Alan Jay Lerner: A Lyricist's Letters (21 page)

BEST REGARDS,

ALAN JAY LERNER

    
Again taking up the silent co-producer’s role on
Fair Lady
, Lerner also tried to intervene when the
New York Times
did not review the new Eliza Doolittle, Sally Ann Howes, who took over from Andrews. He wrote to Brooks Atkinson,
⁹⁹
the paper’s chief critic, and attempted to persuade him to attend the show again and review it, now that all three of the original stars had left. Harrison and Holloway’s contracts ended in December 1957, but Andrews had to stay on until February of the following year due to Howes’s schedule. We saw earlier how keen Lerner was to bolster Levin’s production strategy, and the following exchange of letters is a useful example of how he got involved in opportunities for publicity:

    
To Brooks Atkinson

    
17 February 1958

    
Dear Mr. Atkinson:

    
If you get a chance, I would be so happy if you would go in and see Sally Ann Howes playing Eliza Doolittle. We’re all very excited about her, and even though the show is undoubtedly old hat to you now, I don’t think you would find it a wasted evening.

        
Not only that, but if you do go, I promise either to write another article for Harvard, or not write one—whichever you think would help the school more.

        
Incidentally, the book
¹⁰⁰
was absolutely wonderful: touching, interesting, nostalgic and informative. I enjoyed it enormously, even though there isn’t a musical in it.

Kindest regards,

Alan Jay Lerner

The much-respected Atkinson was not to be rushed into a review, but assured Lerner that he hoped to run a profile on Howes later in the season.
¹⁰¹
“But not now,” he said. “I am always desperately looking for subjects for Sunday articles towards the end of the season. Sally Ann Howes is one of the topics I have tucked away in the back of my head to get me out of the slump towards the end of the season. I hope this schedule will be reasonably satisfactory to you.” Atkinson also said he was “glad” that Lerner liked his book. He continued: “I received one irascible letter from a graduate, who had a bad time at Harvard and wishes the whole place would just go away. I console myself by suspecting in something he said in the letter that he had not read the book but only a review that praised it.” As on several other occasions in this book, these letters show the level of respect that existed between different members of the Broadway community in this era—even between writers and critics.

    
With the retakes and new touches done on
Gigi
—including re-filming and re-recording parts of Gaston’s “Soliloquy” (incorporating the famous title song)—the movie was now ready for another preview. This time, the audience reaction was much more positive, as Freed wrote to inform Lerner: “We had an absolutely sensational film preview last night at Encino,” he commented, adding: “We were able to use the new recording of Jourdan for the Soliloquy, and it was perfect, especially your favorite line, ‘The way it clung on one so young.’” The reception of
Gigi
was equally as warm as that for
My Fair Lady
, and Lerner and Loewe had much to celebrate.

    
Lerner was now in London for the opening of
Fair Lady
. Although the same four leads (Andrews, Harrison, Holloway, and Coote) were to take the main roles, the rest of the cast was new (including Zena Dare
¹⁰²
as Mrs. Higgins and Leonard
Weir
¹⁰³
as Freddy), as was the musical director, Cyril Ornadel.
¹⁰⁴
The production also had to be modified in places, since the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where the show was to be housed in London, was larger than
Lady
’s Broadway home at the Mark Hellinger. On top of that, there were understandable nerves about how the musical would be received on Shaw’s “home territory.” Therefore, the rehearsal period was crucial. But the consternation was unnecessary: Drew Middleton, special correspondent to the
New York Times
, was able to report on April 30 that the “spiritual home of the musical” had discovered “it is as good as the Yanks said it was.”
¹⁰⁵
Two weeks later, Lerner enjoyed a further triumph: the formal premiere of
Gigi
on May 15 at the Royale Theatre in New York. Bosley Crowther’s review referred to Lerner and Loewe as “two wizards” and raved about the film, whose success meant that they were enjoying stage and screen hits concurrently, and both could be seen in Broadway theaters. The following week,
Gigi
also drew acclaim when it was the closing gala movie at the Cannes Film Festival.
¹⁰⁶

    
Lerner received a good luck telegram for the opening of
Gigi
from veteran producer Leland Hayward,
¹⁰⁷
who also mentioned a project he was talking about producing for Lerner and Loewe. In place of
Father of the Bride
they were now considering a musical version of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse’s play
Life with Father
(1939), the longest-running non-musical play on Broadway, and Lerner promised to discuss it with Loewe, who was due to visit him in Paris (where Lerner stayed after the Cannes premiere of the movie):

    
To Leland Hayward

    
May 14, 1958

    
Dear Leland:

    
It was so kind of you to cable. Thank you, thank you.

        
Fritz will be joining me in June and after a month of talk I’ll write you about “Father.” I know that you, Howard and Buck understand the delay in getting to it.

        
Micheline joins in love to you and Nancy.

Aye,

Alan

    
While Lerner was basking in his latest Hollywood success, his “other” theatrical collaborator, Hart, was in New York looking after
Fair Lady
. He was then due to go to Chicago to sort out the latest cast in the touring production of the show, and clearly did not relish the task. He wrote to Lerner in teasing fury, communicating his jealousy about their respective plans for the coming weeks:

    
From Moss Hart

    
[Undated; c. May 1958]

    
Poor boy, Poor boy,

    
Downhearted and depressed

    
And in a spin:—

    
Well, thank heaven I understand the reason behind those little jokes so helpless and appealing—the arid jests anent the tall buildings in America—the petty jibes about my book! Ah, dear chap, when the front numeral changes from 3 to 4 the blood chills a bit, the mind grows dimmer and the jokes get a little thinner…! Don’t fight it so, poor boy, don’t try so hard. Let you-know-who be your Patron Saint, and lie quietly in a good French lawyer’s arms. There’s nothing better!

