• My Not-So-Fair Lady, Part 2, 4/25/18 (Tues)

Eliza Doolittle is now officially woke, going by the reviews of Bartlett Sher’s just opened revival of My Fair Lady. The newly conceived ending, as gleaned from spoilers (not to be revealed here), has the former flower girl breaking decisively from her mentor Higgins and going off on her own. No suggestion of romantic love or tolerance for human quirks as in the original musical. That would undoubtedly have pleased the resolutely feminist George Bernard Shaw, who insisted to the end that Eliza would never have returned to Higgins after she has become an independent woman. (In the final scene of Pygmalion, the basis for the musical, Higgins commands Eliza to go buy him a pair of gloves, at which she snaps, “Buy them yourself”, and leaves angrily.) That said, Shaw’s own actors in the original stage show and the producers of the film version, to his fury, all altered the ending without his permission to hint at a budding love affair. So any change back to Shaw’s original concept would be swimming against a long established tide.

But maybe not these days. I’ve noticed a number of musicals or musical revivals in recent years that seek to downplay the humanity of their major female characters in exchange for a surface toughness. I’ve always been impressed in Gypsy by the title character’s ultimate acceptance of her overbearing mother in the final scene, showing an amazing capacity for forgiveness and tolerance. Unfortunately the otherwise superb revivals on Broadway in 2008 and London in 2015 found the daughter coldly putting down the mother, laughing at her rather brutally and walking away. It’s not entirely unjustified in context, but what does that say about Gypsy Rose Lee? Or us? The director is more concerned with the stripper’s settling of scores than her empathy for a woman who, for all her failings, did her best in her own way. I felt deflated. (The gold standard is still the Tyne Daly version many years ago, when Gypsy allowed her mother to maintain her dignity while making clear who was in charge.)

The film Frozen, and I assume the stage show as well, famously teases us at the end as Elsa runs toward her mate amid swelling music in what looks to be a couple in the making, only to show her continue deliberately past him toward her sister instead. The implication is that you can’t have one without the other. Is that true? Why have him there in the first place if she’s just going to snub him? Does female power have to come at the expense of romance? No one has suggested the same for men, who usually end with both. Rejecting one for the other seems petty. It gives the impression that the writers are not confident that Elsa could handle a man while remaining herself.

As for My Fair Lady, as I’ve noted elsewhere, “It is Eliza, feisty and strong-willed, who takes the initiative in seeking lessons from Higgins to better herself, then walks out on him when she feels mistreated.” She cuts him to size in “Without You” (“I can do bloody well without you”), to which he responds joyously, “I did it! I said I’d make a woman and succeed I did!” There’s no question that she has gained her autonomy and can do as she likes. Coming back to him is a choice – being with someone is always a choice – but this time, she’s returned on her own terms. When Higgins asks for his slippers in the final line, he is simply acting out the scene when they first met; both realize that their relationship has changed drastically since those early days. There is no suggestion that being with Higgins will turn her into a mousey creature serving at his beck and call. Eliza’s reaction as traditionally shown is much more realistic and moving than the new feel-good interpretation, which has no nuance whatsoever.

The director of a recent Japanese production of the show told a magazine that he thought the main theme was a woman’s need for love. While that ignores the social critique in the show, he should anyway have phrased it as the human need for love, since Higgins is clearly as in need of Eliza as she is for him. The new Eliza may be strong and independent but emerges as small minded. Surely women can’t be aspiring to this.