音樂劇窈窕淑女 My Fair Lady （3）

這個音樂劇 (Musical) 是根據英國大文豪蕭伯納 (George Bernard Shaw – 1856-1950) 的名劇 Pygmalion 改編而成的，蕭伯納借這個劇本反影十九世紀未及二十世紀初期英國社會的上、中、下層階級懸殊、有著很大的距離而往往不能融合在一起。故事很簡單、是描述一位英國中層階級的言語教授 Henry Higgins 成功的把一個來自下層階級的賣花女 Eliza Doolittle 改造成為一位高貴的皇族少婦。

Pygmalion本是古代神話裡的一位雕塑家，他用象牙雕了一個女像之後，卻愛上自已的女像，每天求神使他的雕像能變成活人，最後他終於感動了愛神為他行了一個奇蹟、使他能如願得償。蕭伯納採用Pygmalion 作標題是利用這故事來反影這位 Higgins 教授能把一個從低下階層的賣花女、把她改造成一位上層階級的貴族，亦是一個絕處逢生的奇蹟！

之前，有許多人都想把這劇本寫成音樂劇但都沒有成功，因為這劇本缺乏了一般音樂劇需要的內容、即恩怨情仇，而蕭伯納在生時，是不會容許別人改寫他的劇本，直至他離世後，Alan Jay Learner 寫了這劇的歌詞、再配上 Frederick Lowe 撰寫的音樂，於是在 1956 年，這套百老滙名劇 “My Fair Lady” 終於面世了！

在1956 年 “My Fair Lady” 舞台劇是力士夏理遜Rex Harrison 扮演教授，朱莉安德絲Julie Andrews 扮演賣花女，1958年移到英國倫敦公演，仍是他們兩人再度拍擋合演，連續演了五年，共 2281場！

但是 1964年荷里活把這劇搬上銀幕，但卻沒採用安德絲而改用了柯德利夏萍 Audrey Hepburn，其實難怪製片商這樣做的，電影不同舞台劇，電影講票房能否有收獲，他們都希望有一張既受歡迎又能賣座的臉孔當女主角，甚至女主角不能唱也不重要、找個幕後代唱便可。

結果柯德利夏萍沒有令片商們失望，這部片用了一千七百萬美元製作，票房紀錄是七千二百萬美元，片商賺大錢！

以下的 YouTube片是她在電影中的轉捩點、即她能開始說純正的英語並唱出 The Rain In Spain Stays Mainly In The Plain，用她的聲音接駁幕後代唱的Marni Nixon，簡直天衣無縫:

https://youtu.be/uVmU3iANbgk

1993年，百老滙再度上演這套名劇，選了電視皇帝 (King of Television**) Richard Chamberlain飾演 Henry Higgins，還到世界其他大城市遁迥演出，那年 My Fair Lady 來到多倫多上演，大概我是 Richard Chamberlain 的超級影迷吧，所以買了第一行來觀看，女主角不記得是誰了，因為我根本不是去看她。

不過看完這劇後對 Chamberlain 有少許失望，第一：他不能操純正英國口音，雖然他已很努力但始終還帶著少少美國口音，第二：他不是Rex Harrison，因為Harrison 是演活了 Henry Higgins，是無人能演得比他更好了！

https://youtu.be/QJFqzqfPM0g

話雖如此，從其他角度來看，這劇的重演是值得一看的！

** Richard Chamberlain 得到電視皇帝之美譽是因為他拍的電視劇、差不多套套都受歡迎，如 Dr. Kildare (1961-66) ；Shogun (1980) ；The Thorn Birds (1983) ；The Bourne Identity (1988) 及無數其他的電視影片。

Note: 這一篇文章亦在以下網頁登出：http://skytalk.ahlap.net/cgi-bin/p3a_patio.cgi?mode=view&no=1766

My Space Adventure

Ever since Star Trek NG, there hadn’t been any good Syfy shows on TV except, maybe Babylon 5.  Then there was Star Trek Enterprise, with Scott Bakula as Capt Johathan Archer.  That was good in the first 2 seasons, but as time went by, the storylines became weaker and weaker.  So it ended without a boom!  My guess is,  Gene Roddenberry wasn’t around to provide good scripts for the show!  The show ran from 2001 to 2005, and Roddenberry went to Space Heaven in 1991!

Andromeda came about in 2000 and stayed for 5 seasons with Kevin Sorbo (the former Hercules) playing Capt Dylan Hunt.  Of course, Sorbo was good as the Captain.  But what a drag!  The space ship was run by him and a few of his crew members who dressed themselves as a high school rock band!  After about 2 seasons, I simply dropped it.

I wasn’t any fan for Battlestar Galactica, the series, old or new.  The original movie was good.  In fact, the original movie was too good that whatever stories that ensued on TV were too pale to compare to its predecessor.

So I spent most of my time watching Stargate SG-1 with Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks and Amanda Tapping.  For 10 seasons!  Not bad at all.  But the spin-off series such as Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe were not the same without Anderson.

Now there is Defiance, premiered April 15, 2013.  I only started to watch episode 5 the other day and found it intriguing.  Thus, I went to the Showcase website and finally caught up with all the previous episodes.  I think the pilot was done  badly for it never explained how and why the aliens and humans came to live together in Defiance.  So much history was not accounted for!  They can’t expect all of us know its history before watching the show? 

Because the pilot was so badly done with a lot being unexplained, it made you want to find out more.  So people will tune in again for the second episode, and the third, and …   Suddenly there’s a Romeo and Juliet situation, and then the old fashioned conflict between a father and son, and the love and hate between two sisters…   Cliché, cliché, cliché…  Yet people will still want to see more…

Also, the show was supposed to base on the MMO video game with the same name.  However, the storylines are so different between the game and the show, except for the names of a few characters that appeared both in the game and on the show.

By watching Star Trek for so many years, I have already familiarized myself with names of different species and races such as the Ferengi, Bajorans, Klingons, Romulans, Vulcans, Cardassians, etc.  Now with Defiance, I’ll have to learn to know names such as the Votans, the Castithans, the Aranthients, and so on and so forth…

After reading the above, you must think I come from another planet.  And maybe I did.  But which planet did I come from?  Let me see…I can’t seem to recall…  My memories must have been erased!  By humans?