Theatre Register

My Fair Lady, 1956

Shows · My Fair Lady · Mark Hellinger Theatre, 1956

We hold no picture of this staging. This one is filed against My Fair Lady and could document any of its runs. Richard Maney-Photo by Friedman-Abeles, NYC
Original BroadwayMark Hellinger Theatre 2,717 performances6 Tony Awards

The run closed September 29, 1962

Opened
March 15, 1956
Closed
September 29, 1962
Performances
2,717
Previews
Theatre
Mark Hellinger Theatre

Of the 705 productions we hold that opened in the 1950s and record a performance count, this is the 1st longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.

Other stagings of My Fair Lady 5 more that season

1958 Transfer Transfer
1976 St James Theatre Revival · Jerry Adler 377 perf.
1981 Uris Theatre Revival · Patrick Garland 119 perf.
1993 Virginia Theatre Revival · Alan Jay Lerner 165 perf.
2018 Vivian Beaumont Theater Revival · Bartlett Sher 553 perf.

Who was in it122 named

Philippa Bevans
Thatcher Clarke
Melisande Congdon
Cathy Conklin
Margaret Cuddy
Pat Diamond
Gordon Dilworth
Pat Drylie
David Evans
Gordon Ewing
Lola Fisher
Rosemary Gaines
Maribel Hammer
Carl Jeffrey
Glenn Kezer
William Krach
Vera Lee
Nancy Lynch
Rod Mclennan
James Morris
Barton Mumaw
Gene Nettles
Colleen O Connor
Olive Reeves Smith
Viola Roache
Joe Rocco
Fernando Schaffenburg
Muriel Shaw
Patti Spangler
Herb Surface
David Thomas
Gloria van Dorpe
James White
Judith Williams
Pamela Charles
Margot Moser
Reginald Denny
Helen Ahola
Christian Alderson
Michael Allinson
Lynn Barrett
Gretl Bauer
Lindsey Bergen
Maxine Berke
Mary Sue Berry
Leta Bonynge
Leo Britt
Margaret Broderson
Regina Burger
Ann Casey
Diana Chase
Hilda Clarke
Joan Cory
Robin Craven
Joan Darby
Bill Diehl
Joan Diehl
Lee Dougherty
Christopher Edwards
Susan Fellows
Bramwell Fletcher
Janet Gaylord
Katia Geleznova
Don Grilley
Kim Hayward
Tom Hellmore
Ray Hyson
John H Jones
Robert Karl
Lawrence Keith
Kay Kendall
James Kenny
Dieter Klos
Ronnie Lee
David Lober
Jean Maggio
Iva March
Margery Maude
Svetlana Mclee
Linda Mcnaughton
Kiki Minor
Dale Moreda
Edward Mulhare
Priscilla Mullins
Glenn Olson
Paul Olson
Robert Price
Ronald Radd
Charlotte Ray
Bill Reilly
Dan Resin
Ronald Rosanoff
Bentley Roton
Dorothy Scott
Karen Shepard
Barbara Siman
Guy Spaull
Robert St Clair
Tom Vaughan
Regina Wallace
Marc West
Beverly Weston
Harry Woolever
Joyce Worsley

19 of these 122 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 103 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name — so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.

Creative team

Director
Moss Hart
Choreographer
Hanya Holm
Producer
Herman Levin

A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.

Tony Awards 6 from 9 nominations

Best Musical Won

Around this production

Lerner and Loewe’s masterpiece broke the OKLAHOMA! [Rod- gers: March 31, 1943] long-run re…That show was My Fair Lady.

Rex Harrison insisted on singing live with the orchestra rather than pre-recording, because his speak-singing style was never exactly the same twice. This drove the sound engineers mad.

My Fair Lady. Stanley Holloway, with cronies Gordon Dilworth and Rod McLennon, singing “With A Little Bit of Luck.” (Friedman-Abeles) My Fair Lady. Robert Coote, Julie Andrews, and Rex Harrison in “The Rain in Spain” number. (Friedman-Abeles)

Speaker not recorded. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 165

“A fortune wouldn’t reward you for the thrill of being there the night ‘My Fair Lady’ opened. Or many others—too many to mention—but there are the eight clinkers you have to sit through before you finally come up with ‘Death of a Salesman’ or ‘A Man for All Seasons.’ ”

Speaker not recorded. Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 366
  • During the 1958-1959 season, it was possible to see such major attractions as The Music Man for $2.50 and My Fair Lady for $2.30. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 13
  • The next musical treatment of a Shaw play, My Fair Lady , came along 47 years later. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 27
  • After trying out under the title Away We Go!, the show was renamed Oklahoma! for its Broadway engagement at the St. James Theatre (formerly Erlanger’s). It remained there five years nine months, thereby setting a long-run record for musicals that it held until overtaken by My Fair Lady 15 years later. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 120
  • Rex Harrison (who played Higgins), Julie Andrews (who won the part of Eliza after Mary Martin had turned it down), and Stanley Holloway (as Eliza’s roistering father, Alfred P. Doolittle) all became forever identified with their roles in My Fair Lady which, for over nine years, was the longest running musical in Broadw… Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 164
  • Lerner and Loewe’s first Broadway undertaking following their spectacular success, My Fair Lady, was based on T.H. White’s retelling of the Arthurian legend, The Once and Future King. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Green Stanley Green Kay 5th Ed Rev and Updated By, p. 217

Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.

What this page does not know

  • No photograph of this staging. 48 of 13,459 productions hold one.
  • No character names. We can say who was in the company and not who they played.
  • No recording is held for My Fair Lady at all.
  • Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.

Something wrong here? Correct a field or report the problem. Every change is recorded in public under the contributor licence.