11 April: Pygmalion

On 11 April 1914, George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion opened at His Majesty's Theatre in London. Here are 10 things you might not know about the play.

1. The play is based on a Greek story - The Legend of Pygmalion and Galatea. The original Pygmalion was a sculptor who was something of a misogynist who had vowed he would never marry because women were so imperfect. He fell in love with one of his own statues, and prayed to goddess of love, Aphrodite, asking her to bring the statue to life. His wish was granted and he married the statue, which he'd named Galatea.
2. Shaw wasn't the first person to write a play based on the story. WS Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame) had written one in 1871 and there was also a Burlesque version called Pygmalion Reversed.
3. So what's the story? Henry Higgins is a professor of phonetics, who, like Pygmalion, is a misogynist. He accepts a bet that he can take a girl out of the slums of London, teach her to speak "proper" and pass her off as a duchess within six months. He chooses Eliza Doolittle, a flower seller, and sets about training her. She learns, not only to speak with an upper class accent, but how to be cultured. She wins Higgins the bet and then walks away, an independent woman. This is where the play and the Greek myth part company.
4. In the first London production, Higgins was played by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and Eliza by Mrs Patrick Campbell. The London production was delayed due to Mrs Campbell having health problems, so the premiere had already taken place in Vienna the previous year.
5. The show was popular, but both audiences and critics would have preferred a happy ending more in line with the myth, with Henry and Eliza getting together. Shaw was adamant that would never be the case, so Tree took matters into his own hands, seeking to please his audiences. He added a touch to the final scene where he tossed a bouquet from his balcony to Eliza. When Shaw attended the 100th performance, he was unimpressed. "Your ending is damnable; you ought to be shot," he said. "My ending makes money; you ought to be grateful," said Tree. Shaw remained unmoved, and added a postscript to the next print edition in 1916, entitled What Happened Afterwards, in which he laid out precisely why Higgins and Eliza would never be an item.
6. Shaw was totally opposed, as well, to any attempt to make a musical out of Pygmalion. This had already happened with another of his plays, Arms and the Man, which had been turned into an operetta called The Chocolate Soldier by Oscar Straus. Theatres and audiences preferred the operetta to the extent that Arms and the Man was rarely produced anymore which meant the play stopped earning money for Shaw. When it was suggested, Shaw declared, “A Pygmalion operetta is quite out of the question. Pygmalion is my most steady source of income: it saved me from ruin during the war, and still brings in a substantial penny every week. I will not allow a comic opera to supplant it.”
7. It wasn't until Shaw died in 1950 that the idea of a musical version was revisited. The rights to the play had passed to producer Gabriel Pascal, who decided to develop one. He went to Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who had already written musicals like Oklahoma!, South Pacific, and The King and I. However, they were frustrated by the play's reliance on dialogue and the fact there was no love story, so they gave up. Pascal then asked Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, who'd written the musical Paint Your Wagon. After six months, they gave up, too. In 1954, Pascal died, and Lerner and Loewe returned to the project in his honour. The result was the musical My Fair Lady.
8. Rex Harrison was cast as Henry Higgins in the musical, even though he couldn't sing - he talked to a musical beat instead. His 19 year old co-star, Julie Andrews, had no problem with the singing, but was intimidated by the acting she'd need to do, and had to have intensive coaching to make her feel confident. The title of the musical was originally Liza, then Lady Liza. Harrison wasn't happy about that, because his character wasn't represented. It was almost called Fanfaroon, a British slang term meaning “one who brags about himself.” The title they settled on, My Fair Lady, is from the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down.
9. Harrison was a great fan of George Bernard Shaw, and wanted the musical's dialogue to be as close to the original play as possible. He was in the habit of bringing an old Penguin copy of the script to rehearsals, and if he had any doubts about a line, would call out, “Where’s my Penguin?” This happened sufficiently often that Lerner decided to play a joke. He went out and bought a stuffed Penguin, and the next time Harrison asked for his penguin, he was given the bird. It cured Harrison of asking for his penguin script all the time, and the penguin became the mascot Harrison kept in his dressing room.
10. The words "In Hertford, Hereford, and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen" and “the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain” do not appear in Shaw's play. The latter statement is not even true. Spain’s hills and mountains receive far more rainfall each year than the plains do.

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Closing the Circle

A stable wormhole has been established between Earth and Infinitus. Power Blaster and his friends can finally go home.

Desi Troyes is still at large on Earth - Power Blaster has vowed to bring him to justice. His wedding to Shanna is under threat as the Desperadoes launch an attempt to rescue their leader. 

Someone from Power Blaster's past plays an unexpected and significant role in capturing Troyes.

The return home brings its own challenges. Not everyone can return to the life they left behind, and for some, there is unfinished business to be dealt with before they can start anew.

Ben Cole in particular cannot resume his old life as a surgeon because technology no longer works around him. He plans a new life in Classica, away from technology. Shanna hears there could be a way to reverse his condition and sets out to find it, putting herself in great danger. She doesn't know she is about to uncover the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious past.

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Completes The Raiders Trilogy. 

Other books in the series:

Book One

Book Two