Thursday night -- or more accurately, in the wee small hours of Friday morning -- I should have been going to sleep, but I couldn't resist flipping channels before turning out the lights. I wound up falling asleep half an hour later with the TV on, and the reason is Audrey Hepburn.
That's because while I was flipping channels, I came across George Cukor's film adaptation of Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. My Fair Lady is a favorite of mine, both the stage play and the film adaptation. With a pedigree tracing back to Greek myth by way of George Bernard Shaw, it's the story of an arrogant professor who transforms a cockney flower girl into a woman of high society. Of course they fall in love along the way. That makes sense, at least as far as Harrison is concerned; if you're not in love with Audrey Hepburn, you have no soul.
The lead roles were originated on Broadway by Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, but when they made the movie, Jack Warner decided that Andrews didn't have enough star power and cast Hepburn. Hepburn, in turn, was judged not to have a strong enough singing voice, so her songs were dubbed by the incomparable Marni Nixon. If you've ever wondered why Hepburn's singing voice sounds like Debra Kerr's in the movie of the King and I or Natalie Woods' in the movie of West Side Story, it's because all three were actually Marni Nixon. If you want to hear Audrey Hepburn sing, you'll have to rent Funny Face. She does her own singing in that one. Don't feel too bad for Julie Andrews -- not doing My Fair Lady left her free to do a little movie called Mary Poppins, and I hear she went on to do pretty well after that.
<>My Fair Lady was the first play I saw professionally performed. For about four or five years, my family took a vacation every summer at a Pennsylvania resort called Allenberry. The central attraction of Allenberry is their playhouse, and whenever we'd go up to Allenberry, we'd see a play. That first summer, the play we saw was My Fair Lady. I don't remember any of the actors at this point, although I'm pretty sure Eliza Doolittle was not played in this production by Audrey Hepburn or Julie Andrews.
Anyway, here's Audrey Hepburn singing with Marni Nixon's voice.
Bed! Bed! I couldn't go to bed!
My head's too light to try to set it down! Sleep! Sleep!
I couldn't sleep tonight.
Not for all the jewels in the crown!
I could have danced all night!
I could have danced all night!
And still have begged for more.
I could have spread my wings
And done a thousand things I've never done before.
I'll never know What made it so exciting;
Why all at once My heart took flight. I only know when he
Began to dance with me I could have danced,
danced, danced all night!
(It's after three now.)
(Don't you agree now,)
(She ought to be in bed.)
I could have danced all night!
I could have danced all night!
And still have begged for more.
I could have spread my wings
And done a thousand things I've never done before.
I'll never know What made it so exciting.
Why all at once my heart took flight.
I only know when he
Began to dance with me.
I could have danced, danced danced all night!
(I understand, dear.)
(It's all been grand, dear.)
(But now it's time to sleep.)
I could have danced all night,
I could have danced all night.
And still have begged for more.
I could have spread my wings,
And done a thousand things I've never done before.
I'll never know What made it so exciting.
Why all at once my heart took flight. I only know when he
Began to dance with me I could have danced, danced, danced All night!
Posted by Jason Fliegel at February 17, 2008 4:39 PM
One of the various DVD releases for this featured out takes or tests or whatever of Audrey Hepburn singing in the role. And although everybody probably already knows this, as for Julie Andrews, her performance in Mary Poppins won the Oscar for Best Actress over Hepburn's Eliza Doolittle, which was also nominated. And because I'm full of factoids at the moment, depending on where you are in the country over the next few months, you can see Marni Nixon touring with My Fair Lady in the non-singing role of Prof. Henry Higgins's mother. But sorry, Jason--the tour already left Chicago two weeks ago.
Marni Nixon is also known as the mother of singer/songwriter Andrew Gold. He's best know for his Top 10 hit "Lonely Boy" and for a less popular Top 25 hit, "Thank You For Being A Friend," which later gained immortality as the theme song to Golden Girls.
If I had another Golden Girls tie-in to My Fair Lady, I'd sure as heck be flinging it here.
The strange thing is this: Audrey Hepburn is actually a pretty good singer. She's not as good as Marni Nixon, but Marni Nixon wasn't as good as Julie Andrews, so if you're suddenly going to come over all concerned about singing ability, why not just hire Julie ANdrews? I mean, I know she wasn't as big a star as Audrey Hepburn, but she wasn't a total unknown.
Mike, you're talking like Hollywood casting decisions should make sense. Back then, musicals were the box office blockbusters, and the producers brought their A-game. If you're going for star power in 1963, you have no choice but to take Hepburn over Andrews. Although Julie Andrews wasn't a total unknown, her notoriety had come through stage and TV, and as the film community was quick to remind you, that ain't the movies. My Fair Lady would've been Julie Andrews's film debut (as Mary Poppins ultimately was instead), but the producers clearly thought they needed a movie star. As it was, they already felt they were settling with Rex Harrison, who'd played Higgins on Broadway.
To correct my previous comment, Audrey Hepburn was not nominated for an Oscar. My Fair Lady was nominated for 12 (including all the other acting categories) and won 8, but Best Actress was never on the table.