My Fair Lady (1956 Original Broadway Cast) [CAST RECORDING]

Frederick Loewe (Composer, Orchestra), Colleen O'Connor (Performer), David Thomas [bass] (Performer), Glenn Kezer (Performer), Gloria van Dorpe (Performer), Gordon Dilworth (Performer), Gordon Ewing (Performer), Herb Surface (Performer), James Morris (Performer), John Michael King (Performer), Judith Williams (Performer), Julie Andrews (Performer), Lola Fisher (Performer), Maribel Hammer (Performer), Melisande Congdon (Performer), Muriel Shaw (Performer), Patti Spangler (Performer), Paul Brown (Performer), Philippa Bevans (Performer), Alan Jay Lerner (Artist)

Product Details

• Performer: Colleen O'Connor, David Thomas [bass], Glenn Kezer, Gloria van Dorpe, Gordon Dilworth, et al.
• Orchestra: Frederick Loewe
• Composer: Frederick Loewe
• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000024PL
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #77,019 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
This recording was produced more than 40 years ago, only in mono, but from the day it was released it was a deserved phenomenon. It out-grossed the mega-hit show for months, and it still holds the record for the most weeks as a Billboard Top 40 album: 292. The reasons are many. Start with the 20-year-old Julie Andrews in peak voice, singing no fewer than eight sensational Lerner and Loewe songs, soaring most memorably to high C in "I Could Have Danced All Night." Rex Harrison perfected the art of talk-singing in a clutch of equally captivating numbers written especially for his voice, of which the most indelibly delivered is "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face." And Stanley Holloway brought the best English music-hall style to an eager American audience with "A Little Bit of Luck" and "Get Me to the Church on Time." There were no scene-changers in Frederick Loewe's best score, and Alan Jay Lerner managed to fashion his libretto and lyrics so close to the language of George Bernard Shaw (on whose play Pygmalion the musical was based) that experts couldn't tell where Shaw left off and Lerner took over. Every song created character and advanced the plot. My Fair Lady was a show you "got"--and still get--on first listening--without having seen it. The London cast album (with the same leads) can give you stereo; the movie version, a fuller orchestra, Harrison and Holloway in full sail, and Marni Nixon dubbing Audrey Hepburn. But the Broadway cast album is still the one to have, and the one absolute must in any musical collector's CD library. --Robert Windeler

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the original cast; still definitive!, September 11, 2004

By	Byron Kolln (the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: My Fair Lady (1956 Original Broadway Cast) (Audio CD)

The original Broadway cast album of MY FAIR LADY is a mandatory disc in every self-respecting musical fan's collection. It captures the cast at the top of their game, and Julie Andrews at the peak of her Broadway career. Her voice is sparkling and effervescent, with Rex Harrison as a thrilling Higgins and Stanley Holloway a delight as Eliza's erstwhile father Alfred P. Doolittle. The monaural sound is warm and lush in Columbia's best style. This newest remaster of the album sounds better than ever. By the time the London cast album was recorded 4 years later (to take advantage of the new stereo format), a tired feeling had crept into Julie Andrews' singing (or perhaps boredom), so the Broadway edition is the format of choice, despite the technical limitations of the mono mix.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ESSENTIAL: THE BEST MUSICAL OF THE 20TH CENTURY, September 23, 2000

By	Dewey Mee (ELLENSBURG, WA.) - See all my reviews

Earlier, I had written a review of the 1959 London Cast Stereo recording of "MY FAIR LADY." Many amazon.com customers seem to prefer the original Broadway Cast recording to the later London Stereo LP. I'm such a "Fair Lady" fan, I have both discs. The disc I'm reviewing here is a Gold Disc with an extra Bonus Track. Columbia Records president Goddard Lieberson conducts post-recording interviews with Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, lyricists Alan Lerner and conducter Franz Allers. Liberson states that "FAIR LADY" is "possibly the most successful musical of this (20th) Century." He got that right! Here, you hear Rex Harrison give a full out performance, when he was still excited by the material and everything was fresh and new. Boredom set in afterwards. Harrison growls and grunts his way through Higgins' songs on the London Cast Album, and in the 1964 film version (for which he received an Academy Award), Harrison couldn't be more listless, static, and boring; giving a one-note "phoned in" performance. Much better than Harrison, in any case, is Julie Andrews; then on the brink of her brilliant career. She is best at full fire and music, exploding with fury and rage in "Just You Wait! " and "Show Me." Simply put, Julie Andrews is the best Eliza Doolittle of all time. Added to all this is a delightful dash of Stanley Holloway. For pure freshness and vitality, you can't beat this original recording of MY FAIR LADY. And the Post-Recording interviews make this an irresistable treat, not that everything else wasn't enough!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Having now listened to the Broadway album...., August 2, 2000

By	Tommy Peter (Baltimore, Maryland) - See all my reviews

I have to agree with Mr. McCatain and others in saying that the ORIGINAL Broadway cast album of "My Fair Lady" is much better than the London cast album, and that it must be one of the best original cast albums ever made. The sound is so clear you can't tell for a minute that it's in mono. (What mono?) But the main difference is that, because the orchestrations are much faster, the performers have to be much more "structured" than they were in the stereo London recording. As a result, their performances are much better. Rex Harrison talks his lyrics more here than in London, and his performance is that much sharper as a result. As wonderful as she always sounds, Julie Andrews never has sounded quite like this again; her voice is so much brighter, fresher, and all-around better than in London. Stanley Holloway is, quite simply, wonderful. John Michael King, while obviously American and not British, is a much better singer than the London Freddy, Leonard Weir. Because the performers were so much more laid-back in London, (Perhaps they were a little too used to their roles by that time) the wonderful Loewe score really took center stage on that recording, which certainly isn't a bad thing. But the performers (and Lerner's great lyrics) are the show here, and they really do have, in the words of another reviewer, a "zip and zing of discovery" that you just won't find in London or probably any other recording of this show. Must certainly be one of the, if not THE, must-have in any music, musical, or theatre lover's collection.