#tryout

[iamokay13]

I didn't know what to do with my paper embroidery tryouts so I just stuck them all together in my scrapbook.

[lilonceleriscool124]

Just got back from softball tryouts….GUYS I COOKED

[serve-cunt]

tryout

by serve_cunt Carlos Sainz/Tadej Pogacar/Urska Zigart, rated explicit! threesome but not like. a fun threesome, ~7K

ok the story of this fic goes as follows: @mysticaltramping said "I want a fic where Carlos gets invited to a threesome with pogacar and his gf and then they’re like for someone so fit he was quite mid in bed let’s not invite him back"

and then @bakingblues illustrated it:

and then I went insane for four days and wrote it. target audience: three at BEST. but maybe you will also enjoy it! :)

read it here on ao3!

[paralleljulieverse]

"Close to musical comedy perfection..." My Fair Lady's out-of-town try-outs, 4 February-10 March 1956

My Fair Lady now occupies a place so secure in the musical theatre canon that it can be difficult to imagine it ever not working. Yet seventy years ago this week, the show made its first steps onto the world stage not as a fully formed triumph, but as an uncertain work in progress: overlong, technically unstable, and still being polished.

That uncertainty was not incidental. During its long gestation, My Fair Lady was widely regarded as an audacious risk. The very idea of adapting Shaw’s Pygmalion into a musical seemed implausible to many: too literary, too talkative, insufficiently romantic. Several major composers declined the project on precisely those grounds, judging that it “would just never work as a musical” (Lunden 2000). Even its eventual creators, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, abandoned the idea for a time, convinced that “no matter how hard we tried, we did not seem able to allow the play to unfold in a setting and atmosphere that suggested music” (Lerner 1978, p. 36).

The show’s publicist, Richard Maney (1959), later remarked: “For a long time it took an act of faith to believe that My Fair Lady would ever reach the stage at all. Four years of confusion, false starts and frustration lay behind its first performance” (p. 112).

By the winter of 1955–56, however, the show had taken provisional shape and was ready to be tested in the only way Broadway musicals then could be: before a paying public, away from New York, across five weeks of out-of-town try-outs.*

The try-out as laboratory

As Laura Macdonald (2017) observes, while Broadway has long been understood as “the site where American musicals are made,” for much of the twentieth century “a key portion of the development process … involved writing, rehearsals, and performances beyond Times Square” in the out-of-town try-out (p. 216). These engagements were not ceremonial previews or marketing exercises but working laboratories, in which shows were subjected to the diagnostic pressures of live performance before the irrevocability of a New York opening.

At these work-in-progress stagings, the audience functioned not merely as witness but as an active metric instrument. In response to audience reception and other in situ indicators, scenes were trimmed, songs cut, running times reduced, and performances recalibrated night by night.

Today, that ecology has largely disappeared, replaced by workshops, readings, and developmental runs. In 1956, however, My Fair Lady went out into the world unfinished — learning what it was through the pressures of live performance.

New Haven: Broadway’s proving ground

In mid-century Broadway practice, try-out venues were typically close to New York — in regional cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, and New Haven — where geographic proximity allowed producers to transport creative teams, orchestras, and sets, while maintaining critical distance from Broadway’s verdict.

The most esteemed of these venues was the Shubert Theatre in New Haven. Barely ninety minutes by direct train from Manhattan, the Shubert combined convenient access with technical sophistication, an informed and demanding local audience, and a critical culture attuned to try-outs as unfinished business. During its heyday, the Shubert hosted more than 600 pre-Broadway engagements, including landmark musical successes such as Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, and The King and I, earning it the sobriquet “the birthplace of the nation’s greatest hits” (Hamilton 2008; Shubert Theatre 2026).

Seeking to follow that pedigree, My Fair Lady’s producer Herman Levin secured the Shubert in September 1955 as the show’s first out-of-town engagement, scheduled for 4–11 February 1956. A subsequent booking at the affiliated Shubert Theatre in Boston was planned as a longer second try-out, but this contract was replaced with a four-week engagement at the Erlanger Theatre in Philadelphia from mid-February to 10 March (McHugh 2012, p. 39).

Opening night at the Shubert

After spending much of January rehearsing in New York, the company decamped to New Haven, continuing work at the local Jewish Community Center, then moving into the Shubert on 2 February for final technical rehearsals ahead of opening night (McHugh 2012, p. 46).

Much has been written about the fraught final lead-up to the show’s New Haven premiere — so much so that it has become part of theatrical lore and scarcely needs retelling. Suffice it to say, it was far from smooth sailing. The show’s ambitious turntable sets misbehaved; star Rex Harrison suffered a last-minute crisis and refused to go on; the opening-night performance was briefly cancelled and then reinstated; and, to compound matters, a severe blizzard swept through Connecticut (Andrews 2008; Garebian 1993; Lerner 1978).

