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Celebrity Playhouse Pygmalion (1981– ) Online

Celebrity Playhouse Pygmalion (1981– ) Online
1981– Twiggy Robert Powell Mona Washbourne John Glenister
Original Title :
Pygmalion
Genre :
TV Episode / Drama
Year :
1981–
Directror :
John Glenister
Cast :
Twiggy,Robert Powell,Mona Washbourne
Writer :
Pat Sandys,George Bernard Shaw
Type :
TV Episode
Time :
1h 30min
Rating :
7.8/10

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Celebrity Playhouse Pygmalion (1981– ) Online

Can Professor Higgins transform cockney flower girl Eliza Dolittle into a great lady?
Episode credited cast:
Twiggy Twiggy - Eliza Doolittle
Robert Powell Robert Powell - Professor Henry Higgins
Mona Washbourne Mona Washbourne - Mrs. Pearce
Ronald Fraser Ronald Fraser - Colonel Pickering
Helen Shingler Helen Shingler - Mrs. Higgins
Arthur English Arthur English - Alfred Doolittle
Pauline Jameson Pauline Jameson - Mrs. Eynsford-Hill
Marsha Fitzalan Marsha Fitzalan - Clara Eynsford-Hill
Shaun Scott Shaun Scott - Freddie Eynsford-Hill
Sarah-Jane Bickerton Sarah-Jane Bickerton - Maid
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Donald Groves Donald Groves - Bystander
Maeve Leslie Maeve Leslie - Bystander
Douglas Roe Douglas Roe - Bystander (as Doug Roe)
Gordon Salkilld Gordon Salkilld - Bystander

The original Broadway production of "Pygmalion" opened at the Park Theater opening October 12, 1914 and ran for 72 performances. The play premiered in a German translation at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on October 16, 1913 and in English at His Majesty's Theatre in London on April 11, 1914 and starred 'Mrs Patrick Campbell'.

Mona Washbourne who plays Professor Higgins' housekeeper Mrs. Pearce in this production had played the exact same character 17 years earlier in the 1964 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie version of the musical stage play based upon "Pygmalion".

Most actresses who play Eliza in "Pygmalion" have to learn a cockney accent whilst having naturally the "ladylike" accent which Eliza must learn in the course the story. Twiggy claimed to be the first actress in the role who had a natural cockney accent to begin with and had to learn to "speak posh" in the same way that Eliza does.


User reviews

Nicearad

Nicearad

While Robert Powell was a strange choice to play Doolittle, and the idea that this would add a sexual frisson to his and Eliza's interplay comes to nothing, this is a surprisingly fine version of the play.

Twiggy is an absolute delight as Eliza. As well as being the genuine article (like Eliza, not a cockney but a working-class Londoner all the same), she is innocent, flustered, enchanting and plucky. Her chocolate eating line "I wouldn't 'ave eaten it, but I'm too much of a lady to spit it out" is one of many terrific moments she absolutely nails. And her "not bloody likely, I'm going in a taxi" is the funniest delivery of the line I've ever heard.

Arthur English is spot on as her father too. All in all it's a delightful experiment that really pays off.
Hirah

Hirah

'Pygmalion' is a classic play about identity and power within relationships. In one sense it is a comedy of manners centered on the single-minded bullying misogynist Higgins, in another a drama about Eliza Dolittle's place in society.

This version misfires on all levels. Robert Powell is too young and too pleasant as Higgins. You can't imagine he is *really* so uncaring as to see Eliza as a mere object of an experiment in phonetics. Twiggy is both too old and too lightweight an actress to convey Eliza's anguish when she has the speech of a lady but is still essentially a common Cockney flower girl.

This version seems to have been put together because Pygmalion is a popular play and would pull in the viewers. It fails to do justice to its source material and even 'My Fair Lady' (the musical travesty which made the whole thing a love story) is preferable.