= Pygmalion_(play) =

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= Pygmalion_(play) =
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Introduction
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'Pygmalion' is a play written by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw
in 1912, named after the Greek mythological figure. It was first
presented onstage in German translation, premiering at the Hofburg
Theatre in Vienna on 16 October 1913. Its English-language premiere
took place at His Majesty's Theatre in London's West End in April 1914
and starred Herbert Beerbohm Tree as phonetics professor Henry Higgins
and Mrs Patrick Campbell as Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle.

'Pygmalion' became the playwright's most popular play, enduring in
popular culture as the heavily adapted and romanticized 'My Fair Lady'
(1956 musical and 1964 film).

Inspiration
======================================================================
In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one of his
sculptures, which then came to life. The general idea of that myth was
a popular subject for Victorian era British playwrights, including one
of Shaw's influences, W. S. Gilbert, who wrote a successful play based
on the story called 'Pygmalion and Galatea' that was first presented
in 1871. Shaw would also have been familiar with the musical 'Adonis'
and the burlesque version, 'Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed'.

Eliza Doolittle was inspired by Kitty Wilson, owner of a flower stall
at Norfolk Street, Strand, in London. Wilson continued selling flowers
at the stall until September 1958. Her daughter, Betty Benton, then
took over, but was forced to close down a month later when the City of
London decreed that the corner was no longer "designated" for street
trading.

Shaw mentioned that the character of Professor Henry Higgins was
inspired by several British professors of phonetics: Alexander
Melville Bell, Alexander J. Ellis, Tito Pagliardini, but above all the
cantankerous Henry Sweet.

Shaw is also very likely to have known the life story of Jacob Henle,
a professor at Heidelberg University, who fell in love with , a Swiss
housemaid, forcing her through several years of bourgeois education to
turn her into an adequate wife. Egloff died shortly after their
marriage. Her story inspired various literary works, including a play
by Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer and a novella by Gottfried Keller,
comparing Henle with the Greek Pygmalion.

First productions
======================================================================
Shaw wrote the play in early 1912 and read it to actress Mrs Patrick
Campbell in June. She came on board almost immediately, but her mild
nervous breakdown contributed to the delay of a London production.
'Pygmalion' premièred at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on 16 October
1913, in a German translation by Shaw's Viennese literary agent and
acolyte, Siegfried Trebitsch.

Its first New York production opened on 24 March 1914 at the
German-language Irving Place Theatre starring Hansi Arnstaedt as
Eliza. It opened in London on 11 April 1914, at Sir Herbert Beerbohm
Tree's His Majesty's Theatre, with Campbell as Eliza and Tree as
Higgins, and ran for 118 performances. Shaw directed the actors
through tempestuous rehearsals, often punctuated by at least one of
the two storming out of the theatre in a rage.

Act One
=========
A group of people are sheltering from the rain. Among them are the
Eynsford-Hills, superficial social climbers eking out a living in
"genteel poverty". First seen are Mrs Eynsford-Hill and her daughter
Clara; Clara's brother Freddy enters having earlier been dispatched to
secure them a cab (which they can ill afford), but being rather timid
and faint-hearted he has failed to do so. As he goes off once again to
find a cab, he bumps into a flower girl, Eliza Doolittle. Her flowers
drop into the mud of Covent Garden, the flowers she needs to survive
in her poverty-stricken world.

They are soon joined by a gentleman, Colonel Pickering. While Eliza
tries to sell flowers to the Colonel, a bystander informs her that
another man is writing down everything she says. That man is Henry
Higgins, a linguist and phonetician. Eliza worries that Higgins is a
police officer and will not calm down until Higgins introduces
himself.

It soon becomes apparent that he and Colonel Pickering have a shared
interest in phonetics and an intense mutual admiration; indeed,
Pickering has come from India specifically to meet Higgins, and
Higgins was planning to go to India to meet Pickering. Higgins tells
Pickering that he could pass off the flower girl as a duchess merely
by teaching her to speak properly.

These words of bravado spark an interest in Eliza, who would love to
make changes in her life and become more mannerly, even though to her
it only means working in a flower shop. At the end of the act, Freddy
returns after finding a taxi, only to find that his mother and sister
have gone and left him with the cab. The streetwise Eliza takes the
cab from him, using the money that Higgins tossed to her, leaving him
on his own soul.

Act Two
=========
Higgins's house - the next day

As Higgins demonstrates his phonetics to Pickering, the housekeeper
Mrs Pearce tells him that a young girl wants to see him. Eliza has
shown up because she wants to talk like a lady in a flower shop. She
tells Higgins that she will pay for lessons. He shows no interest, but
she reminds him of his boast the previous day: he had claimed that he
could pass her off as a duchess.

Pickering makes a bet with him on his claim and says that he will pay
for her lessons if Higgins succeeds. She is sent off to have a bath.
Mrs Pearce tells Higgins that he must behave himself in the young
girl's presence, meaning he must stop swearing and improve his table
manners, but he is at a loss to understand why she should find fault
with him.

Alfred Doolittle, Eliza's father, appears, with the sole purpose of
getting money out of Higgins, having no paternal interest in his
daughter's welfare. He requests and receives five pounds in
compensation for the loss of Eliza, although Higgins, much amused by
Doolittle's approach to morality, is tempted to pay ten.

Doolittle refuses; he sees himself as a member of the undeserving poor
and means to go on being undeserving. With his intelligent mind
untamed by education, he has an eccentric view of life. He is also
aggressive, and Eliza, on her return, sticks her tongue out at him. He
goes to hit her, but Pickering prevents him. The scene ends with
Higgins telling Pickering that they really have a difficult job on
their hands.

Act Three
===========
Mrs Higgins's drawing room

Higgins bursts in and tells his mother he has picked up a "common
flower girl" whom he has been teaching. Mrs Higgins is unimpressed
with her son's attempts to win her approval, because it is her 'at
home' day and she is entertaining visitors. The visitors are the
Eynsford-Hills. When they arrive, Higgins is rude to them.

Eliza enters and soon falls into talking about the weather and her
family. While she is now able to speak in beautifully modulated tones,
the substance of what she says remains unchanged from the gutter. She
confides her suspicions that her aunt was killed by relatives,
mentions that gin had been "mother's milk" to her aunt, and that
Eliza's own father was "always more agreeable when he had a drop in".

Higgins passes off her remarks as "the new small talk", and Freddy is
enraptured by Eliza. When she is leaving, he asks her if she is going
to walk across the park, to which she replies, "Walk? Not bloody
likely!" (This is the most famous line from the play and, for many
years after the play's debut, use of the word 'bloody' was known as a
'pygmalion'; Mrs Campbell was considered to have risked her career by
speaking the line onstage.)

After Eliza and the Eynsford-Hills leave, Higgins asks for his
mother's opinion. She says the girl is not presentable and she is
concerned about what will happen to her, but neither Higgins nor
Pickering understands her concerns about Eliza's future. They leave
feeling confident and excited about how Eliza will get on. This leaves
Mrs Higgins feeling exasperated, and exclaiming, "Men! Men!! Men!!!"

Act Four
==========
Higgins's house - midnight

Higgins, Pickering, and Eliza have returned from a ball. A tired Eliza
sits unnoticed, brooding and silent, while Pickering congratulates
Higgins on winning the bet. Higgins scoffs and declares the evening a
"silly tomfoolery", thanking God it's over, and saying that he had
been sick of the whole thing for the last two months. Still barely
acknowledging Eliza, beyond asking her to leave a note for Mrs Pearce
regarding coffee, the two retire to bed.

Higgins soon returns to the room, looking for his slippers, and Eliza
throws them at him. Higgins is taken aback, and is at first completely
unable to understand Eliza's preoccupation, which, aside from being
ignored after her triumph, is the question of what she is to do now.
When Higgins finally understands, he makes light of it, saying she
could get married, but Eliza interprets this as selling herself like a
prostitute. "We were above that at the corner of Tottenham Court
Road."

