Alan Jay Lerner: A Lyricist's Letters (13 page)

        
How sad about
Pygmalion
!

        
Oh, well…!

        
How’s the picture coming? Will you be coming East soon? Call me when you do.

All my love,

Alan

By June, Lerner’s work for MGM had completely stalled, though he was still under contract to write another film for them. The costly movie musical genre was nearly at the end of its slow decline, with fewer projects emanating from all the studios, and both Lerner as writer and Freed as producer were coming to the end of their Hollywood years. Still, they kept in close touch, and in this letter to Freed, Lerner describes at length his approach to his current project,
Pygmalion
, as well as the casting and financing of the show:

    
To Arthur Freed

    
June 21, 1955

    
Dear Arthur,

    
It seems so long since I have seen you or spoken to you that I thought I’d just drop you a line and let you know I’m still alive.

        
Naturally, I’ve been working around the clock on the show, and I think it’s coming along well, albeit slowly. The book is completely broken down, a lot of the writing has been done, and the layout looks first rate. The reason for the slowness in writing is that the song requirements are so specific that there is very little room to move around. We sort of have to hit each one precisely on the nose. The reason for this, as you undoubtedly would imagine, is the very precise style that Shaw created, and by which we must abide.

        
We played the new things for Oliver
⁷⁴
the other night, and I’m pleased to report he was terribly excited. Also, Moss Hart
⁷⁵
has agreed
to direct it, and we’re all delighted. He made great good sense about the whole thing and, even though we’ve only had two meetings together, he already has given us a couple of wonderfully creative ideas.

        
We haven’t done much more on the casting than when I saw you. So far, just Rex, Julie Andrews, Stanley Holloway and an English boy we signed in London for the young lover.
⁷⁶
Of course, Oliver and Cecil Beaton
⁷⁷
will be designing and costuming.

        
On the financing side of it, we made an excellent deal with CBS, who are financing the entire venture for 40%. The main advantage to that, other than the financial, is, of course, the national exploitation and advertising which they are committed to give us for nothing.

        
Rehearsals are scheduled for the 15th of November, and Fritz and I have to go to England for a week in August to teach Rex his songs. I come in to town only about once a week now—the rest of the time I’m up in the country
⁷⁸
writing. In my usual fashion, half the songs still have one line missing in each.

        
I saw Howard Dietz
⁷⁹
the other day, and he told me that “Fair Weather”
⁸⁰
is one of the best pictures you’ve ever made. I was thrilled to hear it and I can’t wait to see it.

        
Do you plan on coming East at all? I could let you know when the hot spell starts, so that you could be sure and make it. Seriously, I would love to see you and, seeing that there’s no chance of my coming out, I am hoping that you’ll come East.

        
How are Vincente [Minnelli], Oscar [Levant] and the Gershwins? Please give them all my love and tell them I miss them.

        
I miss you, too.

Faithfully,

Alan

As well as adding to our knowledge of the dates when progress was being made on the show, this letter is also fascinating for the way in which Lerner discusses the specific challenge of writing the songs for the show: he says that their requirements are “so specific that there is very little room to move around” and they had to “hit each one precisely on the nose” due to “the very precise style that Shaw created.” The particularity of this approach is arguably one of the reasons for the musical’s success.

    
The summer of 1955 saw the completion of much of the work on
Pygmalion
, and in September Hanya Holm signed on as choreographer. Aside from the problems associated with maintaining Shaw’s tone of writing in the songs, Lerner and Loewe’s main challenge in this piece was to create the right kind of material for actor Rex Harrison. Many years after the show had closed, Lerner reminisced on how he came to hear of Harrison’s musical ability:

    
About two years before the show was readied, Rex was in New York for
Anne of a Thousand Days
. I was living up in Rockland County, and Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill lived up there. I had the house next door. Rex and Lilli Palmer used to come up over the weekends to Max’s Saturday nights and we had poker games on Sunday night.

        
One day, Kurt said we ought to do a revival of
The Threepenny Opera
, and he wanted me to consider writing the new version of it. And I said, “Well, who would play it, in the name of God?” And he said, “Rex.” And I said, “Does he sing?” And he said, “Yes.” That was the first time I ever knew that Rex was musical. I never heard him sing, so when we started working on
My Fair Lady
, the first person I suggested was Rex.
⁸¹
And everybody asked: “Does he sing?” And I said, “Well, Kurt says he does. I don’t know how he knew it, but if Kurt Weill said he was musical, he must be.”
⁸²

    
Lerner consulted Harrison at every stage of the composition, keeping him up to date with progress and sending him demo recordings of the new songs as they were written. In this letter from late November, Lerner employs his legendary charm to appease Harrison, who was unhappy with their first attempt at “Why Can’t the English?” and tells him all about the new song they had just written for him, “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.” He also discusses his approach to writing song lyrics, and in the postscript mentions current thoughts on the title for the show. Just over three months later,
My Fair Lady
would open
on Broadway to the most glowing reviews of Lerner’s career and become the longest-running musical in history.

