Loverly:The Life and Times of My Fair Lady (Broadway Legacies) by McHugh, Dominic (best ereader for pc .TXT) 📗

[for a] big musical. Is he aware [of the] magnitude of [the] physical undertaking?”101 Finally, some headway was achieved on August 12, as Evans informed Levin that Beaumont was asking for £10,000 in return for Harrison’s release on November 19—the hint of a concrete date at last.102

Five days later, Levin recorded a conversation he had had on the telephone with Charles Moskowitz of MGM, discussing the penalty provision in the anticipated deal for Harrison’s release.103 The next day, Evans called Levin to discuss the latter’s insistence on several conditions before he would allow MGM to make a deal with Beaumont to release Harrison to make the film. Levin was adamant that Harrison be delivered on January 2, 1956, or that MGM would have to pay a penalty for every day thereafter if he were late; he also wanted assurance that the actor would be able to leave Bell, Book and Candle in time for him to spend a week in New York with Lerner and Loewe for the preparation of the Pygmalion musical. Levin also felt that unless he could get a specific rehearsal date as part of MGM’s deal with Beaumont, he may as well negotiate directly with Beaumont himself.104

Ultimately, this is precisely what he decided to do. The way he broke the deadlock at this point was vital to the progress of the show. Evans sent Levin a telegram on August 26 to confirm his reservation at the Savoy and an appointment with Beaumont on the following Monday, indicating that Levin was to arrive in London on Sunday.105 The meeting took place. A memorandum of August 30 indicates two possible deals: either (a) Beaumont would release Harrison on October 29 in exchange for first right of refusal of the British Rights of Pygmalion and one-half of 1 percent of the gross of the New York production (though these terms would not apply if Harrison were able to leave Bell, Book and Candle under the terms of his original contract); or (b) Beaumont would release the actor on December 3 under the same terms, except that the payment of the percentage of the gross would cease after Beaumont had been paid $25,000.106 The latter option was agreed upon on September 1. At last, Levin could plan to begin rehearsals in early January with the assurance that Harrison would be available.107

CONTRACTS

September 1955

With this news, the producer could set to work finalizing Equity contracts with the production team and actors. Rex Harrison signed on September 2.108 Julie Andrews signed on September 8.109 and Stanley Holloway signed on September 13.110 Levin also managed to find his Freddy Eynsford-Hill in John Michael King, whose contract is dated September 23.111 On September 27, Robert Coote agreed to play Colonel Pickering, a curiosity of the initial terms being that the management could require Coote to understudy Henry Higgins, although this never came to pass.112 In June Levin had made a deal with the Trebuhs Realty Company to move into either the Imperial, St. James, Majestic, or Shubert Theatre for the Broadway run, and he maintained a hope even on September 2 that the Imperial might still be an option; on September 9 he signed a contract with Anthony Brady Farrrell of the Mark Hellinger Theatre.113 The following week, a contract was drawn up with the Shubert Theatre in New Haven for the first of the out-of-town tryouts between 4 and 11 February.114 Levin then proceeded to book the Shubert Theatre in Boston for the second, longer tryout, but on 2 November this contract was cancelled and he made a deal to hire the Erlanger Theatre in Philadelphia between February 13 and March 10 instead.115 In an interview with the Boston Daily Record in November 1957, the producer would explain a “sentimental” reason for the change: “I happen to be a Philadelphia boy, that’s the only reason we played there instead of Boston.”116

Levin worked mesmerizingly fast during September. On September 12, he drew up Franz Allers’s contract as conductor of the show, following an initial agreement of June 27.117 A veteran of Broadway, Allers had been musical director of the original productions of previous Lerner and Loewe shows The Day Before Spring, Brigadoon, and Paint Your Wagon, and would go on to do the same job for Camelot, the 1980 and 1981 revivals of Camelot, and the 1981 My Fair Lady revival, which would once again star Rex Harrison and Cathleen Nesbitt (as Mrs. Higgins). Also on the musical front, a letter of September 20 from Dr. Albert Sirmay of Chappell and Co. Publishers confirmed that Robert Russell Bennett would take charge of the orchestrations for the show; Chappell had already signed up to produce and publish the sheet music on August 31.118 Cecil Beaton and Oliver Smith’s final contracts were also drawn up during this period, as was Abe Feder’s for the lighting and Hanya Holm’s for the choreography.119

True to form, Rex Harrison continued to make Levin anxious during this time. He started to drag his heels regarding the record contract with Columbia, who had entered into an agreement on September 7 to finance the entire production.120 On September 13, Levin wrote to Laurie Evans to hurry the signing of the record album rider for Harrison’s contract, and he received an answer two days later. “I am afraid Rex is quite adamant that he will not commit himself before he arrives in New York,” said Evans. Levin assured him that “the terms of compensation for him are the same as those paid Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, etc.”; it seems this issue was the reason for Harrison’s delay.121 Levin also asked Evans “whether Rex is working on his voice. Did you contact Roy Lowe at the Drury Lane? Is he working with Rex now?” In reply Evans said that Harrison had not yet worked with the vocal coach because there was no actual material to study yet; and in any case, “he doesn’t ever want to become a light baritone and he doesn’t feel there