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Julie
Andrews first starred on Broadway as Polly in Sandy Wilson's The
Boyfriend (1954), winning a 1955 Theatre World Award for her American
stage debut. However, she garnered major recognition as Eliza
Doolittle in Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady (1957), based on
Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. When co-star Rex Harrison
complained of 19-year-old Andrews' abilities, and threatened to quit if
she wasn't fired, director Moss Hart kept her in the rehearsal studio all
weekend long, working privately with her. When Harrison showed up
for rehearsals the following Monday he was incredibly pleased by Andrews'
marked improvement, who went on to win a 1957 Tony Award for Best Actress
in a Musical. During MFL's run, Andrews appeared in two
television musicals: Maxwell Anderson's High Tor with Bing
Crosby, and in the title role of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella,
with Alice Ghostley and Kaye
Ballard. After triumphing as Eliza in
London, Andrews went on to portray Queen Guinevere to Richard Burton's
King Arthur and Robert Goulet's Sir Lancelot, in Lerner & Loewe's
Camelot (1960), which garnered her another nomination. Andrews
didn't return to the New York stage, until her 1993 appearance in the
Manhattan Theatre Club's production of Putting it Together, a Stephen
Sondheim "revusical," with Stephen Collins and playwright
Christopher Durang. For this performance, many audience members braved
New York's coldest winter in years to wait on line for a ticket. She
later reprised her film role as a woman-playing-a-man-playing-a-woman in
the Broadway production of Victor/Victoria (1995), which earned her a
third Tony Award nomination. |
