The fifth Broadway production of My Fair Lady opened a year ago today, as good a time as any to wax nostalgic over not just Lerner and Loewe’s 1956 musical, but over Pygmalion, the 1913 play by George Bernard Shaw on which the musical is based.

What better way than a photo gallery of Eliza Doolittles?
There have been at least 27 Eliza Doolittles on Broadway alone, including the Elizas in the six Broadway productions of Pygmalion, portrayed by some of the great actresses of the American theater, including Lynn Fontanne in 1926 and Gertrude Lawrence in 1945. As the photo captions below make clear, the play is still being performed,  long after the musical made its debut — Amanda Plummer  in 1987, Claire Danes in 2007, Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey) was Eliza in a London production in 2008. Diana Rigg was Eliza in a 1974 Pygmalion, and Mrs. Higgins last year in the current Broadway revival of My Fair Lady.

Click on the photographs to read the captions.

Mrs. Patrick Campbell was the first Eliza Doolittle, here in the first London run of Pygmalion, at His Majesty’s theatre in 1914 — a production that moved to Broadway later that year.

George Bernard Shaw had expressly written the part of Eliza expressly for Mrs. Campbell, aka Mrs. Pat, the stage name of the actress born Beatrice Rose Stella Tanner. She was also Winston Churchill’s stepmother.

Lynn Fontanne as Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion on Broadway in 1926, the second of its six Broadway productions

Gertrude Lawrence and Raymond Massey in Pygmalion on Broadway 1946

Diana Rigg portrayed Eliza in a 1974 production of Pygmalion in the UK. Forty-four years later, she portrayed Mrs. Higgins in the current Broadway production of My Fair Lady

Actor Peter O’Toole as Henry Higgins and Actress Amanda Plummer as Eliza Doolittle posing in the play “Pygmalion,” 1987

Michelle Dockery, best known as Lady Mary Crawley in the TV series Downton Abbey, portrayed Eliza in Pygmalion directed by Peter Hall at the Old Vic, 2008

Julie Andrews as Eliza in the first Broadway production of My Fair Lady, 1956

Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady

Julie Andrews as Eliza with Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins

Edward Mulhare as Professor Higgins and Pamela Charles as Eliza Doolittle in the replacement cast of the original BRoaday production.

Audrey Hepburn starred in the 1964 film of My Fair Lady, with Marni Nixon’s voice dubbed in for the songs. Rex Harrison portrayed Prof. Higgins both on Broadway and in Hollywood, but Julie Andrews was replaced. “With all her charm and ability, Julie Andrews was just a Broadway name known primarily to those who saw the play,” movie mogul Jack Warner wrote in his memoir. But don’t pity Julie Andrews. She was thus free to be cast in the movie of Mary Poppins, which made her a movie as well a stage star.

Melissa Errico in a scene from the Broadway revival of the musical “My Fair Lady,” 1993

Richard Chamberlain and Melissa Errico in a scene from the Broadway revival of the musical “My Fair Lady,” 1993

Lauren Ambrose as Eliza in fourth Broadway revival, which opened in April, 2018

Harry Hadden-Paton as Prof. Higgins with Lauren Ambrose as Eliza

Laura Benanti took over the role of Eliza Doolittle in the fourth Broadway revival in October, 2018. “This is the part I’ve wanted to do my whole life. This is my 13th Broadway show. I’ve been doing this since I was 18. And I never ever really thought I’d get to play her.”

Laura Benanti as Eliza Doolittle and Christian Dante White as Freddy to her left, with Allan Corduner as Colonel Pickering to her right. At the Ascot races.