Fun Theatre Facts: Actors Change Masterpiece

Sir Herbert Tree as Professor Higgins, and Mrs Patrick Campbell as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion

George Bernard Shaw's masterpiece Pygmalion (the basis of the musical and movieMy Fair Lady) premiered in England in 1914 at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London.  The play tells the story of how Professor Henry Higgins, a speech specialist, teaches a young cockney woman, Eliza Doolittle, how to speak English properly.

As written by Shaw, the play ends when Eliza - after an argument with Higgins about her future -   walks out on professor Higgins, never to see him again.  The implication is that she loves him, but he treats her as though their relationship is all business.   

Before leaving, she says she is going to marry Freddy Einsford Hill, a local swain who claims to be desperately in love with her. Higgins bellows that Freddy is unworthy of her.  She is now fit to marry a king.  But Eliza walks out anyway, never to see Higgins again.

The original stars of the 1914 premier, Mrs. Patrick Campbell as Eliza Doolittle and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Professor Higgins, simply refused to play that ending. They thought that it was obvious from the rest of the play that by the end, Eliza has fallen in love with the professor and vice versa.  Shaw, as writer and director, refused to give in to such a sentimental ending and refused to write any new dialogue to match their belief. 

What to do?  In the end, the actors turned the tables on Shaw.  They stuck to his dialogue, but ended the play in a tableau where the professor waves  to Eliza as she leaves his house, throwing her kisses.  Thus they changed the ending of the play in their gestures instead of with dialogue.  Shaw was furious but had no resort but to go along with it.

Mrs. Patrick Campbell

Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree