Background

Productions

Revivals, tours and concerts

Synopsis

Act One On a rainy night in Edwardian London, the opera patrons are waiting under the arches of Covent Garden for their cabs. Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl, runs into young Freddie. She admonishes him for spilling her violets in the mud but cheers up after selling one to an older gentleman. She discovers another gentleman copying down her speech and flies into an angry outburst. The man explains that he studies phonetics and can identify any man's origin by his accent. He laments Eliza's dreadful accent, asking "Why Can't the English?" learn to speak. He declares that in six months, he could turn Eliza into a lady by teaching her to speak properly. The older gentleman introduces himself as Colonel Pickering, a linguist who has studied Indian dialects. The phoneticist then introduces himself as Henry Higgins, and, as they both have always wanted to meet each other, Higgins invites Pickering to stay at his home in London. He distractedly throws his change in Eliza's basket, and she and her friends wonder "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" to live a comfortable, proper life.
   Eliza's father, Alfred P. Doolittle, a dustman, stops by the next morning. He is searching for money for a drink, and Eliza shares her profits with him ("With a Little Bit of Luck"). Pickering and Higgins are discussing vowels at Higgins's home when Mrs. Pierce, the housekeeper, informs Higgins that a young woman with a ghastly accent has come to see him. It is Eliza, who has come to take lessons to speak properly so she can become a lady. Pickering wagers that Higgins can't make good on his claim, volunteering to pay for Eliza's lessons. An intensive makeover of Eliza's speech, manners and dress begins in preparation for her appearance at the Embassy Ball. Higgins sees himself as a kindhearted, patient man who can't get along with women ("I'm an Ordinary Man"). In reality, he's self-absorbed and misogynistic.
   Eliza's father arrives at Higgins' house the next morning, claiming that Higgins is compromising Eliza's virtue. Higgins is impressed by the man's natural gift for language and his brazen lack of moral values ("Can't afford 'em!"). He and Doolittle agree that Eliza can continue to take lessons and live at Higgins' house if Higgins gives Doolittle five pounds for a spree. Higgins flippantly recommends Doolittle to an American millionaire who is seeking a lecturer on moral values. Meanwhile, Eliza endures speech tutoring, endlessly repeating phrases like "In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen” (to demonstrate that "h"s must be aspirated) and "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" (to practice the "long a" phoneme). She dreams of different ways to kill Higgins, from sickness to drowning to a firing squad ("Just You Wait"). The servants lament the hard "work" Higgins does ("The Servants' Chorus"). Just as her lessons seem hopeless, Eliza suddenly "gets it" after Higgins eloquently speaks of the glory of the English language. "The Rain in Spain" becomes a song of triumph, as Higgins and Eliza dance around Higgins's study. Thereafter her pronunciation is transformed into that of impeccable upper class English. Mrs. Pierce is awakened by the noise, and insists that Eliza go to bed. But Eliza is so excited that "I Could have Danced All Night".
   For her first public tryout, Higgins takes Eliza to his mother's box at the Ascot Racecourse ("Ascot Gavotte"). Henry's mother reluctantly agrees to help Eliza make conversation, following Henry's advice that Eliza should stick to two subjects: the weather and everybody's health. Eliza makes a good impression with her polite manners but shocks everyone by her vulgar Cockney attitudes and slang – it seems that good elocution is only skin deep. But she captures the heart of Freddy Eynsford-Hill, the young man that she first ran into. Freddie calls on Eliza that evening, but she refuses to see him. He declares that he'll wait for her in the street outside Higgins's house ("On the Street where You Live").
   The final test requires Eliza to pass as a lady at the Embassy Ball, and after weeks of preparation, she's ready. All the ladies and gentlemen at the ball admire her, and the Queen of Transylvania invites her to dance with her son, the prince ("Embassy Waltz").

Act Two Eliza even fools a rival of Higgins, a Hungarian phonetician named Zoltan Karpathy, into believing that Eliza was "born Hungarian." After the ball, Higgins's ungrateful boasting about his triumph and his pleasure that the experiment is now over leave Eliza feeling used and abandoned ("You Did It"). Higgins completely ignores Eliza until he loses his slippers. He asks her where they are, and she lashes out at him, leaving the clueless professor mystified by her ingratitude ("Just You Wait" (reprise)). Eliza decides to leave Higgins, and finds Freddie still waiting outside ("On the Street where You Live" (reprise)). He begins to tell her how much he loves her, but she cuts him off, telling him that she's heard enough words; if he really loves her, he should show it ("Show Me"). She and Freddie return to Covent Garden, where her friends don't recognize her refined bearing. By chance, her father is there as well, dressed in a fine suit. He explains that he received a surprise bequest of four thousand pounds a year from the American millionaire. This has raised him uncomfortably into middle-class respectability, and now he must marry Eliza's "step-mother", the woman he's been living with for many years. Eliza sees that she no longer belongs in Covent Garden, and she and Freddie depart. Doolittle and his friends have one last spree before the wedding ("Get Me to the Church on Time").
   Higgins angrily awakens the next morning to find that, without Eliza, he's coffee instead of tea, and he can't find his own files. He wonders why she left after the triumph at the ball and concludes that men (especially himself) are far superior to women ("A Hymn to Him"). Higgins seeks his mother's advice and finds Eliza having tea with her. She leaves them together, and Eliza explains that he's always treated her as a flower girl, but she truly learned to be a lady because Colonel Pickering always treated her like a lady. Higgins tells her he's always treated her the same way Pickering does, and invites her to return. Eliza accuses him of wanting her only to fetch and carry for him, saying that she'll marry Freddie because he loves her. She declares that she doesn't need Higgins anymore, saying that she was foolish to think that she needed him ("Without You"). Higgins is struck by Eliza's spirit and independence and wants her to stay with him, but she tells him that he won't see her again.
   As Higgins walks home, he realizes his feelings for Eliza: he's "grown accustomed to her face." He can't bring himself to confess that he loves her and insists that if she marries Freddie and then comes back to him, he won't accept her. However, he finds it difficult to imagine being alone again. He reviews the recording he made of the morning Eliza first came to him for lessons. He hears his own harsh words: "She's so deliciously low! So horribly dirty!" Then the phonograph turns off, and a real voice speaks in a Cockney accent: "I washed me face an' 'ands before I come, I did." Henry turns and sees Eliza standing in the doorway, tentatively returning to him. The musical ends on an ambiguous moment of possible reconciliation between teacher and pupil, as Higgins slouches and asks, "Where the devil are my slippers?".

Song list

Act I

• Overture
• Why Can't the English?
• Wouldn't It Be Loverly?
• With a Little Bit of Luck
• I'm an Ordinary Man
• With a Little Bit of Luck (Reprise)
• Just You Wait
• The Servants Chorus (Poor Professor Higgins)
• The Rain in Spain
• I Could Have Danced All Night
• Ascot Gavotte
• On the Street Where You Live
• Embassy Waltz

Act II