Link to thread on 'mark steyn on classic musicals', where this musical comes up.

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Knightley eyes Columbia's 'Fair Lady'
Eliza Doolittle is set for another bigscreen makeover.
Columbia Pictures is tuning up a "My Fair Lady" redo, with Keira Knightley in talks to star as the simple Cockney flower girl who is transformed into a lady.
The studio declined comment on casting of the project, being produced by Duncan Kenworthy ("Love Actually," "Notting Hill") and London legit maven Cameron Mackintosh. . . .
While it's being called an update, the film will use the tuner's score and retain its 1912 setting. Where possible, Kenworthy and Mackintosh intend to shoot the film on location in the original London settings of Covent Garden, Drury Lane, Tottenham Court Road, Wimpole Street and the Ascot racecourse. (The 1964 Warner Bros. film was lensed entirely on Hollywood soundstages.)
The filmmakers plan to adapt Alan Jay Lerner's book more fully for the screen by drawing additional material from George Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion," which served as the source material for the musical. The goal is to dramatize the emotional highs and lows of Doolittle as she undergoes the ultimate metamorphosis under the tutelage of Professor Henry Higgins. . . .
Variety, June 5

Which begs the question: Who would make a good Higgins?

I forgot to mention, since they're talking about putting material from Shaw's Pygmalion back into this new version of the musical, Knightley would also be following in the footsteps of Wendy Hiller, who played Eliza Doolittle in the 1938 film version of Shaw's play. Hiller might be best-known around these parts for playing Sir Thomas More's wife in A Man for All Seasons (1966).

The first actress to play the character on stage, at least in an English-language version, was Mrs Patrick Campbell, nee Beatrice Stella Tanner, who originated the character in 1914. Believe it or not, the play opened precisely five days after the actress married Winston Churchill's ex-stepfather. (According to Wikipedia, the play opened April 11, 1914, and the actress married George Cornwallis-West on April 6, 1914. Prior to that, he had married Lady Randolph Churchill in 1900, separated from her in 1912, and finalized the divorce in ... April 1914. Maybe "stepfather" isn't quite the right word, since Cornwallis-West and Winston Churchill were almost the exact same age, having been born only 16 days apart, both of them in November 1874. But still.) (Gosh, I love Wikipedia. And encyclopedias in general.)

Anyway ...

Re: Higgins, the part was created on stage by Herbert Beerbohm Tree (father of director Carol Reed, grandfather of actor Oliver Reed) in 1914, and played in the 1938 film by Leslie Howard, and then Rex Harrison played the character in BOTH the Julie Andrews musical AND the Audrey Hepburn adaptation.

I have no idea who should play the part today.

Completely coincidentally, I happened to take the 1964 film out of the library a week or two ago, and some of the archival footage, of Jack Warner promoting the film etc., is quite interesting -- the way he criticizes the then-new obsession with foreign films and arthouse films, etc. (Only a couple years later, his studio would produce Bonnie and Clyde, the movie that is widely credited with kicking off the "New Hollywood". Reportedly, Warren Beatty tried to pitch the film to Jack Warner as an "homage" to old Warner Brothers gangster films, and Warner replied, "What the f---'s a homage!?") Apparently the 1964 film had a budget of $12 million -- which I would think would have been extremely high for that era -- and almost HALF of that, i.e. $5 million, was spent just on getting the film rights to the musical.

Whoa. Apparently, according to David Poland, Daniel Day-Lewis was attached to play Higgins back in March, but is no longer attached due to another movie.

Oh well, I guess we WON'T see Higgins teaching Eliza to enunciate phrases like "I. Drink. Your. Milkshake."

Richard Chamberlain and Michael York have both had turns as Higgins in the recent revival of the show.

I would say John Hurt because he'd be fascinating and he looks a bit like Rex Harrison, but he's too old, really. So, I fear, is Gabriel Byrne. I'm not sure that DDL would have a light enough touch ... this is no Sweeney Todd.

John Cleese? Michael Palin? Both getting up there as well.

Ah...

Hugh Grant!

Or Colin Firth (but that's a bit more of a predictable choice).

I don't know if they can sing, but of course that didn't stop Rex Harrison.

It's a shame they didn't cast Anne Hathaway as Eliza.

Kevin Kline should play Higgins (perfect choice; fantastically versatile to handle both the comic and romantic elements; he could really be a blast with the linguistic comic elements; impeccable timing; has great presence and intensity)


Here are my predicatable choices for Higgins, in order of preference. Higgins must be distracted, stubborn, academic, temperamental, "well bred", awkward, brusque, yet capable of being sentimental and surprised. In short: stereotypically British upper crust. It's also expected that he'd be considerably older that Doolittle, in a May/December sorta way.

