by Nathaniel R
We've discussed the Oscar wars of My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins (1964) before but have you ever wondered how history would have been different if Julie Andrews had scored the movie role in My Fair Lady after playing it on Broadway? Would there have been a different Mary Poppins? Would they have waited and wouldboth films hav won Best Picture in separate years? Would Julie Andrews never have won an Oscar at all (since so many saw her very atypical Oscar win and Audrey's own lack of a nomination as a way to shame My Fair Lady, the movie, for not hiring her?! The ripple possibilities are endless...
64 years ago on this very day My Fair Lady opened on Broadway with Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison originating the roles of Eliza Dolittle and Henry Higgins. The show was a massive hit, running for six years (though Andrews and Harrison departed after about a year and a half in the roles), and spawning a blockbuster movie. The musical was nominated for 9 Tonys winning for Best Musical, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Costumes, Best Scenic Design, and Best Conductor/Musical Direction, all prizes it would go on to win in parallel categories at the Oscars, too, if you count Andre Previn's win for Best Music, Adaptation of Treatment as a Musical Direction prize. Among the Broadway cast only Rex Harrison and Stanley Hollaway (Alfred P Doolittle) would transfer to the film version with Harrison winning both the Tony and the Oscar and Holloway nominated (but losing) both. Among the crew only Cecil Beaton, the costume designer, would transfer to the movie, winning both the Tony and the Oscar just like Professor Higgins.
Julie discusses not getting the My Fair Lady role at 4:29 in this interview.
Useless Trivia: Did you know that Sally Ann Howes, who played the Julie Andrews like role of "Truly Scrumptious" in the movie musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) replaced Julie Andrews in the original Broadway run a decade before her biggest film success? Well, she did, taking over in February of 1958 when Julie Andrews departed the show.
Other happenings on this day, the Ides of March, in History
44 BC Emperor Julius Caesar is murdered as has since been depicted in countless plays, movies, and TV series
1935 Emmy winning and Oscar nominated actor Judd Hirsch (Taxi, Ordinary People) born in the Bronx
1943 Legendary auteur David Cronenberg (Dead Ringers, A History of Violence) born in Toronto
1964 Liz Taylor and Richard Burton enter marriage #1
1977 TV star Brian Tee (Chicago Med, The Wolverine) born in Okinawa
1985 Satire Lost in America opens in movie theaters
1987 Future Tony winner and TV star Jane Krakowski (Nine, Ally McBeal) makes her Broadway debut -- on rollerskates! -- in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express
2013 Harmony Korine's controversial and critically acclaimed Spring Breakers opens in limited release
2020 Westworld Season 3 begins on HBO