Finally she returns her jewellery to Higgins, including the ring he
had given her, which he throws into the fireplace with a violence that
scares Eliza. Furious with himself for losing his temper, he damns Mrs
Pearce, the coffee, Eliza, and finally himself, for "lavishing" his
knowledge and his "regard and intimacy" on a "heartless guttersnipe",
and retires in great dudgeon. Eliza roots around in the fireplace and
retrieves the ring.

Act Five
==========
Mrs Higgins's drawing room

The next morning Higgins and Pickering, perturbed by discovering that
Eliza has walked out on them, call on Mrs Higgins to phone the police.
Higgins is particularly distracted, since Eliza had assumed the
responsibility of maintaining his diary and keeping track of his
possessions, which causes Mrs Higgins to decry their calling the
police as though Eliza were "a lost umbrella".

Doolittle is announced; he emerges dressed in splendid wedding attire
and is furious with Higgins, who after their previous encounter had
been so taken with Doolittle's unorthodox ethics that he had
recommended him as the "most original moralist in England" to a rich
American, a founder of Moral Reform Societies; the American had
subsequently left Doolittle a pension worth three thousand pounds a
year, as a consequence of which Doolittle feels intimidated into
joining the middle class and marrying his missus.

Mrs Higgins observes that this at least settles the problem of who
shall provide for Eliza, to which Higgins objects - after all, he paid
Doolittle five pounds for her. Mrs Higgins informs her son that Eliza
is upstairs, and explains the circumstances of her arrival, alluding
to how marginalized and overlooked Eliza had felt the previous night.
Higgins is unable to appreciate this, and sulks when told that he must
behave if Eliza is to join them. Doolittle is asked to wait outside.

Eliza enters, at ease and self-possessed. Higgins blusters but Eliza
is unshaken and speaks exclusively to Pickering. Throwing Higgins's
previous insults back at him ("Oh, I'm only a squashed cabbage leaf"),
Eliza remarks that it was only by Pickering's example that she learned
to be a lady, which renders Higgins speechless.

Eliza goes on to say that she has completely left behind the flower
girl she was, and that she couldn't utter any of her old sounds if she
tried - at which point Doolittle emerges from the balcony, causing
Eliza to emit her old sounds. Higgins is jubilant, jumping up and
crowing over what he calls his victory. Doolittle explains his
situation and asks if Eliza will come with him to his wedding.
Pickering and Mrs Higgins also agree to go, and they leave, with
Doolittle and Eliza to follow.

The scene ends with another confrontation between Higgins and Eliza.
Higgins asks if Eliza is satisfied with the revenge she has brought
thus far and if she will now come back, but she refuses. Higgins
defends himself from Eliza's earlier accusation by arguing that he
treats everyone the same, so she shouldn't feel singled out. Eliza
replies that she just wants a little kindness, and that since he will
never stoop to show her this, she will not come back, but will marry
Freddy.

Higgins scolds her for such low ambitions: he has made her "a consort
for a king." When she threatens to teach phonetics and offer herself
as an assistant to Higgins's academic rival Nepommuck, Higgins again
loses his temper and vows to wring her neck if she does so. Eliza
realises that this last threat strikes Higgins at the very core and
that it gives her power over him.

Higgins, for his part, is delighted to see a spark of fight in Eliza,
rather than her erstwhile fretting and worrying. He remarks "I like
you like this", and calls her a "pillar of strength". Mrs Higgins
returns and she and Eliza depart for the wedding. As they leave,
Higgins incorrigibly gives Eliza a list of errands to run, as though
their recent conversation had not taken place. Eliza disdainfully
tells him to do the errands himself. Mrs Higgins says that she'll get
the items, but Higgins cheerfully tells her that Eliza will do it
after all. Higgins laughs to himself at the idea of Eliza marrying
Freddy as the play ends.

