"You did it!"

In My Fair Lady Colonel Pickering sings to Professor Henry Higgins:

    Tonight, old man, you did it!
    You did it! You did it! 

    You said that you would do it,
    And indeed you did. 

    I thought that you would rue it;
    I doubted you'd do it. But now I must admit it
    That succeed you did . . .

 

 Though at times I doubted I could, my husband said to me after every performance, "You did it."

And words from this song have run through my hat-less head for the past week.

Friends came from near and far to watch, Pat from Pampa and Jocelyn from Lubbock. 

And Kathy from Amarillo. Thanks for the smiles, applause and affirmation. Guess I have yet to give up the performer's ghost.

After the Saturday matineé, local Red Hat Society women asked to have their picture taken with some of the cast members dressed in their costumes for the Ascot scene.

According to comments heard, when the curtain opened the audience gasped, stunned by the effect of seeing everyone dressed in black and white or gray, frozen in a pose to convey the sense of superiority of class distinction. 

In fact, Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw http://www.bartleby.com/138/, the play brilliantly adapted by Alan J. Lerner (lyrics) and Frederick Lowe (music) as My Fair Lady shows how language elevates. Persons trapped in an otherwise rigid social web can through educated language increase their opportunities to enjoy a better life.

     "I want to be a lady in a flower shop stead of selling at the corner of Tottenham Court Road," Eliza said. "But they won't take me unless I can talk more genteel…"

     "… It's almost irresistible. She's so deliciously low––so horribly dirty!" Higgins says when he decides to take Pickering's bet. "I'll take it! I'll make a duchess of this draggle-tailed guttersnipe."

And he did it. 

And in the process, Eliza makes a human being out of Professor Henry Higgins––a human being with feelings for someone other than himself.

Hats off to Director John Packard and Musical Director Chris Betts who presented a wonderful production of this premier Broadway musical to the Lubbock community. 

The participants view their contributions as a way to use their God-given talents to bless others. 

      At times I thought I'd die of fright, 

      Never was there a momentary lull …

      You should have heard the oooh's and ah's

      Everyone wondering who she was …

I'm so glad I did it.

An Ordinary Man

The CD of My Fair Lady includes an interview with Rex Harrison who when asked what song was his favorite said, "An Ordinary Man."

The genius of this song: it is spoken rather than sung. The lyricist, Alan Jay Lerner explained that the word at the end of the phrase goes down because the note would be unsustainable for the vocalist if the last note rose rather than fell.

Positively delicious lyrics. Enjoy. 

I'm an ordinary man,

Who desires nothing more than an ordinary chance

to live exactly as he likes

and do precisely what he wants.

An average man am I, of no eccentric whim

Who likes to live his life, free of strife

doing whatever he thinks is best, for him.

Well, just an ordinary man …

BUT

Let a woman in your life 

and your serenity is through;

she'll redecorate your home 

from the cellar to the dome

and then go on to the enthralling 

fun of overhauling you.

Let a woman in your life 

and you're up against a wall.

Make a plan and you will find

that she has something else in mind

and so rather than do either [long I sound]

you do something else

that neither likes at all.

You want to talk of Keats and Milton;

she only wants to talk of love.

You go to see a play or ballet,

and spend it searching for her glove.

Let a woman in your life

and you invite eternal strife.

Let them buy their wedding bands for those anxious little hands;

I'd be equally as willing for a dentist to be drilling

than to ever let a woman in my life.

I'm a very gentle man,

even tempered and good natured

who you never hear complain,

who has the milk of human kindness

by the quart in every vein.

A patient man am I, down to my fingertips,

the sort who never could, ever would,

let an insulting remark escape his lips

A very gentle man …

But, let a woman in your life,

and patience hasn't got a chance.

She will beg you for advice, 

your reply will be concise,

and she will listen very nicely, 

and then go out

and do exactly what she wants!

You are a man of grace and polish,

who never spoke above a hush.

All at once you're using language

that would make a sailor blush.

Let a woman in your life,

and you're plunging in a knife.

Let the others of my sex, tie the knot around their necks,

I prefer a new edition of the Spanish Inquisition

than to ever let a woman in my life.

I'm a quiet living man,

who prefers to spend the evening in the silence of his room,

who likes an atmosphere as restful as

an undiscovered tomb.

