Line #10 YMMV/MyFairLady


1	* AccidentalInnuendo: Higgins says to his mother than he and Pickering "have been at it from morning until night" regarding their tutoring of Eliza.
2	* AdaptationDisplacement: The film version has pretty much overshadowed the original stage play and both have overshadowed ''Theatre/{{Pygmalion}}''.
3	* AlternateAesopInterpretation: When Eliza doesn't show any improvement, Higgins responds by mocking and demeaning her even further; also resorting to punishments like denying her food and rest until she gets it right. But it's not until he says anything remotely positive - reassuring her she can do it - that she actually begins to improve. So the lesson here could be that students finding it difficult to learn often respond better to positive reinforcement than excessive punishment.
4	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
5	** There is speculation, including articles in academic literary and mental health journals, that Henry Higgins has Asperger's Syndrome, symptoms of which include a lack of social awareness, repetitive patterns of behavior and interests (e.g. his study of linguistics), and difficulty with reading others' emotions and expressing empathy.
6	** While Eliza's joy in "I Could Have Danced All Night" was meant by the writers to express a hint of burgeoning romantic feelings for Henry Higgins (they had scrapped two other songs meant to be in the same spot for being too overtly romantic), the 2018 Broadway revival leans towards a different interpretation - that her joy comes more from her sense of accomplishment and potential than any feelings, however fond, for Henry.
7	** A positive way to interpret the controversial ending change is that Higgins does have a HeelRealization of sorts, and Eliza has demonstrated that she's more than able to stand up to him and put him in his place. This might suggest that their relationship will be more even, with Eliza no longer taking any of his bluster.
8	** Is Higgins' final "Where the devil are my slippers?" a genuine, smugly triumphant assertion of his power over the newly-returned Eliza, or is it a self-mocking joke that shows his HeelRealization? The actor's delivery of that line can change the audience's whole impression of the ending.
9	* AwardSnub: Despite her acclaim in the film, Creator/AudreyHepburn did not get an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination for Best Actress. In a twist of irony, Creator/JulieAndrews, who played Eliza on stage and was controversially rejected to reprise her role in the film version, won in that category the same year for ''Film/MaryPoppins''. Speculation arose that Hepburn wasn't nominated due to her singing voice being dubbed, and others believe that Andrews won because the Academy sympathized with her not being able to play Eliza. Hepburn's snub looks especially bad since the film was nominated in all the other eligible acting categories, and won eight Oscars, including Picture, Director for Creator/GeorgeCukor, and Actor for Creator/RexHarrison.
10	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "I Could Have Danced All Night" has gone down in the record books as one of the most beloved soprano solos in the history of musical theatre -- and with ''very'' good reason.
11	* BrokenBase:
12	** The war between fans of Julie Andrews and Audrey Hepburn is one of the hottest in musical theatre.
13	** The 2018 revival's ending in which Eliza returns to Henry's residence only to definitively leave. Some found it a perfect update, believing the original ending is dated and sexist, not to mention it was against George Bernard Shaw's original intentions with ''Pygmalion''. Others thought it messed with an ending that still worked, noting that Henry changes for the better in the original and having the two go their separate ways right at the end despite this is a CruelTwistEnding.
14	** While the show is still very beloved, there's division from modern viewers about whether or not it reinforces sexist and classist tropes or if it actually critiques them.
15	* CantUnHearIt: Applies to Creator/RexHarrison as Henry Higgins. He originated the role on Broadway winning a Tony, played it again on film winning an Oscar, and was responsible for the character's famous talk singing. Combine all that with Harrison's memorable voice, and it can be hard to think of Higgins and not Harrison.
16	* DesignatedHero: Henry Higgins is introduced with open disdain for the Irish, Scottish, Welsh and any other English accents that 'butcher' the English language by not speaking in RP. His actions towards a young woman who comes to him for help to better her station are to repeatedly demean her, have all her clothes disposed of so that she can dress the way ''he'' wants, deny her food and luxuries when she doesn't show instant improvement, and treat her entirely as a tool for his amusement. Then when she succeeds in spite of what an awful teacher he is, he attributes it all to himself, and calls her ungrateful and overemotional when she calls him on this. See ValuesDissonance below.
17	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Alfred P. Doolittle doesn’t have nearly as much to do as the two leads, but his excellent and hilarious style and songs can cause him to steal the show.
