Invoked in the song "Show Me", where one of the couplets ("Haven't your arms Hungered for mine?/Please don't explain, Show me!") only rhymes if Eliza briefly slips back into her Cockney accent (where "explain" is pronounced "expl'ine").
Another curious example occurs in the song "The Street Where You Live", when Freddy sings the line, "People stop and stare, they don't bother me / For there's nowhere else on earth that I would rather be". The rhyme would completely fail in American English, where "rather" rhymes with "gather". Fortunately, Freddy is singing the Queen's English, in which "rather" rhymes with "father". The rhyme still fails in British English, because of the subtle distinction that Brits (and, indeed, most English speakers) make between the short "o" of "bother" and the long "a" of "father". However, most Americans make no such distinction (except for the traditional Boston accent): for them, "father" and "bother" are a perfect rhyming pair!note This conflation, known as the "father-bother merger", is one of the distinguishing features of North American English. So the rhyme works — but only if it's said by a Brit and heard by an American.
"Say A Prayer For Me Tonight" was written for this show, but cut and used later in Gigi.
There's an extra verse sometimes re-added to "You Did It" expanding on Karpathy's raves about Eliza's certain Hungarian birth.
During tryouts, Higgins tried to cheer Eliza up with a Pep-Talk Song called "Come to the Ball." Although the song was cut, a portion of it remains in the patter section of "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face" - making it a Dark Reprise of a song that isn't actually in the show.
A ballet where the servants help Eliza prepare for the ball was also cut during tryouts to keep the show's running time down.
Life Imitates Art: When she was cast in the demanding role of Eliza, Julie Andrews was only twenty and had never acted in anything more complex than The Boy Friend. During rehearsals, director Moss Hart dismissed the rest of the cast for two days and coached her, word by word, through the dialogue, telling her how to deliver every line and essentially acting as the real-life Higgins to her Eliza.
Recursive Adaptation: My Fair Lady is based as much on the 1938 film version of Pygmalion as the original stage version, making it a case of stage -> screen -> stage.
Refrain from Assuming: Henry's song with the repeated line "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" is actually called "A Hymn to Him".
Wag the Director: The reason Higgins interrupts "Without You" before it can finish is that Rex Harrison felt Higgins would not stand silently and let Eliza sing to him without interruption; in one tryout performance he actually walked offstage during the number to prove his point. (The original ending of the number was restored for the cast recording.)
What Could Have Been: The concept of a Pygmalion musical was first proposed by producer Cheryl Crawford, as a vehicle for Mary Martin with songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Even after Lerner and Lowe took on the project instead, Mary Martin was still the first choice for the role of Eliza, but she turned it down.
Working Title: Liza, Lady Liza, My Lady Liza, Fanfaroonnote An old-fashioned term meaning "braggart," presumably referring to Higgins., and Come to the Ball. The title didn't officially become My Fair Lady until the second week of rehearsals.
Film
California Doubling: Set in London, but filmed entirely at Warner Brothers Burbank Studios. This is very obviously a studio-bound film, as was common back in the days before New Hollywood.
Channel Hop: The film was produced by Warner Bros., but their contract with CBS, who backed the Broadway show, stipulated that the rights would revert to them eight years later in 1972. CBS licensed the film to 20th Century Fox throughout the 1980's and 90's, and rights are currently held by Paramount due to their ownership of CBS.
Audrey Hepburn was in her mid-thirties when she played the 21-year-old Eliza in the film adaptation. The life of an apparently quite poor flower girl in those days probably would have aged the character of Eliza beyond her years; in this case, Dawson Casting may have been justified. Furthermore, Audrey always looked younger than she actually was.
The 30 year-old Jeremy Brett was cast as 20-year-old Freddie so Hepburn would not seem too old in comparison.
George Lucas Altered Version: When the film was given an 8K restoration in 2015, the sharp digital scans of the original negative revealed details that were never visible on any print before, including Audrey Hepburn's teeth fillings and the adhesive for Rex Harrison's toupee. The restoration team digitally removed these things, feeling that the filmmakers would not have wanted the public to see them.
Marni Nixon did most of Audrey Hepburn's singing for the movie; this is at least partially responsible for the Award Snub. And no, Marni Nixon's name appeared nowhere in the original credits. However, when video of Hepburn's originalvocalperformances was released in the 1990's, many fans found Nixon's overdubbing to be completely unnecessary.
Also, Jeremy Brett as Freddy was dubbed by Bill Shirley (AKA Roger (singing) and Prince Philip). Out of all of them, Brett was the one who could sing (look him up on YouTube), but his singing voice was thought too mature for Freddy. Brett was apparently not informed that he would be dubbed until afterwards. And he was pissed.
Rex Harrison had to avert this for himself. He explained to the production that he never performed a song the same way twice, and therefore would be unable to provide realistic lip-synching for a song he performed earlier in a studio. To accommodate, he was fitted with a wireless microphone in his tie and his songs were recorded as he performed them. When you watch him in the film, that's actually him singing at that moment. (Though Rex Harrison couldn't actually sing either, but he developed a sort of recitative to compensate.)
Recursive Adaptation: My Fair Lady is based as much on the 1938 film version of Pygmalion as the original stage version, making the film a case of stage -> screen -> stage -> screen.
James Cagney was originally offered the role of Alfred Doolittle. When he pulled out at the last minute, it went to the man who played it on Broadway, Stanley Holloway.
The original choice to direct the film was Vincente Minnelli but when his salary demands were too high, the job went to George Cukor.
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