A pensive man am I, of philosophic joys,

who likes to meditate, contemplate,

far from humanity’s mad inhuman noise.

A quiet living man.

But, let a woman in your life

and your sabbatical is through.

In a line that never ends 

comes an army of her friends,

come to jabber and to chatter

and to tell her what the matter is with YOU.

She'll have a booming boisterous family,

who will descend on you en mass.

She'll have a large Wagnarian mother,

with a voice that shatters glass.

Let a woman in your life

Let a woman in your life

Let a woman in your life

I shall never let a woman in my life.

And God said, It is not good for man to live alone.

Here's my Hat

Getting inspiration from hats viewed online and in the movie, everything but the hat came from Hobby Lobby. 

Instead of using a hat pattern, I decided to use a torn hat to decorate for the Ascot Gavotte race scene.

Because the lavendar color showed through the white satin, the center is covered with a scrap of white material. In this case, some lightweight nylon.

Next I laid a large piece of white satin over the center and secured the base with rubber bands linked together like daisy chains, creating one strong rubber band large enough to go around the hat crown. Then I laid the fabric loosely in pleats before gluing the fabric in place along the edge.

Using double-sided fusing material to cover underneath the brim, I ironed first to the wrong side of the black satin fabric, then removed the paper backing and ironed the other fusible side to the hat. After placing the white satin on top, I trimmed the excess fabric and used a hot glue gun to attach a velveteen ribbon 1 1/2 inches wide along the edge of the hat, covering both the black and white raw edges of fabric.

For the fabric roses I used organza. Using 1/8 of a yard folded in half lengthwise, I stitched 1/4 inch along the raw edges side, curved at both ends so that stitching begins and ends on the fold. Cut the excess fabric along the curve.

Pulling gently on this long running stitch gathers the fabric which then is twisted to form the center of the rose. Continue wrapping around the center and stitch through all layers of fabric to secure the rose.

After using hot glue to secure the feather trim around the entire brim of the hat, which measured 60 inches, I secured the roses with massive amounts of hot glue in front of a fan I made out of tulle.

Now I'm making a ballgown. I feel like one of Cinderella's mice embellishing a dress with scraps of fabric, ribbon and even using drapery trim.

Instead of whistling while I work or singing "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes," I watch/listen to the movie My Fair Lady as well as all of the bonus features about the film's restoration.

A fascinating story of artistry, craftsmanship and people's commitment to excellence and the resolve to preserve this masterpiece, the restoration of this "national treasure" in 1994, 30 years after the original film debuted, involved a frame by frame video reproduction and transfer that took 2 years and 2 million dollars to complete.

Considering that the film originally shown in only 300 select theaters across the country, how loverly that anyone can actually own a copy of a copy. http://www.amazon.com/My-Fair-Lady-Audrey-Hepburn/dp/B002HK9IDQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1264536530&sr=1-2

While keeping a notebook of MFL trivia to pass on at a later date, for now the sewing machine trumps the computer. With a little bit of luck, I will finish my costumes soon.

Hat-making 101

When I auditioned for the chorus of My Fair Lady back in November, hardly then could I have imagined that I would make a hat to wear in the "Ascot Gavotte" number http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5Sq1Pax7h8&feature=related .

As in the movie, the Adult Ensemble will wear black and white Victorian/Edwardian fashions. Think the era of the movie Titanic.

The First United Methodist Music Ministry http://www.fumc.com/music/theater/_theater.htm presents a Broadway musical production each year in February, performed at the Civic Center for three performances. Rehearsals began on January 3, and well, I will keep readers posted as to how this goes.
"… I have never been so keyed up …"

My research surfaced some surprising sights regarding costumes. Most astonishing to a person who lives Texas, hat-making or millinery is alive and well, and women still wear fancy hats to the Ascot races held just outside of London, England each year in June.  http://www.amazon.com/Kentucky-Edwardian-designed-Morning-Purple/dp/B0015L67QY/ref=pd_sbs_a_5

Check out this video if you want to see some of the more recent creations, including a picture of the Queen who attends the weeklong event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnN7lJwAvJA&feature=player_embedded

An American counterpart, The Kentucky Derby, also features extraordinary hats, and apparently these hand-made creations can sell for hundreds of dollars.

So after a day spent hunting and gathering supplies, I begin my own hat-making adventure. Will post pictures along the way of my creation. If all goes well, I may start yet another business that loses money.