My Fair Lady's Opening Night example essay topic

403 words
Our Dame Julie Andrews hasn't always been Mary Poppins or Fraulein Maria. She started out on Broadway playing the role of Polly Brown in The Boyfriend. Her second show was My Fair Lady, where she left her mark and made Audrey Hepburn look like a whiny school girl. Camelot was her last show. That was all before Walt Disney discovered her and turned her into our favorite magical nanny.

Before Robert Wise made her our fearless governess. Julie was only 19 when she moved from her hometown of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England to New York. She had been asked to play Polly Brown, a flapper of the 1920's. She did, and was extremely happy in her career. It was very different than the stage she was used to in London.

New York was a large change, it still is. She bought an apartment with a good friend and coworker. They took turns cooking and cleaning. She stayed on the show for only a year when she was asked to play Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. My Fair Lady's opening night was March 31st, 1956. She was 20 years old.

Perfect for Eliza's age, 18 or 20. Eliza was a cockney from the streets of London and transforms into a beautiful young woman. Julie also went through a transformation, not only in soul, but she actually stopped rehearsal. A woman with such perfect diction has a hard time speaking really wrong on purpose. She spent a whole weekend just learning how to speak improper English, when they should have been practicing for opening night. After 2.5 years in New York, and a year in London, she became tired of her character and went to Camelot.

Camelot was released in 1960 and was her personal favorite. This was the play that made Walt decide on the role of Poppins. In the song What do the Simple Folk do? , Julie has a solo in which she whistles, Disney thought that whistling was a quality a nanny should hold. She played Queen Guenevere, the naughty, shallow queen of Camelot. It was different, more colorful, and a large change from timid Eliza.

She loved it more than anything, now at the age of 66, she is our beloved, star.