Critical reception
======================================================================
The play was well received by critics in major cities following its
premières in Vienna, London, and New York. The initial release in
Vienna garnered several reviews describing the show as a positive
departure from Shaw's usual dry and didactic style. The Broadway
première in New York was praised in terms of both plot and acting, and
the play was described as "a love story with brusque diffidence and a
wealth of humour." Reviews of the production in London were slightly
less positive. 'The Telegraph' noted that the play was deeply
diverting, with interesting mechanical staging, although the critic
ultimately found the production somewhat shallow and overly lengthy.
'The Times', however, praised both the characters and the actors
(especially Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Higgins and Mrs Patrick
Campbell as Eliza) and the "unconventional" ending.

Ending
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'Pygmalion' was the most broadly appealing of all Shaw's plays. But
popular audiences, looking for pleasant entertainment with big stars
in a West End venue, wanted a "happy ending" for the characters they
liked so well, as did some critics. During the 1914 run, Tree sought
to sweeten Shaw's ending to please himself and his record houses. Shaw
remained sufficiently irritated to add a postscript essay to the 1916
print edition, "What Happened Afterwards", for inclusion with
subsequent editions, in which he explained precisely why it was
impossible for the story to end with Higgins and Eliza getting
married.

He continued to protect what he saw as the play's, and Eliza's,
integrity by protecting the last scene. For at least some performances
during the 1920 revival, Shaw adjusted the ending in a way that
underscored the Shavian message. In an undated note to Mrs Campbell he
wrote,
When Eliza emancipates herself - when Galatea comes to life - she
must not relapse. She must retain her pride and triumph to the end.
When Higgins takes your arm on 'consort battleship' you must instantly
throw him off with implacable pride; and this is the note until the
final 'Buy them yourself.' He will go out on the balcony to watch your
departure; come back triumphantly into the room; exclaim 'Galatea!'
(meaning that the statue has come to life at last); and - curtain.
Thus he gets the last word; and you get it too.

(This ending, however, is not included in any print version of the
play.)

Shaw fought against a Higgins-Eliza happy-end pairing as late as 1938.
He sent the 1938 film version's producer, Gabriel Pascal, a concluding
sequence that he felt offered a fair compromise: a tender farewell
scene between Higgins and Eliza, followed by one showing Freddy and
Eliza happy in their greengrocery-cum-flower shop. Only at the sneak
preview did he learn that Pascal had finessed the question of Eliza's
future with a slightly ambiguous final scene in which Eliza returns to
the house of a sadly musing Higgins and self-mockingly quotes her
previous self announcing, "I washed my face and hands before I come, I
did".

Different versions
======================================================================
There are two main versions of the play in circulation. One is based
on the earlier version, first published in 1914; the other is a later
version that includes several sequences revised by Shaw, first
published in 1941. Therefore, different editions of the play omit or
add certain lines. For instance, the Project Gutenberg version
published online, which is transcribed from an early version, does not
include Eliza's exchange with Mrs Pearce in Act II, the scene with
Nepommuck in Act III, or Higgins' famous declaration to Eliza, "Yes,
you squashed cabbage-leaf, you disgrace to the noble architecture of
these columns, you incarnate insult to the English language! I could
pass you off as the Queen of Sheba!" - a line so famous that it is now
retained in nearly all productions of the play, including the 1938
film version of 'Pygmalion' as well as in the stage and film versions
of 'My Fair Lady'.

The co-director of the 1938 film, Anthony Asquith, had seen Mrs
Campbell in the 1920 revival of' Pygmalion' and noticed that she spoke
the line, "It's my belief 'as how' they done the old woman in." He
knew "as how" was not in Shaw's text, but he felt it added color and
rhythm to Eliza's speech, and liked to think that Mrs Campbell had ad
libbed it herself. Eighteen years later he added it to Wendy Hiller's
line in the film.

In the original play Eliza's test is met at an ambassador's garden
party, offstage. For the 1938 film Shaw and co-writers replaced that
exposition with a scene at an embassy ball; Nepommuck, the
blackmailing translator spoken about in the play, is finally seen, but
his name is updated to Aristid Karpathy - named so by Gabriel Pascal,
the film's Hungarian producer, who also made sure that Karpathy
mistakes Eliza for a Hungarian princess. In 'My Fair Lady' he became
Zoltan Karpathy. (The change of name was likely to avoid offending the
sensibilities of Roman Catholics, as St. John Nepomuk was, ironically,
a Catholic martyr who refused to divulge the secrets of the
confessional.)