18	* FanPreferredCutContent: In the 90s, footage was uncovered of Audrey Hepburn doing her own singing. In some numbers, her voice sounds perfectly fine. While obviously not as skilled as Marni Nixon, her voice is quite pleasant and adds authenticity to some of the obvious SingingVoiceDissonance in the final film. Some even feel that the dubbing over [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMnty0FjcNU "Wouldn't It Be Loverly"]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XalUuhkg-Fg "Show Me"]] was completely unnecessary. It's not uncommon for there to be requests for a special edition featuring Audrey Hepburn's original vocals. Rehearsal tracks of other numbers exist, but it's hard to gauge her effectiveness from those.
19	* GeniusBonus: In the film, near the beginning we get a glimpse of Henry Higgins' notebook, which he's using to transcribe people's accents. It's unreadable... unless you understand [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visible_Speech Visible Speech]], which was created by Alexander Melville Bell, father of Alexander Graham Bell.
20	* HilariousInHindsight: Marnie Nixon, the singing voice for Audrey Hepburn, would appear in a touring production of ''My Fair Lady'' in the 2000s, playing Mrs. Higgins - ''a non-singing role''.
21	* HollywoodHomely: As per the course with Audrey Hepburn in her heyday. Despite being now considered one of the most beautiful women of the Golden Age, her appearance is constantly dressed down throughout. Although intended to be dirty and unwashed when she first approaches Higgins, Eliza's face is only lightly covered with dirt, and she arguably looks quite good for someone who has to sell flowers in the rain. Even after her makeover, Higgins only describes her looks as "not bad." Granted, Higgins is typically seen as having zero interest in sex or being in denial about his feelings for Eliza, and he does eventually admit that she's "really quite a pleasure to look at sometimes."
22	* HoYay:
23	** Higgins and Pickering have quite a bit, particularly in "A Hymn to Him", where Higgins straight up asks "Why can't a woman be more like a man?". In fact, one of the lyrics is "why can't a woman be like you?".
24	** The 2018 Broadway production starring Lauren Ambrose (replaced by Creator/LauraBenanti) and Harry Hayden-Patton plays this up even more, changing Pickering's reaction to the question "Would you be offended if I took out another fellow?" from an affirmative "Never!" to a beat and a look that says he definitely would.
25	* JerkassWoobie: Henry Higgins is a demanding bully who treated Eliza terribly in their time together and proclaims her achievement to be all his doing. But for as big of a jerk as he is, Higgins often genuinely doesn't realize he's acting like one, with [[InnocentlyInsensitive his cruelty at times coming from actually decent intentions]]. Because of this, he truly is dumbfounded and legitimately hurt when Eliza - who he's softened on and come to think of as a friend - lashes out at him, even more so when his attempt to smooth things over fails and she leaves. And after plenty of whining, his delusions eventually fade away and he realizes his error and how much he'll miss her, and with it being the only thing he has left of Eliza, he listens to a recording of her voice, slumping down heartbroken. This trope applies most of all to the 2018 version however, as unlike before, learning his lesson and starting to better himself doesn't bring Eliza back.
26	* MemeticMutation:
27	** "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain."
28	** "I've grown accustomed to her face."
29	** "I think she's got it! By George, she's got it!"
30	* MisBlamed:
31	** Many critics and commentators have blamed Alan Lerner for changing the ending of Shaw's play to make it seem like Higgins and Eliza might get together. He actually used the exact same ending as the 1938 film version.
32	** The movie got this over the use of a NonSingingVoice for Audrey Hepburn, which became highly controversial even though movies had been dubbing people almost since the beginning of sound ("We even dubbed Rin-Tin-Tin," producer Jack Warner protested). The negative media coverage was widely seen as costing Hepburn an Academy Award nomination, and mostly killed off the practice of dubbing actors with better singers - even when [[Theatre/{{Camelot}} they couldn't sing]].
33	** Also Creator/AudreyHepburn herself, who stated that she'd heard from a number of people that felt she should have turned down the role so Creator/JulieAndrews would be cast. Hepburn stated that if she had turned down the role, the next person on the list to be offered it was still NOT Andrews, and made it seem that no matter what, Andrews was never going to be offered the part.
34	* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: At the very end of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly", the high notes Marni Nixon hits are just heavenly.
35	* OlderThanTheyThink:
36	** Most of the additional scenes and story elements in the musical were added to Shaw's play not by Lerner, but by the creators of the 1938 film version of ''Pygmalion'', which introduced the Embassy ball sequence, Higgins teaching Eliza to recite "The Rain in Spain," and the controversial new ending. Many critics at the time gave Lerner credit (or MisBlamed him) for the additions, though this became less common after the original film began appearing on TV and home video.
