the musical takes some ideas from the film that do not exist in the play.

The answer to your question is yes, absolutely!

And the Musical credits Shaw, a ghost of his former self. hahahaah

MFL is based on Shaw's

Donal — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:11:01 +0000

In reply to Not at all. I enjoyed and

MFL is based on Shaw's Pygmalion, but it is also much more of a love story. Shaw never intended that Higgins and Doolittle would end up together, and even fought that ending in the film.

Not at all. I enjoyed and

kgb999 — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:02:31 +0000

In reply to Pygmalion has been around

Not at all. I enjoyed and appreciated every word (you actually give me credit for being more well-read than I am in this case). But I'm still not clear on something. So ... My Fair Lady is a musical adaptation of Shaw's Pygmalion?

I guess I could google it, but it's more rewarding learning from someone who's passionate.

Haven't seen it for many

Ramona — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 23:57:40 +0000

In reply to Pygmalion has been around

Haven't seen it for many years, but I loved the 1938 Pygmalion and loved Wendy Hiller. But I have to say, Rex Harrison will always be my Henry Higgins. Leslie Howard was okay, but Wendy Hiller stole the show, anyway, so it didn't matter. In MFL, there were three, maybe four memorable performances, but I never bought Audrey Hepburn as a cockney street urchin. Uh uh.

I would love to see the Hiller/Howard version again. I wonder if I would still like it as much?

Pygmalion has been around

Richard Day — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 23:23:39 +0000

In reply to Oh, I've seen My Fair Lady

Pygmalion has been around since 1912. Shaw wrote it and it has been staged thousands of times over the last century. All of which you already know.

If you are referring to the myth, Pygmalion was an artist who who created the most wonderful figure of a woman in sculpture ever produced and fell in love with his own work.

He called the object Galatea and prayed that the gods would breathe life into her.

Galatea became mortal and they lived happily ever after.

Take a look at A Star is Born, a similar metaphor where the scion takes in a nobody and turns her into a star.

There is a list of operas and such called Pygmalion that you can find in Wiki.

But Shaw's Pygmalion was Shaw's Pygmalion. Period as they say.

His wit and punditry astound me. Doolittle. hahahaha.

I was reading a portion of some essay he wrote--there are only about 250,000 essays and letters written by this devil--positing that every single man should be brought up before some panel and explain why he is worth saving from death. hahaha Like: if you cannot explain your function in this society you should be exterminated.

And here is Doolittle explaining that he is a member of the undeserving poor; that his needs are still the same as everybody else except for his taste for the grape of course, and Higgins tells him that his philosophy is unassailable. hahahahaha

Lerner and Loewe saw Doolittle as Falstaff, evidently as I do. If you recall, Falstaff was said to be Elizabeth's I's favorite character. The musical simply added a few scenes and expanded others to include the dance and music. But there is no doubt that the entire concept was taken from Shaw and Shaw alone even though he had already arrived at the place where godless people end up. hahahaah

Kind of the 'lowest of the low' with bravada and wit and pride. What do I know?

Shaw's Pygmalion is Shaw's and nobody elses as far as I am concerned written by a product of scores of generations of English writers. And the same should be said of the musical.

the end

(P.S. I hope you did not think I was belittling you. I think that you participated in a production is fascinating and wonderful. And this rant of mine--the comment--is your fault. Once I start writing about this play I cannot stop. hahahahaha)