The 1938 film also introduced the famous pronunciation exercises "the
rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" and "In Hertford, Hereford,
and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen". Neither of these
appears in the original play. Shaw's screen version of the play as
well as a new print version incorporating the new sequences he had
added for the film script were published in 1941. Many of the scenes
that were written for the films were separated by asterisks, and
explained in a "Note for Technicians" section.

Influence
======================================================================
'Pygmalion' remains Shaw's most popular play. The play's widest
audiences know it as the inspiration for the highly romanticized 1956
musical and 1964 film 'My Fair Lady'.

'Pygmalion' has transcended cultural and language barriers since its
first production. The British Library contains "images of the Polish
production...; a series of shots of a wonderfully Gallicised Higgins
and Eliza in the first French production in Paris in 1923; a
fascinating set for a Russian production of the 1930s. There was no
country which didn't have its own 'take' on the subjects of class
division and social mobility, and it's as enjoyable to view these
subtle differences in settings and costumes as it is to imagine
translators wracking their brains for their own equivalent of 'Not
bloody likely'."

Joseph Weizenbaum named his chatterbot computer program ELIZA after
the character Eliza Doolittle.

Notable productions
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*1914: Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and Mrs Patrick Campbell at His
Majesty's Theatre
*1914: Philip Merivale and Mrs Patrick Campbell at three Broadway
theatres [Park, Liberty, and Wallack's]
*1920: C. Aubrey Smith and Mrs Patrick Campbell at the Aldwych Theatre
*1926: Reginald Mason and Lynn Fontanne at the Guild Theatre (USA)
*1936: Ernest Thesiger and Wendy Hiller at the Festival Theatre,
Malvern
*1937: Robert Morley and Diana Wynyard at the Old Vic Theatre
*1945: Raymond Massey and Gertrude Lawrence at the Ethel Barrymore
Theatre (USA)
*1947: Alec Clunes and Brenda Bruce at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith
*1953: John Clements and Kay Hammond at the St James's Theatre, London
*1965: Ian White and Jane Asher at the Watford Palace Theatre
*1974: Alec McCowen and Diana Rigg at the Albery Theatre, London
*1984: Peter O'Toole and Jackie Smith-Wood at the Shaftesbury Theatre,
London
*1987: Peter O'Toole and Amanda Plummer at the Plymouth Theatre (USA)
*1992: Alan Howard and Frances Barber at the Royal National Theatre,
London
*1997: Roy Marsden and Carli Norris (who replaced Emily Lloyd early in
rehearsals) at the Albery Theatre, London
*2007: Tim Pigott-Smith and Michelle Dockery at the Old Vic Theatre,
London
*2007: Jefferson Mays and Claire Danes at American Airlines Theatre
(USA)
*2010: Simon Robson and Cush Jumbo at the Royal Exchange Theatre,
Manchester
*2011: Rupert Everett (later Alistair McGowan) and Kara Tointon at the
Garrick Theatre, London
*2011: Risteárd Cooper and Charlie Murphy at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin
*2023 Bertie Carvel and Patsy Ferran at The Old Vic Theatre, London
*2025 Mark Evans and Synnøve Karlsen at Theater Row, New York Produced
by Gingold Theatrical Group.

Stage
=======
* 'My Fair Lady' (1956), the Broadway musical by Lerner and Loewe
(based on the 1938 film), starring Rex Harrison as Higgins and Julie
Andrews as Eliza.
* 'Pygmalion' (2024), a new stage adaption from Award Winning
Writer/Director Chris Hawley, for Blackbox Theatre Company. The show
toured the South of England during Summer 2024.