    
To Rex Harrison

    
November 29, 1955

    
Rex, old boy:

    
Absolutely delighted with your report on your voice, plus “the recommendation” from Roy Lowe.
⁸³
Fritz and I always have believed it was merely a matter of developing the tonal quality you naturally had, and we were both confident of the result. Suffice to say we are very happy that confidence is now shared by you.

        
I was very interested in your comments about “Why Can’t The English,” and want you to know that I feel your reservations, as far as you are concerned, are completely justifiable. As I said in my cable, don’t let it tinge one hair with gray—we are rewriting it completely in a way that will be not only simpatico with you, but with the character of Higgins. I can do no other but agree with you when you are right, but I would fight you like a wounded tiger if I thought you were wrong.

        
I might add, before closing the matter, that there are certain lyric liberties one can take when they are framed by certain kinds of melodies. There are “song songs” and “character songs.” A “character song,” which is basically free and is accompanied by an emotion or emotions, as is the case in “I’m An Ordinary Man,” must pretty much stay within the bounds of reason. In a “song song,” certain extravagances are not only permissible, but desirable. “Why Can’t The English,” written as it was, was definitely a “song song” and therefore contained a certain amount of satiric extravagance. The minute the same idea is written in a freer way, so that it almost seems like normal conversation set to music, those extravagances would seem definitely out of place. When one reads the lyric of a “song song” over and compares it to the character who is singing it, very often there will seem to be a discrepancy. For example, what business does a young Navy lieutenant have singing a poetic song like “Younger Than Springtime”?
⁸⁴

        
But all this is part of the tricks of our trade, which you are gradually discovering now that you’re in the “music racket.” The reason we will be changing the song is to give you a broader scope and longer line musically, and this will automatically entail a different kind of lyric. In other words, the original song as one entity of words and music was entirely appropriate. Torn apart, it wouldn’t be possible. As a matter of fact, I’m quite surprised you went ahead and tried it out on the stage. It seems to me you just added to your worries and frustrations. If something doesn’t sound right in a room, the chances are it won’t sound right on the stage.

        
I hope by this time you have received the music to “Come To The Ball.”
⁸⁵
Of course, the tempo that I read the dialogue in, in the middle of the song, is not the tempo that you will read it in. Actually, Fritz hasn’t even bothered to write the final background music to that sequence yet. He will do it with you. We have millions of ideas of how “Come To The Ball” should be done, so should you have any questions, I beg you not to get an ulcer about it, but wait until we’re all together. We all feel it will work like a dream. Moss has some enchanting ideas about the way you’ll do the last chorus of the song itself (the new one). In the meantime, use Roy Lowe to get it under your belt, so that you’ll have the freedom you want with it when we start setting the business.

        
The big news of the letter is that we are practically finished with your second act number and our collective enthusiasm is boundless. I think it’s going to be one of the most important things you’ll do in the show—funny, touching in an odd way, and “Higgins” to a tee. We wrote a new song, which frames an entire interlude of a soliloquy that contains bits of “I Can See Her Now” and “I’m An Ordinary Man,” all with new lyrics, of course. We want to let it marinate for a few days after it’s finished, which is our custom. Because the melody itself is very simple (only twenty bars), and the music of the interlude is all music with which you are well familiar, you will have no trouble with it. We much prefer, therefore, not sending it over now but waiting until you arrive. I might want to do additional lyrics in a certain place, but I can’t tell that until I let it settle a bit and then look at it again. I also, by the
very fact that rehearsals are growing near, do not have the concentrated time. There are auditions every day for the Ensemble, the final meetings on the script, etc. Besides all that, I’m most anxious to do this whole number for you myself, so that you can see what’s intended and not trust to cold acetate being listened to three thousand miles away. I know you’re going to be delighted.

        
We have started on the new version of “English.” It’s very funny that you mentioned the expression “The King’s English,” because long, long, long ago when we first started on that number, that was the original title. I’ll keep you posted on our progress. I can well understand your desire to have it when you come back from your vacation, and I would certainly love to get it to you by then if I can do it without doing injury to my plodding thought processes.

        
In the meantime, I beg you not to worry—anyhow, certainly not when you’re on vacation. We are as determined as you are that everything Higgins does shall be absolutely right. Can’t wait to see you. I received a confirmation from The Pierre yesterday on your reservation. They can’t wait to see you either. Give my regards to Laurie
⁸⁶
and Binky.
⁸⁷

Devotedly,

AJL

    
P.S.
Fanfaroon
⁸⁸
has not been abandoned, although there is stiff opposition. But
My Lady Liza
will definitely not be it. I know this will break your heart, because you seem so terribly fond of it.

    
1
Lady Liza
or
My Lady Liza
was the working title of the show until late 1955. For a more detailed genesis of the show, see
Dominic McHugh,
Loverly: The Life and Times of “My Fair Lady”
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2012)
.

    
2
The addition of a scene at the Ascot races was one of Lerner’s main inventions in the adaptation of
Pygmalion
.

    
3
Lerner used Shaw’s screenplay for the 1938 film of
Pygmalion
, which contained numerous additions and changes from the original play text, as the basis for the musical.