Kenneth Branagh (another perfect choice -- yes, I know, Branagh has baggage, but he could nail this part, if he can sing. [Although Rex Harrison couldn't])
Jeff Goldblum (can he do "warm"? For that matter can he do British?)
Pierce Brosnan (maybe, but this would be uninspired to say the least)
Alan Rickman (the man needs more "nice guy" roles. Sigh.)
Ralph Fiennes (but he's kind of done the "surprised romantic" a lot; perhaps a trifle too young)
Geoffrey Rush (not sure about him as a romantic lead)
Hugh Jackman (perhaps too charismatic and too young. Definitely can sing.)
Jeremy Irons (ditto on the nice-guy roles, maybe too old)
Ewan McGregor (well, we know he likes to sing, although I'm not sure he has the "presence" for this role, and I'm not sure he can carry himself in a sufficiently aristocratic fashion.)

They'll probably cast Johnny Depp, a "safe" choice (starred in a musical, does that "British" thing, $$$)

Please, please, please NOT Hugh Grant. ("I'm sorry, but...um...it's just that, you see, ... I'vebecome, you might say grown, accustomedtoherface, you see.")

Will they give Julie Andrews a cameo? Perhaps Mrs. Higgins?

A younger Anthony Hopkins would have been perfect, but he's much too old now. (Although he has/will have worked with Knightley, as her father) To a lesser extent, Derek Jacobi would be good, but he's also too old now.

Branagh does sing (check out his Love's Labour's Lost).

But yes, it does lead naturally to the question, "Who would play Higgins?"

The correct answer to that question is, "Ron Reed."

I should play Higgins. Why? Because I am perfect for the role.

Great stuff, PTC. I had no idea about The Family Tree. (And to think, my wife never mentioned any of this!)

Digging for more, I found this; "In 1914 Tree was the first Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. ... Tree almost abandoned the script and introduced the hint of a happy ending by throwing a bunch of flowers to Eliza between the end of the play and the fall of the curtain ‘My ending makes money, you ought to be grateful’ said Tree to Shaw." Tree's was the same impulse that begat MY FAIR LADY. I wonder if the new version of MFL will restore Shaw's ending? Seems unlikely, but they are talking about more "realism," and restoring more of "Eliza's emotional journey" (Lord, I'm tired of screenwriter talk!). I do love Lerner and Loewe's nod toward Shaw's original, when Higgins says "Marry Freddy? What an infantile idea..." and then sings "I can see her now, Mrs Freddy Eynsford-Hill, in a wretched little flat above a store..." These new guys? I dare them. For MFL fans (at least, the ones who don't know Pygmalion), it would be like Stephen King fans right around the point where Scatman Crothers arrives back at the Overlook to save the day.


And Beerbohm Tree played Wolsey! (Though not, presumably, in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. He died 45 years before it opened in the West End.)

Ah yes, Peter, you're right about the joys of encyclopedias. Turns out the premiere production of "My Fair Lady" was directed by none other than Moss Hart, whose "You Can't Take It With You" is running at Pacific Theatre right now. Assistant stage managed by Moss's brother, Bernie. "The musical had its pre-Broadway tryout at New Haven's Shubert Theatre. On opening night Rex Harrison, who was unaccustomed to singing in front of a live orchestra, "announced that under no circumstances he would go on that night . . . with those thirty-two interlopers in the pit." He locked himself in his dressing room and came out only a little more than an hour before curtain time. The whole company had been dismissed but were somehow rounded up by assistant stage manager Bernie Hart, Moss's brother." (Wikipedia)

I recently dined with a man named Moss. Also attending that dinner was my wife, Carol Reed, whose father apparently originated the role of Henry Higgins. I should have said something.

Who wants to see a posh English girl learning how to speak posh? I mean really? Even despite Harrison, the original film was easily the second worst of all the Hepburn films I've seen (behind Robin and Marian), and I can only foresee Knightly making it even worse.

A better idea would be to keep Knightley in the film, but change the plot. Make the leading man Ray Winstone and the story about him having a bet to see if he can turn a young well spoken dame into a cockney.

That I would pay to see.


Matt

PS - On the off chance anyone remembers the Heinekin advert from the 80s, it looks like I may have been unduly influenced...


Oh and that's somehow on YouTube

So your feelings on Dame Julie Andrews creating this part would be...

Matthew Page is hereby notified of his expulsion from the Reed-Page Cinematic Affinity Society.

Well, okay. Suspended.

Cor blimey!

I ain't familiar wiv the Andrews role, or wiv Andrews generally as it 'appens (although she weren't 'alf posh in tSoM & MP). So I reckons I'd have problems wiv that n'all.

But wasn't "My Fair Lady" based on Pymagllion originally? And does no-one else find it a bit weird

Incidentally I'd be intrigued to know which people found the most interesting in theory

a - Seeing a posh actress pretend to have a regional accent intially before rediscovering her true posh accent
b - Seeing a regionally accented actress in a role which required her to gradually acquire a more well spoken one
c - Seeing a posh actress play a role where she starts posh and then gradually gains a regional accent
d - Seeing a regional accented actress play a role where she starts posh and gradually gains a regional accent
e - Just about anything else.

(Is it too late for this to become a poll?)


: Matthew Page is hereby notified of his expulsion from the Reed-Page Cinematic Affinity Society.