Film
======
* 'Pygmalion' (1935), a German film adaptation by Shaw and others,
starring Gustaf Gründgens as Higgins and Jenny Jugo as Eliza. Directed
by Erich Engel.
*'Hoi Polloi' (1935), a short feature starring The Three Stooges
comedy team. To win a bet, a professor attempts to transform the
Stooges into gentlemen.
* 'Pygmalion' (1937), a Dutch film adaptation, starring Johan De
Meester as Higgins and Lily Bouwmeester as Elisa. Directed by Ludwig
Berger.
* 'Pygmalion' (1938), a British film adaptation by Shaw and others,
starring Leslie Howard as Higgins and Wendy Hiller as Eliza.
* 'Kitty' (1945), a film based on the novel of the same name by
Rosamond Marshall (published in 1943). A broad interpretation of the
Pygmalion story line, the film tells the rags-to-riches story of a
young guttersnipe Cockney girl.
* 'My Fair Lady' (1964), a film version of the musical starring Audrey
Hepburn as Eliza and Rex Harrison as Higgins.
* 'The Opening of Misty Beethoven' (1976), an American hardcore
pornography film take-off starring Constance Money and Jamie Gillis.
* 'Educating Rita' (1983): British comedy-drama film starring Michael
Caine and Julie Walters
* 'Can't Buy Me Love' (1987): a teenage romantic comedy reversing
gender roles starring Patrick Dempsey and Amanda Peterson.
* 'She's All That' (1999): a modern, teenage take on 'Pygmalion.'
* 'Love Don't Cost a Thing' (2003) a remake of the 1987 'Can't Buy Me
Love' which is also an adaptation.
* 'The Duff '(2015): based on the novel of the same name by Kody
Keplinger, which in turn is a modern teenage adaption of 'Pygmalion.'
* 'He's All That '(2021): a Netflix Original movie that's a
gender-swap retelling of the 1999 teen comedy; featuring Addison Rae,
Rachael Leigh Cook, and Matthew Lillard.

Television
============
* A 1948 BBC TV version starring Margaret Lockwood as Eliza and Ralph
Michael as Higgins.
* A 1963 Hallmark Hall of Fame production of 'Pygmalion', starring
Julie Harris as Eliza and James Donald as Higgins.
* 'Pigmalião 70', a 1970 Brazilian telenovela, starring Sérgio Cardoso
and Tônia Carrero.
* 'Pygmalion' (1973), a BBC 'Play of the Month' version starring James
Villiers as Higgins and Lynn Redgrave as Eliza.
* 'Pygmalion' (1981), a film version starring Twiggy as Eliza and
Robert Powell as Higgins.
* 'Pygmalion' (1983), an adaptation starring Peter O'Toole as Higgins
and Margot Kidder as Eliza.
* 'The Makeover', a 2013 Hallmark Hall of Fame modern adaptation of
'Pygmalion', starring Julia Stiles and David Walton and directed by
John Gray.
* 'Selfie', a 2014 television sitcom on ABC, starring Karen Gillan and
John Cho.
* 'Classic Alice', a webseries, aired a 10-episode adaptation on
YouTube, starring Kate Hackett and Tony Noto in 2014.
* 'Totalmente Demais', a 2015 Brazilian telenovela, starring Juliana
Paes, Marina Ruy Barbosa, and Fábio Assunção.

The BBC has broadcast radio adaptations at least twice, in 1986
directed by John Tydeman and in 2021 directed by Emma Harding.

