My Fair Lady question

You are right. It's on the LSO, Kiri Te Kanawa and Jeremy Irons recording. Its Some place near the beginning but also I can't place in which song it would be - when I get home I'll let you know.

The TV recording is on YouTube - it's on my list of things to watch - you may also get 'London Bridge' on that

The first few notes of it crop up in the bassoon intro to "I'm getting married in the morning".

Thanks. It was driving me a bit mad.

at about 3mins 17 seconds.

That is exactly where I remember it.

I can sleep tonight

I suppose as the lyrics to "London Bridge is falling down" go on to mention "My fair lady", it was inevitable it'd crop up somewhere.

This might help: fdocuments.net/document/my-fair-lady-script-5584557f6cf7d.html

Thanks for the replies. JA's original recreation sounds interesting but really not the way I want theatre to advance. To be honest I find a lot of Wendy's End, Regional and Fringe to be pedestrian ...

The below program is interesting. I'd love to hear the music for the ballet.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lmz6

I designed an amateur production in Ireland years ago. In the book the interval was after the ball. It was quite late in the evening so the director moved it to after the Ascot scene. I'm almost certain it's moved around a lot depending on the production. I may be wrong but I think Trevor Nunn had it after Eliza arrived in the study dressed for the ball.

Just to say great thread, thanks to all contributors. Love it when knowledge is shared on here.

Currently enjoying that BBC link.

Deleted

I don't have my script to hand, but I'm guessing these scenes were used/written to cover a large scene change for the original production. Remember in the 50s, a lot of those shows were written in the 'in one' tradition - performing a scene down stage in front of a curtain/drop while a scene change was happening behind it. The Luck Reprise was probably used to cater for the scene change to Higgins' study, and the pre-Ascot scene might have been to remove the Higgins study, and facilitate a quick costume change for Eliza. You can find more of these types of 'in one' scenes in South Pacific, Guys and Dolls and The King and I. 

Probably just me, but I've always called them 'tabs' scenes, as in they take place in front of the tabs. Being quite tall, I always seemed to be allocated tabs duty, as I could pull them closed, then open, faster than anyone else.

To use Guys and Dolls as an example, watching it t'other Christmas at the world-famous Crucible Theatre, which doesn't have tabs of course, I kept thinking to myself "that's a tabs scene...and another tabs scene..."

Yes and it's funny, sometimes those scenes seem redundant watching them through a modern lens especially with contemporary set designs/productions... I remember thinking the same in the Chichester revival in 2014 with G&D. Also for 'The King and I', the Puzzlement reprise sung by Louis/the Prince was done in front of a tab to facilitate the scene change for Anna's bedroom I believe, and that little duet is often dropped now in modern productions because it's not required (the show is already long enough!)

Damrau gives a good performance (shame about the tasteless accompaniment.) I Could have Danced all Night fares well when sung by opera singers. Te Kanawa is good but a bit bland - she has one of the most beautiful voices in opera but rarely really lets go. Renee Fleming starts off really well in a live performance, you think it's going to be the best ever but then in verse two has a complete lack of taste and starts pulling the vocal line around hideously. My favourite 'operatic' performance is Angela Gheorghiu. She has done it several times and seems to use it as her standard encore when singing live - there's even a version in Romanian. However, nothing can touch Julie Andrews' version from the original Broadway recording - her trademark, slightly under the note attack, is hugely effecting and nobody else comes close to the ecstatic feeling of wide eyed wonder she's able to evoke.