Ron, don't compound one error with a far greater one.

Let's just chalk it up to transatlantic differences and the nature of our own accents (yours which, I'm guessing, has never been either, and mine which shifted from northern to southern to "plummy" as I believe you once described it)

Incidentally, what's your 2nd worst Hepburn film? Surely none exists where her accent is so appalling. I fancy that Knightly could at least make a better fist of it than that.

Matt

Second worst Hepburn film? TIFFANY'S. Worst? SABRINA. I've only seen three. She's gorgeous in all of them.

By the way...

Huh?

R

Ron wrote:
: Second worst Hepburn film? TIFFANY'S. Worst? SABRINA. I've only seen three. She's gorgeous in all of them.

I had a bit of a start when I went over to my priest's house a while ago to watch The Lavender Hill Mob, a classic heist film from the early '50s starring Alec Guinness. (It's on the Vatican Top 15 list released in the mid-'90s, I believe.) Audrey Hepburn actually pops up in one scene for all of about 15 seconds, and has a couple lines of dialogue, and that's that. Apparently it was one of her very first roles. It's always weird to see Big Stars in movies that they made before they became Big, back when they were lucky to be more than glorified extras. But yes, even then, she was still gorgeous.

Julie Andrews, including talking as Eliza (esp. 3rd clip). The last two clips are a bit weird, as it involves Andrews performing with her characters... (Eliza returns after the chimney scene)

Oh Robin and Marian is so bad that even if you haven't seen it it still has to be everyone's number one.

Matt

Nope. I loathe Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Ah, the classic Ealing comedy ... I've seen it at least twice and don't remember her being in it. Was she the French girl who gets mixed up with Stanley Holloway over the difference between the letters 'a' and 'r'? And of course there's another MFL connection, since the roles were reversed when Holloway played second banana to Hepburn in MFL.

I'm thinking Knightley is not the actress you cast if you're serious about exploring Eliza's deep psychological motivations. I think she was supposed to have some of those in Atonement, but if so, they didn't read very well. Yes, Kline would be a fantastic Higgins, but he'd blow Knightley off the screen. Whereas she'd have a fighting chance against someone like Hugh Grant.

mrmando wrote:
: Ah, the classic Ealing comedy ... I've seen it at least twice and don't remember her being in it. Was she the French girl who gets mixed up with Stanley Holloway over the difference between the letters 'a' and 'r'?

Nope, I believe she appears VERY briefly in the prologue, as a woman who walks through the restaurant and seems to know Alec Guinness. She might even be a girlfriend of his.

Which well-known British actresses have strong regional accents in real life?

I haven't heard N. Kidman or N. Watts talk like Australians, so I don't know how strong their accents are/were.

What impresses me is the ability of people like Bob Hoskins and Michael Caine to do accents from Yank to posh and all points in between while remaining resolutely Cockney in their everyday speech.

The B&W Playbill clip is truly remarkable. She's fully invested in every minute gesture and facial expression ... writing pages and pages of the character's back story with a single song. Absolutely stunning work. Not quite the same with the second clip; she's coasting a bit, which I guess is to be expected in a TV special banking on her fame. Andrews has been quoted as saying, "Good singers practice until they can get it right; great singers practice until they can't get it wrong." Or words to that effect. You can certainly see that kind of meticulous commitment in her best work.

You've clearly not seen Robin and Marian. Even if you loathe Breakfast at Tiffany's (and I can sorta understand why someone would) there's far far more artistry in it than in Robin and Marian.

Matt

Maggie Smith, but she's a tad too old for this particular role. Ditto Angela Lansbury. The female cast of Eastenders?

OK point taken. I still think the Winston idea would be better though...

Matt

I have. I like it better than B@T.

They definitely do ...

Brenda Blethyn, yes? The AbFab pair? Jane Leeves?

None quite right for Eliza.

If you know of a show where anyone from Eastenders affects a posh accent, I'd like to see it.

Good observations. In terms of vocal tone, though, I greatly prefer the second clip. More listenable, to my ear.

Thanks for posting those, Alan.

By the way, Matt, I was surprised that you find Audrey Hepburn's accent unconvincing. The ears of a native. Totally passed muster to these Canuck ears. Of course, I was listening to my parents' record of MY FAIR LADY when I was seven, so I guess that show taught me - incorrectly, I guess! - what a Cockney accent sounds like! How are the other accents?

See, now when I think of bad Cockney accents, I'm thinking Dick Van Dyke in MARY POPPINS, which I was also listening to at the same age. Or how about the blokes in the Julie Andrews video, above? Yech!

Isn't the first clip's relative un-listenability, um, part of the point, as it were?

It's been quite a while since I saw it so I can barely remember the other characters I'm afraid. In fact it's also been a while since I either watched Eastenders (where half the actors are well spoken imitating cockney anyway) or had a decent conversation with a real cockney so perhaps I'm not best placed to judge...

Matt

What about Dr. Who star Billie Piper? According to this thread she may have undergone an Eliza-esque change herself.

Matt

Within limits.