As usual, I was actually busy with something else but this came my way and it was too good to be missed. The original theatre play (written in 1912) is far darker than later Broadway musical based on it and even though the musical is very entertaining in its own way, I perfectly understand why author was against it and during his lifetime he did not permit anybody setting his basically dark comedy into something as trivial as musical theatre - in order to somehow translate this story for Broadway stage (later famous movie) the story has ben diluted and watered-down to make it appear "entertaining" while original theatre play had much serious undertones. Personally I have nothing against musical version, in fact I even own 1957. original cast recording with Julie Andrews that must have been one of the highlights of golden age of Broadway, brimming with excellent melodies and memorable refrains but checking out this classic musical's theatre origins turned out completely enlightening experience. Honestly, its like seeing the famous old painting from completely different perspective.
Where the musical (and later movie) describes absent minded professor Higgins experimenting with the idea that with proper training anybody can learn to speak like aristocrat - the focus of his experiment being poor flower girl Elisa Doolittle who literary comes from the gutter - theatre play has far more serious undertones. Like Pygmalion from the ancient Greek play, this Pygmalion eventually gets used to her presence in his house but there is not a hint of a love affair between them - this is the main difference between original stage play and later musical. In original, professor Higgins lives with his stern housekeeper and at some point is joined by another professor (Pickering) so two of them share very brotherly, buddy-buddy household where Elisa is like a doll, re-shaped and re-defined into a classy lady but she is never ever seen as a beautiful girl or a love object - like a Frankenstein, she is their creation and the only thing that interest them is how fast can she learn to speak properly, play piano and appear aristocratic. It actually makes a perfect sense, because as Elisa completely changes her character and personality, she starts to see world around her differently and now she becomes aware what a miserable life she used to live previously when she was selling flowers in Covent Garden. One of the interesting things that Shaw suggest here is that Elisa was perhaps perfectly fine previously but now she can't go back again to the life she used to know - now as her eyes are opened, she is bitterly aware of woman's position in Victorian society and where previously as a poor flower girl she could afford to be independent, as a classy lady with manners she has to be property of some husband or other (in any case she has to depend on man to support her, because Victorian ladies did not work for living). To cement his point, Shaw adds a character of Elisa's father - likable and lovable dustman who represents unrepentant low class hedonist and who lives fine by his wits but once he gets in the money, his whole life changes and not for better, he actually starts to feel stress and obligations that come with money.
At the end of the play, Elisa runs away from her benefactors - her eyes are wide open now and she won't be a doll in their hands. Their experiment was successful and they fooled everybody by presenting her as a duchess, but she is bitterly aware that once the experiment has finished, they have no interest in her anymore and don't care what will become of her. Both professors (Higgins particularly) are surprised and offended with her decision, they can't even understand why she won't simply stay in the house and continue as decorative figurine who is brining the slippers and arranging the flowers around the house. Elisa has different plans and she eventually finds herself a husband - impoverished but sweet Freddy who has never worked in his life and completely relies on her , but he loves her as human being - both professors continue to help them financially and are simultaneously proud and awed with this self-confident woman their created. In light of the original theatre play, it really comes as a surprise that Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe thought it makes more sense to make professor Higgins and Elisa a love couple, because Shaw specifically and decidedly insisted that Higgins had no love for any other woman besides his mother, in fact he appears somewhat absent minded but basically self-centered scientist who never grew up and most of the time behaves like a spoiled child - he won't bother with polite society and in fact Elisa behaves far better and more appropriately than he ever does. As much as I love the musical, it was a pleasant surprise to red the original theatre play and to discover that it has completely different point of view.
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