        
Are the chestnut trees still in blossom? Are the little bistros still in flower? Well, enjoy them all you dirty sonofabitch! I go to see the full show tonight (don’t ask what show, you bastard), give notices afterwards, then rehearse Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday with orchestra putting all the new arrangements of the numbers we did in London into the show here, then I go to Chicago (oh, God!), put Michael Evans
¹⁰⁸
[the new Henry Higgins] into the show and do all the new numbers with him and Anne Rogers
¹⁰⁹
[who played Eliza Doolittle] and after that I’m coming home and breaking every record we have of the show
over each child’s dear little head, and if your children are still here I’ll try to get hold of them and break some over their heads.

        
Don’t ask me how I feel, you shit, you, sitting in Paris! All I can tell you is that I thought
Say Darling
¹¹⁰
was absolutely glorious! Just to hear some other music! Just to hear some other words! O, my God, it was great!

        
But there’s no reason for me to feel differently towards that darling woman who lives with you, so give her my love. And let me know the exact date of your birthday—I want to think of something appropriate to send you—and I want to have a good long time to think about it.

        
Your amusing and battered friend,

Moss

Though jovial, Hart’s letter communicates his growing eagerness to move on to a new musical with Lerner, though they had still not picked a suitable subject.

    
On June 30, Herman Levin wrote to Lerner with the idea of a co-production of
Fair Lady
in Europe and South America, in English, with the Ukraine-born American impresario Sol Hurok.
¹¹¹
Though international productions of musicals had become relatively common, the kind of globalization Levin proposed was innovative. He also brought him up to date with casting problems in the New York and touring companies of the show. By this point, Lerner and Loewe’s relationship with Levin had started to sour, not least because he had been shut out of the new Lerner-Loewe-Hart producing partnership, and the tone of Levin’s letter is comparatively formal:

    
From Herman Levin

    
June 30, 1958

    
Dear Alan:

    
Sol Hurok and I have been discussing a joint presentation of
My Fair Lady
on the continent of Europe and in South America, in English.

        
You will remember that we had a minute or two to discuss this is London, and that you evidenced interest in such a proposition. Before we proceed to go further, will you let me know whether you and Fritz, as authors, are willing seriously to consider an offer to be made by Hurok
and myself for the rights to present the show throughout the world (except in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Australia)?

        
I point out to you that, assuming that we do the show in English, the foreign language versions could still be done a year or two after the English speaking run. I have heard that you have disposed of the Spanish speaking rights. Will you give me the facts on this?

        
Everything is going along smoothly here except that I have been having my annual fight with Equity, this time about [Michael] Allinson. I think that it will all be settled by an arrangement for Allinson to be the standby understudy on the road and to follow [Edward] Mulhare in New York, we to hire an American Equity member to play Karpathy. If it isn’t settled this way today, you will read about it in the papers because my instructions are that Allinson is to go in tonight as Karpathy unless Equity agrees to a settlement as I have just described. My feeling is that if it isn’t settled and I put Allinson in the show, Equity will bring some kind of injunctive proceeding in the courts. However, both Irving Cohen and I are reasonably certain that the matter will be settled.

        
Moss is going to Chicago next week to work with Evans and give the company a general brush-up. The business in Chicago jumped to $71,000 last week because of conventions. Our business this summer in Chicago will vary up and down depending upon whether or not Chicago is harboring a convention, but generally speaking I think we should stay above $60,000 regardless.

        
With all the best to you, to Micheline and to Fritz —

Very sincerely,

Herman

    
But in spite of Levin’s hopes, Lerner and Loewe preferred to have the show performed in the local language when it traveled abroad because of the risk that the subtle humor of the text might be lost in translation. Additionally, the team was probably reluctant to empower Levin with responsibility for the show’s worldwide distribution. Lerner wrote to inform Levin of his misgivings:

    
To Herman Levin

    
July 4th, 1958

    
Dear Herm:

    
Thought of you the other day. I picked up the London Times and there was a headline: CYDE WEEK OPENS.
¹¹²

        
The Hurok idea is an interesting one but both Fritz and I question the wisdom of it. The thing that frightens both of us is that although the critics know the plot, they don’t know the lyrics and I think we run the risk of bad notices. The Figaro, for example, saw the opening in London and gave it a rather shabby notice. I found out later in Paris that the critic did not speak English. To him it was just another operetta. Now although a bad press may not hurt business when the show is only going to play a limited engagement, it’ll hurt Fritz and me. It seems to us that if it is to be done on the continent at all, it must be with first class translations or not at all. And whether such a thing is possible I don’t know. At the moment I’m working on some French lyrics with a French lyricist and I’ll have a better idea after we’ve finished. Anyhow, let me know your thoughts in view of the above opinion and we can talk (or write) some more about it.

        
How is business holding up? Do you think we’ll have any empty seats this summer? Do write and tell me. I’m peculiarly interested.

        
Hope everything works out with Equity. Please let me know the outcome.

        
All goes well here. The children are having a ball, and I’m getting so healthy I’m dangerous. Please give our love to Dawn. Hope you’re having a good summer.

        
Pip pip, old cock,

Aye,

Alan

Of particular note is the reference to translations of the Lerner-Loewe material: at the time of
Gigi
’s premiere at Cannes, Lerner had acted to get it properly dubbed into the local language (with only Chevalier of the onscreen cast doing his own dubbing) and also had it translated into German and Italian, which helped to pick up the movie’s fortunes around Europe. Apparently, he was eager to control the translations of
Fair Lady
, too, since he considered it essential to understand exactly what was going on.