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

Julie Andrews in The Boyfriend

Al Hirschfeld drew his first-ever theater cartoon of Julie Andrews in 1955, starring in The Boyfriend

Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady

Julie Andrews as Eliza with Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins

With Rex Harrison: The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain

in the Cinderella TV movie by Rodgers and Hammerstein

in Camelot

first big movie, Mary Poppins, for which she won an Oscar

Sound of Music

back on Broadway in Victor/Victoria

the book cover of her memoir Home

“I began my career when I came to New York in a show called ‘The Boyfriend,’” Julie Andrews says. “‘My Fair Lady” and ‘Camelot’ followed. But then came films and a family, and Broadway receded into the background for me. But Broadway stays in your blood. And here I am all these years later back in the theater still as excited and as nervous as I was then.”
So Julie Andrews says at the beginning of the video below of the entire production of “Victor/Victoria” recorded on the stage of Broadway’s Marquis Theater.

Julie Andrews starred in just four musicals on Broadway, one of which was NOT The Sound of Music. The star of that musical on Broadway was Mary Martin. On the other hand, Julie Andrews wasn’t cast in the film of the Broadway musical that made her a star, My Fair Lady; that went to Audrey Hepburn.

Would Julie Andrews be such a beloved star had she not starred in the films Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, and Thoroughly Modern Millie? Maybe not, but keep in mind two things: Most of her most cherished movie roles were in Broadway-like musicals. And it was in a musical on Broadway in 1962 where Walt Disney first saw her, as she recounts in her first memoir, and cast her as the world’s most famous nanny, launching her movie career.

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Perhaps she would have been world-famous no matter what, given her astonishing talent, evident from a young age. Listen to Julie Andrews at 12 years old singing ‘Je suis Titania’ (Polonaise) from Mignon by Ambroise Thomas.

The Boyfriend, 1954

Written by Sandy Wilson, directed by Cy Feuer.

Julie Andrews was just about to turn 19 when she made her Broadway debut in this comic pastiche of shows from the 1920s set in the French Riviera.

Here is audio of her singing the title song (with a nice collage of stills from the show, but no video)

I couldn’t find any video from the original production, but here is Julie Andrews singing and dancing numbers from the show 18 yeas later, taken from episode 1 of the year-long television series, The Julie Andrews Hour, 1972.

My Fair Lady, 1956

Book by Alan Jay Lerner; Music by Frederick Loewe; Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner; Adapted from “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw.

Julie Andrews sings Wouldn’t It Be Loverly in a clip from the Ed Sullivan Show in 1961 that includes a very brief comments by Lerner and Loewe

I Could Have Danced All Night and “Show Me”
On Ed Sullivan in 1956

Camelot, 1960

Book by Alan Jay Lerner; Based on “The Once and Future King” by T. H. White; Music by Frederick Loewe; Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Staged by Moss Hart.

Julie Andrews and Richard Burton sing the title song on the Ed Sullivan Show. (Actually, this short snippet shows only Burton singing.)

Julie Andrews sings “What Do The Simple Folk Do?” with Richard Burton (begins at around 1:05)

I Loved You Once in Silence (audio only)

Victor/Victoria, 1995.

Book and direction by Blake Edwards (Julie Andrews’ husband), music by Henry Mancini; lyrics by Leslie Bricusse

This is the entire production. It’s remarkable to realize Julie Andrews was 60 years old at the time, singing and dancing nightly in a Broadway musical adaptation of the movie in which she had starred 13 years earlier.
Andrews numbers:
If I Were A Man, starting at around 22:00
Le Jazz Hot, starting at around 36:00
The Tango, starting at around 56:40
Crazy World, starting at around 111:30
Louis Says, starting at around 118:30
Almost A Love Song duet, starting at around 149
Living in the Shadows (music by Frank Wildhorn), 203:00
title song, with Tony Roberts and company 216:30

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, 1957

Consider this a bonus, since this wasn’t on Broadway but was an original television musical. I think we can include it, since the musical was eventually presented on Broadway.

“In My Own Little Corner”

“A Lovely Night,” Andrews, with evil stepsisters Kaye Ballard and Alice Ghostley, and stepmother Ilka Chase.

And we’ll end with an hour-long video of a 1989 concert in which Julie Andrews sings some of her favorite things