Non-English language
* 'Pigmalió', an adaptation by Joan Oliver into Catalan. Set in 1950s
Barcelona, it was first staged in Sabadell in 1957 and has had other
stagings since.
* 'Ti Phulrani', an adaptation by Pu La Deshpande in Marathi. The plot
follows 'Pygmalion' closely but the language features are based on
Marathi.
* 'Santu Rangeeli', an adaptation by Madhu Rye and Pravin Joshi in
Gujarati.
* 'سيدتي الجميلة' ('Sayydati El-Gameela', 'My Fair Lady'), a 1969
Egyptian stage adaptation of My Fair Lady starring the comedy duo and
then married couple, Fouad el-Mohandes and Shwikar. It was performed
and filmed for television at the Alexandria Opera House.
* A 1996 television play in Polish, translated by Kazimierz
Piotrowski, directed by Maciej Wojtyszko and performed at Teatr
Telewizji (Polish Television studio in Warsaw) by some of the top
Polish actors at the time. It has been aired on national TV numerous
times since its TV premiere in 1998.
* A 2007 adaptation by Aka Morchiladze and Levan Tsuladze in Georgian
performed at the Marjanishvili Theatre in Tbilisi.
* 'Man Pasand', a 1980 Hindi film starring Dev Anand and directed by
Basu Chatterjee.
* 'Ogo Bodhu Shundori', a 1981 Bengali comedy film starring Uttam
Kumar and Ranjit Mallick, and directed by Salil Dutta.
* 'My Young Auntie', a 1981 Hong Kong action film directed by Lau
Kar-Leung.
* 'Laiza Porko Sushi', a Papiamentu adaptation from writer and artist
May Henriquez.
* 'Gönülcelen', a Turkish series starring Tuba Büyüküstün and Cansel
Elcin.
* 'Δύο Ξένοι', a Greek series starring Nikos Sergianopoulos and
Evelina Papoulia.
* Pigumarion (in Japanese), starring Tomohiro Ichikawa as Henry
Higgins and Shiho Takano as Eliza Doolittle was performed in 2011 at
the Owlspot Theater in Tokyo.
* Pigumarion (in Japanese), starring Takahiro Hira as Henry Higgins
and Satomi Ishihara as Eliza Doolittle was performed in 2013 at the
New National Theater in Tokyo.

* 'Moonlighting's' second-season episode "My Fair David" (1985) is
inspired by the movie 'My Fair Lady', in a plot where Maddie Hayes
makes a bet with David Addison consisting in making him softer and
more serious with work. She is her Henry Higgins, while he is put in
the Eliza Doolittle position, as the funny, clumsy, bad-mannered part
of the relationship.
* 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s' third-season episode "The Galatea
Affair" (1966) is a spoof of 'My Fair Lady'. A crude barroom
entertainer (Joan Collins) is taught to behave like a lady. Noel
Harrison, son of Rex Harrison, star of the 'My Fair Lady' film, is the
guest star.
* In 'The Beverly Hillbillies' episode "Pygmalion and Elly", Sonny
resumes his high-class courtship of Elly May by playing Julius Caesar
and Pygmalion.
*In 'The Andy Griffith Show' season 4 episode "My Fair Ernest T.
Bass", Andy and Barney attempt to turn the mannerless Ernest T. Bass
into a presentable gentleman. References to 'Pygmalion' abound: Bass'
manners are tested at a social gathering, where he is assumed by the
hostess to be a man from Boston. Several characters comment "if you
wrote this into a play nobody'd believe it."
* In 'Doctor Who', the character of Leela is loosely based on Eliza
Doolittle. She was a regular in the programme from 1977 to 1978, and
later reprised in audio dramas from 2003 to present. In 'Ghost Light',
the character of Control is heavily based upon Eliza Doolittle, with
Redvers Fenn-Cooper in a similar role as Henry Higgins; the story also
features reference to the "Rain in Spain" rhyme and the Doctor
referring to companion Ace as "Eliza".
* In the 'Remington Steele' season 2 episode "My Fair Steele", Laura
and Steele transform a truck stop waitress into a socialite to flush
out a kidnapper. Steele references the 1938 movie 'Pygmalion' and 'My
Fair Lady', and references the way in which Laura has "molded" him
into her fictional creation.
* In the 'Magnum, P.I.' episode "Professor Jonathan Higgins" of Season
5, Jonathan Higgins tries to turn his punk rocker cousin into a high
society socialite. Higgins references 'Pygmalion' in the episode.
* 'The Simpsons' episode titled "Pygmoelian" is inspired by
'Pygmalion', in which ugly barman Moe Szyslak has a facelift. It was
also parodied to a heavier extent in the episode "My Fair Laddy",
where the character being changed is uncouth Scotsman Groundskeeper
Willie, with Lisa Simpson taking the Henry Higgins role.
* The 'Family Guy' episode "One If By Clam, Two If By Sea" involves a
subplot with Stewie trying to refine Eliza Pinchley, his new
Cockney-accented neighbor, into a proper young lady. He makes a bet
with Brian that he can improve Eliza's vocabulary and get her to speak
without her accent before her birthday party. Includes "The Life of
the Wife", a parody of the song "The Rain in Spain" (from 'My Fair
Lady'). The voice of Stewie was in fact originally based on that of
Rex Harrison.
* The plot of the 'Star Trek: Voyager' episode "Someone to Watch Over
Me" is loosely based on 'Pygmalion', with the ship's holographic
doctor playing the role of Higgins to the ex-Borg Seven of Nine.
* In the 'Boy Meets World' episode "Turnaround", Cory and Shawn learn
about 'Pygmalion' in class, paralleling their attempt with Cory's
uncool date to the dance.
* The 'iCarly' episode "iMake Sam Girlier" is loosely based on
'Pygmalion'.
* The Season 7 'King of the Hill' episode "Pigmalion" describes an
unhinged local pig magnate who attempts to transform Luanne into the
idealized woman of his company's old advertisements.
* In 'The King of Queens' episode "Gambling N'Diction", Carrie tries
to lose her accent for a job promotion by being taught by Spence. The
episode was renamed to "Carrie Doolittle" in Germany.
* In 2014, ABC debuted a romantic situational comedy titled 'Selfie',
starring Karen Gillan and John Cho. It is a modern-day adaptation that
revolves around an image-obsessed woman named Eliza Dooley (Gillan)
who comes under the social guidance of marketing image guru Henry
Higgs (Cho).
* In the Malaysian drama 'Nur', 'Pygmalion' themes are evident. The
lives of a pious, upstanding man and a sex worker are considered
within the context of Islam, societal expectations and norms.
* In 'Will & Grace' season 5, a 4-episode arc entitled "Fagmalion"
has Will and Jack take on the project of turning unkempt Barry, a
newly out gay man, into a proper member of gay society.
* In 'The Nanny' Season 1, episode 3 - "My Fair Nanny" - C.C. proposes
to enroll Maggie into the debutante society, an idea to which Maggie
objects. Fran then takes it upon herself to plan a High Society Tea
for mothers and daughters, but C.C. fears that Fran's demeanor will
ruin the party. Scared that she will embarrass Maggie, Fran seeks
Maxwell and Niles' tutelage on how to be a socialite. At the tea, Fran
manages to impress the ladies but upsets Maggie in the process.

