contrast between the ensembles for the poor and the ensem-
bles for the rich, which have also been added to Shaw’s play.
The Ascot scene and the ballroom scene are large assemblies
of snobbery on display. Unlike the tappers and stompers of
Tottenham Court Road, the rich dance along the coordinates
of stilted elegance (which puts their clothing on display, for the
costuming of Cecil Beaton in these two scenes was part of the
show’s original success).
The happy ending provided in the musical, which brings
Higgins and Eliza together for the promise of an ongoing ro-
mance, is often thought to be the most significant change from
Shaw’s plot. We have discussed the achievement of Henry
Higgins in learning how to control the format of a popular
song, which changes him from the arch-individualist a musical
cannot tolerate into a fit mate for Eliza. My Fair Ladyends
with just the two characters and is unusual in that regard. But
it is moving in the right direction. The romantic ending is ap-
propriate as the conclusion to the musical coordinations that
have been running throughout.^11 This is how people live in
their most desirable moments in the world of Rodgers and
Hammerstein, which is also the world of Lerner and Loewe.
They live by social relationships that take the form of song and
dance.
Challenges to Such Piety: Candide
and West Side Story
My Fair Ladylooks to the past just at a time when a different
future for the musical was in the air. The different future was
taking shape under Leonard Bernstein and his collaborators,
who were turning Voltaire’s Candideand Shakespeare’s Romeo
and Julietinto musicals in years when theatregoers were wait-
ing all night along 51st Street for a chance to buy standing-
room tickets for the next performance of My Fair Lady. Histo-
rians of the musical theatre must take 1956–1957 as a defining
THE ENSEMBLE EFFECT 91
(^11) The happy ending was first used in the 1938 film of Pygmalion.