THE INCOMPARABLE REX

A purported memoir about the last ten years in the life of Rex Harrison (1908–90), this book by British director Garland

is actually a warts-and-all look at the 1981 Broadway revival of My Fair Lady. Although Sir Rex continued working until a few months before his death, Garland (who directed the short-lived revival of the 1956 Lerner and Loewe musical) glosses over the other stage roles Harrison took on when he was well into his 70s (such as his definitive interpretation of Captain Shotover in Shaw's Heartbreak House in 1983) and instead focuses on the actor's mercurial personality during rehearsals of My Fair Lady. He dwells in particular detail upon Harrison’s nasty treatment of Nancy Ringham (who was plucked from the chorus to play Eliza Doolittle after leading lady Cheryl Kennedy lost her voice at the 11th hour), which he believes was ultimately responsible for sinking the production. Garland’s account is not boring. Theater buffs will enjoy reading about Harrison's rivalry with Richard Burton and will marvel at the tales of the beloved trouper Cathleen Nesbitt, who played Higgins's mother in the original My Fair Lady and reprised the role 25 years later at the age of 94 (when her faculties were fading, yet she was still, amazingly, able to charm the audiences once the curtain went up). One begins to wonder, however, whether Garland is simply out to make a quick buck from his association with Harrison: there's just too much information about the actor's favorite obscenity, his mistreatment of his six wives and assorted girlfriends, and his cruel deathbed comments to his sons Carey and Noel—and not nearly enough about what made him “the last of the great high comedians,” as Garland contends. For diehard Rexophiles only—but even they would do better with Alexander Walker's Fatal Charm (1993). (8 pages b&w

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