But the richness of Mr Loewe's score makes My Fair Lady romantic despite Shaw's anti-romantic disclaimer. In an epilogue to Pygmalion he said that Eliza is too strong minded a girl to fetch Henry Higgins' slippers for the rest of her life. She will marry someone - Freddy - who will wait on her.
Brooks Atkinson, from the liner notes of the soundtrack
"Marry Freddy! Ha!"
Freddy is always portrayed with far too much makeup and a little too much pretty-boy singing and dancing.
ReplyDeleteWhy on earth would Eliza ever marry such a namby pamby, who would eventually leave her for the exceptionally cute bloke from the flower stand at Covent Garden?
She's much better off with Henry - after all, as Sara Brown says, "Marry the man today and change his ways tomorrow..."
you and your flower stand blokes.
ReplyDeletealthough i think i'm inclined to agree with you. or, as henry predicts, he'd just lay about in his pyjamas all day expecting eliza to support them both.
either way, there is nothing at all appealing about freddy as far as i can tell. he's just so...wet.
and advice from one musical to another - i like it! maybe that's the key to musical morality, you just have to keep it all within the musical universe and then it starts to make sense...