Pygmalion (1914). This modern retelling of the Pygmalion‐Galatea legend was first seen in America in 1914, with Shaw's original Eliza Doolittle, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, repeating her role. Most critics kindly overlooked the fact that she was far too old for the part, for her transition from street waif to lady was highly praised, with one critic adding, “with the deftest touch she suggests the old Eliza is not so far below the surface after all.” Her Higgins was a younger Philip Merivale. Although some critics were disturbed by her American accent, Lynn Fontanne dominated a 1926 Theatre Guild revival in which Reginald Mason was Higgins. The play enjoyed its longest American run when it was revived in 1945 for Gertrude Lawrence (also rather old for the part) with Raymond Massey as Higgins. A 1987 revival starred Peter O'Toole and Amanda Plummer, but Ivar Brogger won applause when he took over during O'Toole's all too frequent indispositions. The play also served as the basis for the most literate of all American operettas, My Fair Lady (1956). To many who saw the original production, the youthful Julie Andrews and, more especially, the reptilian Rex Harrison will probably remain the definitive interpreters of the roles.

Pygmalion

In Greek mythology, Pygmalion was a king of the island of Cyprus and a sculptor. He spent many years carving an ivory statue of a woman more beautiful than any living female.

Pygmalion became fascinated by his sculpture and fell in love with it. He pretended it was an actual woman. He brought it presents and treated it as if it were alive. However, the statue could not respond to his attentions, and Pygmalion became miserable. Finally, he prayed to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to bring him a woman like his statue. Aphrodite did even better. She brought the statue to life. Pygmalion married this woman, often called Galatea, who gave birth to a daughter (some versions of the story say the child was a boy).

The writer George Bernard Shaw took the name Pygmalion as the title of his play about an English professor who turns a poor girl from the streets into a fashionable society woman. Shaw's story was the basis of the later Broadway musical and movie My Fair Lady.

Pygmalion . 1 In Greek mythology, king of Cyprus. He fell in love with a beautiful statue of a woman. When he prayed to Aphrodite for a wife like it, the goddess brought the statue to life and Pygmalion married her. In one version of the legend, the statue becomes Aphrodite; another states that Pygmalion sculpted the statue himself and that after coming to life it was called Galatea. 2 In Vergil's Aeneid, king of Tyre. He was the brother of Dido and killed her husband, Sychaeus, to get his riches.

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