Films
=======
* 'The First Night of Pygmalion' (1972), a play depicting the
backstage tensions during the first British production.
* Willy Russell's 1980 stage comedy 'Educating Rita' and the
subsequent film adaptation are similar in plot to 'Pygmalion.'
* 'Trading Places' (1983), a film starring Eddie Murphy and Dan
Aykroyd.
* 'Pretty Woman' (1990), a film starring Julia Roberts and Richard
Gere.
* 'Mighty Aphrodite' (1995), a film directed by Woody Allen.
* 'She's All That' (1999), a film starring Rachael Leigh Cook and
Freddie Prinze Jr.
* 'Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen' (2004), a film starring
Lindsay Lohan where she auditions for a modernized musical version of
'Pygmalion' called "Eliza Rocks".
* 'Ruby Sparks' (2012), a film written by and starring Zoe Kazan
explores a writer (played by Paul Dano) who falls in love with his own
fictional character who becomes real.

External links
======================================================================
*
*
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070308155947/http://www.pygmalion.ws/stories/
'Pygmalion' stories & art]: "successive retellings of the
'Pygmalion' story after Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'
*
*[http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/shaws-pygmalion-was-in-a-different-class-264997.html
Shaw's 'Pygmalion' was in a different class] 2014 'Irish Examiner'
article by Dr. R. Hume
*[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/11/30/100079129.pdf
"Bernard Shaw Snubs England and Amuses Germany."]
[https://www.nytimes.com 'The New York Times'], 30 November 1913. This
article quotes the original script at length ("translated into the
vilest American": 'Letters to Trebitsch', p. 170), including its final
lines. Its author, too, hopes for a "happy ending": that after the
curtain Eliza will return bearing the gloves and tie.

License
=========
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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_(play)