Pygmalion

Shaw wrote Pygmalion in early 1912 and directed the London production, but his lead actress, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, had health issues that delayed the London premiere. The play, then, had its first production as a German translation in Vienna, opening on October 16, 1913. It opened in New York on March 24, 1914. The London production opened with Campbell on April 11, 1914, and ran for 118 performances.

Shaw’s Pygmalion was adapted into film for British audiences for the first time in 1938. The film starred Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller. In 1938, a film adaptation starring the same actors premiered, with two notable changes from the play text. In the play, Eliza’s test is offstage at an ambassador’s garden party. The film replaces this with a scene at an embassy ball with the blackmailing translator. Secondly, the film adds the famous pronunciation exercises "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" and "In Hertford, Hereford, and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen." While neither of these changes made it into later editions of the play, other changes, both major and minor, were incorporated into the 1941 play script. These alterations were usually denoted by an asterisk and elaborated upon in the “Notes for Technicians” section.

The 1938 film also revised the ending to reflect the directorial interventions being made in various productions. Shaw, eager to correct what he saw as flawed changes intended to give the play a happier, more romantic, and less ambiguous meaning, worked with the producer to create a compromise for the film’s final scene. Shaw consented to an added tender farewell scene between Higgins and Eliza and then a scene showing a happy Freddy and Eliza working in a flower shop. Despite these efforts, an additional scene was also included that undermines the ambiguity and suggests that Eliza and Higgins reunite: Eliza returns to Higgin’s house and quotes her previous statement about washing, although this time she is mocking herself.

Shaw published a 1941 version that incorporated changes made during stage productions and in the 1938 film. To prevent what he saw as egregious misunderstandings of his play’s ending, this version includes notes on what he expects happened to Eliza and Higgins after the play.

Shaw’s background as a novelist and the director of the London production informs his use of stage directions. Instead of inviting directorial interpretation, his stage directions explicitly guide readers and performers to unambiguous portrayals of the characters and events. His voluminous descriptions reflect a novelist’s need to include details to create the characters’ world. Shaw’s work as a director is apparent in the line readings and blocking he indicates in the text. For example, he includes frequent dialogue descriptions like “strongly deprecating this view of her” (Act II, Page 37), “revolted” (Act II, Page 56), and “disdainfully” (Act V, Page 132) to dictate the delivery of lines. He includes both substantial blocking movements such as entrances and exits and also smaller movements like “bouncing up on his knees on the ottoman and leaning over it to her” (Act V, Page 127). Later directors’ insistence on making the play’s resolution as happy and romantic as possible likely inspired the abundance of stage directions.

The 1938 film adaptation was turned into the highly romanticized 1956 Broadway musical My Fair Lady. Critically beloved and wildly successful, the musical set a record as the longest-running musical on Broadway to that point and won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. This production was followed by a run in London. Both mountings starred Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. In 1964, a film version starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn premiered. It won the 1964 Oscar for Best Picture.

Pygmalion remains Shaw’s most popular and most performed play. Many scholars rank Shaw as second to only Shakespeare in English-language theater.