Rare “My Fair Lady” Playbill from New York City Center- Al Hirshfeld cover

Fascinating story behind this 1964 production. Despite having a playbill cover designed by Al Hirshfeld and a lead performance played by Marni Nixon, this production barely shows up in history. For those who think film superstars such as Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood, and Audrey Hepburn possessed not only powerhouse dramatic talents but amazing singing voices as well...think again. Kerr's Anna in "The King and I" (1956), Natalie's Maria in "West Side Story" (1961), and Audrey's Eliza in "My Fair Lady" (1964) were all dubbed by the amazing Marni Nixon, and nowhere in the credits will you find that fact. Twentieth Century-Fox insisted Nixon sign a contract that she would not reveal that she dubbed any part of Kerr's vocals in "The King and I." Were she to do so, the studio threatened that they would see to it that she never worked "in this town (i.e., Hollywood) again." Kerr, who worked extremely closely, and extremely well, with Nixon thought this was very unfair and she herself who revealed the secret of the dubbing in an interview with the popular syndicated columnist Earl Wilson. Having dubbed Wood as well as Moreno, Nixon felt she deserved a cut of the movie-album royalties. Neither the movie or the record producers would bow to her demands. Leonard Bernstein broke the stalemate by volunteering a percentage of his income, a gesture of loyalty-royalty since Nixon had been a performer-colleague of his at New York Philharmonic concerts.