5
Things You Didn't Know About: George Bernard
Shaw
Tomorrow evening Pygmalion returns
to Broadway with Claire Danes making her Broadway
debut. The
Roundabout Theatre’s production - also starring
Jefferson Mays as Henry Higgins and Boyd Gaines as
Colonel Pickering - is the first revival of the play
in over twenty years.
The play’s creator, George Bernard Shaw was
a prolific playwright at the turn of the 19th/20th
century. He wrote over 60 plays before his death
in 1950 at the age of 94. Born in Dublin in 1856,
he moved to London twenty years later. A novelist,
a journalist, a critic and a playwright, Shaw was also
very active in politics and was a member of the Fabian
Society. Here are five things you may or may
not know about the man and his work.
Shaw was known for his wit. He has many
quotes to his name. Did you know that he
was the author of these two famous quips? - “He
who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.”and “England
and America are two countries divided by a common
language.”
My Fair Lady (1956)
is the most famous adaptation of a Shaw play. The
Lerner and Loewe classic is based on Pygmalion (1914). But
two other Shaw pieces have provided the inspiration
for musical endeavors. Arms and the Man (1894)
was the basis for the operetta The Chocolate
Soldier which opened in 1909 at the Lyric
Theatre (now part of the Hilton Theatre). The
show had a successful run and many revivals. Shaw
is said to have regretted giving his permission
for the adaptation. If he disapproved of
the popular and lucrative Soldier he must
have turned over in his grave when Ervin Drake
attempted to musicalize Caesar and Cleopatra (1906). Drake
wrote the book, music and lyrics for what would
become Her First Roman (1968). Even
with the help of Richard Kiley and Leslie Uggams
starring in the leading roles the show would only
last 17 performances.
George Bernard Shaw is the
only person ever to win both the Nobel Prize
(1925) and an Oscar (1938). His
Oscar was for the screenplay for Pygmalion. Al
Gore might have appeared to match the feat when
he recently won the Nobel Prize for Peace, but
the Oscar garnered by An Inconvenient Truth went
to the movie’s documentarian, not to Al.
During an ongoing feud with
Winston Churchill, Shaw once sent him two tickets
to the debut of
one of his plays along with a note. The note
read, “One for yourself and one for a friend –if
you have one.” Churchill responded
with regrets for the debut but inquired about tickets
for the second night –“if there is
one.”
Shaw was a vegetarian. No meat ever passed
his lips. He also abstained from the use
of tobacco and alcohol.