37	** The technique of equipping an actor with a wireless microphone to sing live on set was first used here for Rex Harrison's vocals; he insisted that he wouldn't be able to convincingly lip synch to a pre-recorded track, as he never talked his way through the songs the same way twice.
38	* OvershadowedByControversy: The film is remembered for the scandal of Julie Andrews being passed over for the role of Eliza in favour of Audrey Hepburn - who was then dubbed by Marni Nixon. It's felt that this cost Audrey Hepburn an Oscar nomination for the role.
39	* QuestionableCasting:
40	** While Creator/AudreyHepburn's acting in the film was acclaimed, her casting had remained divisive due to her singing being dubbed, with many saying Eliza should've been played by her original Broadway actress Creator/JulieAndrews. Even Audrey Hepburn herself initially told Jack L Warner to cast Julie Andrews, and later said she wouldn't have accepted the role if she'd known she was going to have 90% of her vocals dubbed.
41	** The choice of dubbing for Eliza was Marni Nixon who, although an extremely skilled singer, does not match up too well with Audrey Hepburn's vocals. The actress has such a distinctive voice that it becomes [[SingingVoiceDissonance unusually jarring]] in some instances.
42	** An even more baffling choice was the one to dub Freddie's singing. Jeremy Brett was an accomplished musical theatre performer, but they decided his voice was too mature for Freddie, and had Bill Shirley dub him. Unlike Audrey Hepburn, they have yet to uncover clips of his original voice.
43	* RefrainFromAssuming: Higgins's song, "A Hymn to Him", is way more commonly referred to as the repeated line "Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man?".
44	* RetroactiveRecognition: Eliza's potential suitor is Series/SherlockHolmes.
45	* SpiritualSuccessor: In the genre of musical theatre, Eliza and Higgins's relationship arguably shows the influence of Anna and the King's in ''Theatre/TheKingAndI''. The idea that a musical could revolve not around a traditional love story, but around a complex, rocky yet mutually life-changing bond between a man and a woman who never become lovers, but who share obvious romantic {{Subtext}}, was put forth in Creator/RodgersAndHammerstein's musical and carried forward into this one. It probably helps that Creator/RexHarrison had played the King in the non-musical 1946 film of ''Anna and the King of Siam'', and was Rodgers and Hammerstein's first choice for the role in the musical too before Creator/YulBrynner was cast.
46	* ValuesDissonance:
47	** When it was first made, Eliza came across as much more unacceptably uncouth to theatre-goers, and therefore just as bad as Henry, whereas it is getting more and more common to see Henry as a misogynistic, snobbish villain who is unfairly putting Eliza down. There is an element of laissez-faire that won't be apparent to today's audience. Modern audiences sympathize with Eliza, since her poverty and upbringing would naturally cause her to be rough in her speech and mannerisms, but older audiences might be less sympathetic. To today's audience, Henry also comes off as arrogant, buying Eliza for an entertaining game. While she just wants to make a fair deal, in order to rise above her station and pay for lessons. Henry implies that Eliza should be grateful, just because he was luckier in life than she was. In one scene, Henry even implies that Eliza is basically one of his belongings. Basically, they are each supposed to be a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, but current values don't look favorably on characters like Higgins.
48	** Freddy is practically camping in Eliza's street, and watching her current house constantly. This is [[StalkerWithACrush stalking]] in today's terms. While it would have been seen as romantic at the time, this easily disturbs modern people.
49	** The ending, far more than the original ''Pygmalion''! It basically rewards emotional abuse!
50	** While there's some DeliberateValuesDissonance, since it is set in Edwardian England, there appears to be a reinforcement of the classist notion that it's a working class person's own fault if they're poor. Eliza bettering her station is only possible because Higgins thought it would be amusing to turn a cockney flower girl into a lady, and her father likewise because a rich man took pity on him.
51	** Higgins's methods for teaching Eliza are used to frame him as 'tough but fair'. By modern standards, he comes across as a SadistTeacher.
52	* TheWoobie: Eliza becomes this after the ball. It should be one of the happiest nights of her life, having successfully pulled things off so well that she was suspected of being a Hungarian princess...but Higgins and Pickering only care about congratulating each other and treating her as though she was an insignificant prop for them to move around at their will. And when she dares to voice her grievances, Higgins laughs at her and calls her ungrateful; telling her she should just be happy for all they've done for her (which basically amounts to psychological torture by today's standards).

Context YMMV / MyFairLady