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Julie
Andrews
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a
selling exhibition of her stage career
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"My Fair Lady" Feb 1956 - August 1959 |
| Nobody could have anticipated the rip-roaring success of Lerner & Loewe's show, "My Fair Lady", and Julie would spend a total of 48 months of her career playing Eliza Doolittle in both New York and London. With runs of this length, there were many changes in the programmes and other memorabilia associated with the productions, and on this page we start the process of recording them all. |
| If you have been directed to this page following a search, then do be sure to check the rest of the site, which contains a full history of the stage career of Julie Andrews as well as offering many items of memorabilia for sale. Click on the link to the right: |
| If the item is still for sale, clicking on the small pic below will open a new page, with a larger image and details of price, condition etc. |
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When "My Fair Lady" opened at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut on 4th Feb 1956 the show was rather different from the final version which hit Broadway in March. Eliza's song was titled "I want to dance all night" and two musical numbers, "Decorating Eliza" and "Say a Prayer" were still included in the penultimate scene before the interval. The show ran in New Haven for just a week. |
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Before opening on Broadway the show still needed some final tweaking, so it moved to Philadelphia, where it opened at the Erlanger Theatre on 15th February 1956, staying for the four weeks leading up to the move to New York. The musical numbers listing in this programme shows that though "Decorating Eliza" and "Say a Prayer" had already been cut, "I want to dance all night" had not yet been renamed ! |
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| "My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on March 15th 1956. The regular playbill cover shows Julie and Rex Harrison, but was changed (at least three times !) when the latter left the cast sometime before August 1957, replaced by Edward Mulhare. |
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The souvenir brochures shown here feature the famous Al Hirschfeld cartoon. This too was changed after Harrison's departure, as on the yellow version the faces of the characters are those of Mulhare and Sally Ann Howes. Julie was still in the show however, and was not replaced until February 1958. |
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The show transferred to London, with Julie and Rex Harrison recreating the lead roles. Advance bookings were huge, thanks to excellent pre-publicity, such as this advance flyer, which has all the seat prices on the reverse. The box office was open from October 1st 1957, an astounding seven months prior to opening night !
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On April 30th 1958 "My Fair Lady" opened in London, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Two types of programme were produced: a small thin paper version shown left, and a large silver hardback brochure shown right. The programme was changed many times during the run. (See details at the bottom of this page). |  |
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Following
the reception on Broadway it was clear that the show was going to be a
hit, so in the first few days of the run there was a series of charity
and gala performances, for each of which a different style programme was
designed. Five of these, plus a flyer, are shown below:
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The cast of "My Fair Lady" were justly proud of their show, and once the production was settled into Drury Lane, many of the cast and crew produced Christmas cards related to the show. Here are three examples: |
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| From Alan Dudley, chorus member, a photo of the theatre marquee. | From Robert Stanton, Stage Manager, a take on the Hirschfeld artwork. | Charicatures of the cast, by Julie's first husband, Tony Walton. |
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"My Fair Lady" fever gripped the UK, and one china company even produced tableware featuring Eliza with her flowers. The motif on the back of this jug shows George Bernard Shaw. Unfortunately the ceramic designer has misunderstood Hirschfeld's cartoon, and the angel pulling strings has been promoted into a Saint with halo ! |
| The British sheet music for "My Fair Lady" also features Hirschfeld's design, and includes the names of the cast. |  |
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Another different programme was produced rather later in the run, to mark a special Gala Performance at 11.30pm on June 8th 1959 for the 650 delegates at the "Atlantic Congress" of NATO. Rex had left the show, having been replaced by Alec Clunes on 18th May (or March 30th according to some sources) of that year. Julie Andrews left the cast of "My Fair Lady" on 8th August 1959, with Anne Rogers taking over as Eliza on the 10th. |
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As
stated above, there were many changes to the regular programme during
the long London run. We have so far identified seven different versions
of the Drury Lane 7" x 9.5" programme, excluding unimportant
cast and advertisement changes. Here some of the differences are explained.
Please let us know if you are aware of others. Covers are shown first,
followed by scans of some internal pages, important for identification.
They are as follows: |
| Type 1: | Opening Night. In place of "Programme - One Shilling" on the cover, has "There is No Charge for this Programme". Printed in blue and red. | |
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Type 2: |
As above but with standard price. Both types 1 & 2 include a head and shoulders portrait of Andrews in a print dress. The part of Freddy Eynsford-Hill was originally to be played by Peter Gilmore, but he dropped out three weeks before opening night. Leonard Weir took the part for most of the run, but was probably replaced by Gilmore for a very short time. The type 2 programme with Gilmore's name, we refer to as type 2a. It is extremely rare. |
| Type 3: | Printed in blue and red but Andrews' portrait has been changed to a three-quarters shot with jewellery. This photo, apparently taken backstage, was used in all subsequent programmes. | |
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Type 4: | As type three, but printed in black and red, as are all subsequent programmes. |
| Type 5: | As type four, but the inside cover has a shot of the opening scene, facing which is a half-page advert with Andrews endorsing Basildon Bond paper. | |
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Type 6: | As type four, but with a photo of the Ascot chorus on page three. Rex Harrison had been replaced by Alec Clunes in March or May 1959, so the pic near the back in all above programmes ("snooty Eliza") was replaced with one showing Andrews and Clunes at tea with Zena Dare. This programme was probably used until Andrews left the show in August 1959. |
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Portrait
found in types 1 and 2
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Photo
found in types 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
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Ad
found in all known types
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Portrait
found in types 3 to 6
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Advert
found only in type 5
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Photo
found in type 6 only
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