My Fair Lady

From its groundbreaking Broadway debut, to the iconic Oscar-winning film starring Audrey Hepburn, to countless productions around the world, My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loew remains one of the musical audience's beloved masterpieces. More than seventy years after its premiere in New York, the song will be heard on NFM in concert version. The performance is conducted by the British Wayne Marshall, an outstanding connoisseur of American music of the 20th century.

The basis of the libretto created by Lerner is Pygmalion - a play by Irish Nobel laureate George Bernard Shaw. Its title refers to the figure of the mythical king of Cyprus - a sculptor who fell in love with the statue he made. In the work, the playwright professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes an assumption with a friend that in six months he will introduce the unwealthy florist Eliza into the salons. He teaches the girl linguistic correctness, beautiful pronunciation and sociability. When he finally wins, he realizes how strong a feeling he has for his ward, whom he has so far treated exclusively as his own plaything. The reinterpretation of the antique motif shines here with the blade of criticism of social prejudices.

Until Shaw's death in 1950, it was not possible to obtain his consent to create a musical adaptation of the drama (as early as 1921, Franz Lehár himself tried unsuccessfully). The duo of Lerner and Loewe began work, but stopped it when the artists decided that the story was not suitable for musical interpretation. They returned to the idea and finished the composition, which they gave the title My Fair Lady. The premiere took place on March 15, 1956 at the Mark Hellinger Theater. Viewers were delighted with the addictive, funny and full of surprising twists and turns of the plot. Songs like With a Little Bit of Luck, Show Me, Why Can't the English? or I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face (twisted by jazzmen as I've Thrown a Custard in Her Face), have become timeless hits.