With audiences arriving through snow and wind, pressure mounted. Just before curtain time, Moss Hart stepped out to address the sell-out house, framing the evening candidly as something closer to a rehearsal than a finished performance, and closing with Blanche DuBois’s famous line: “We have always depended on the kindness of strangers” (quoted in Rizzo 2018).

That kindness, it turned out, was abundant. Despite technical hiccups and an overlong running time — the final curtain fell at 11:40 p.m. — the audience responded rapturously. By the end of “The Rain in Spain,” applause stopped the show; one eyewitness recalled that spectators “leapt to their feet and refused to stop applauding” (Rizzo 2018).

Local critics echoed that response. The Hartford Courant hailed “a new sensation… a brilliantly hilarious show, staged with splendour and wonderfully acted” (T.H.P. 1956, p. 10). The Connecticut Post described it as a “gilt-edged… new musical” that “quickly caught the fancy of the capacity audience” (Russell 1956, p. 19). The Meriden Record called the show “a triumph” and predicted that “it will pack them in for many a month to come” (B.H.S. 1956, p. 13).

Julie Andrews, in particular, emerged as the evening’s indisputable centre of gravity:

“Andrews is completely enchanting… deliciously droll, deliciously beguiling — and her voice is haunting in its delicacy” (T.H.P. 1956, p. 10). “Miss Andrews’ singing is divine and her acting so natural as to be deceptively effortless” (B.H.S. 1956, p. 13). “Miss Andrews makes the metamorphosis from a Cockney guttersnipe flower girl to a polished lady in a convincing manner… In addition to being a charming actress, she also sings entrancingly” (Russell 1956, p. 19).

After the applause

Despite the euphoric reception, the creative team quickly recognised that the show still faced serious structural problems. Within days of opening, work began on reducing and reshaping the material: large-scale sequences were reassessed, songs reconsidered, and the balance between spectacle and narrative was recalibrated.

The most significant changes concerned the first-act finale. In its original form, Act I concluded with an extended sequence leading into Eliza’s embassy ball debut, comprising Higgins’s solo “Come to the Ball,” a transformation dream ballet (“Decorating Eliza”), and a further solo for Eliza, “Say a Prayer for Me Tonight.” As revisions gathered pace, this entire twenty-minute sequence was abandoned (Lerner 1978; McHugh 2012).

In its stead, Lerner drafted a new, spare book scene — one of the briefest in the show — which, as McCann (2018) observes, reveals him “at his most brilliant and imaginative” (p. 84). Where the earlier version relied on musical elaboration and spectacle, the revised scene depended on stillness, timing, and dramatic concentration: Higgins and Pickering waiting; Eliza’s entrance framed by silence; her slow descent of the stairs in the ball gown.

Andrews later recalled that this substitution was “inspirational,” becoming “the defining moment of Eliza’s transformation” (Andrews 2008, p. 201). In place of excess came economy; in place of effort, authority.

Philadelphia and polish

After a sell-out week in New Haven, the company moved to the Erlanger Theatre in Philadelphia for a four-week run beginning on 15 February, delayed one day from the originally announced 14 February opening. Here, the work became more granular than structural: “polishing the performances, sharpening a line here, an exit there, making the technical production flow efficiently, and completing the lighting” (Lerner 1978, p. 108).

The show’s reception in Philadelphia was no less emphatic. The Philadelphia Inquirer declared it “one of the top musicals… that comes about as close to musical perfection as one can expect,” praising Andrews as “a triumph… both as actress and singer,” with her rendition of “I Could Have Danced All Night” singled out as “one to cherish” (Murdock 1956, p. 13). As in New Haven, the Philadelphia run quickly sold out, prompting Maney to predict — modestly, as it turned out — that when it reached Broadway the show would “stay at the Hellinger for two years or more” (McHarry 1956, p. 15C; Maney 1959, p. 114).

By this point, the production was also settling into the civic and social rhythms of a commercial theatrical run. During the Philadelphia engagement, My Fair Lady played at least two benefit performances: one on 21 February in aid of the World Affairs Council, and another on 29 February for the Wilson College Alumnae Association ('Benefit' 1956; 'Calendar' 1956). Such events signalled that the show was no longer merely being tested, but already functioning as a cultural and philanthropic asset.

Finding the show

By the time My Fair Lady played its final try-out performance in Philadelphia on 10 March, it was not yet a legend, but it was recognisably itself. The shape had clarified. The excess had fallen away. What remained was a work of extraordinary balance — music, book, performance, and design welded together not by inevitability, but by pressure, revision, and trust.

The following week, My Fair Lady made its official Broadway debut at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on 15 March. The response was immediate and overwhelming. Critics raved, with Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times famously hailing it as “the best musical of the century,” and the production would go on to enjoy a record-breaking run, becoming the most successful Broadway musical of its time.

Seventy years on, it is tempting to read the show’s success backwards, to imagine it arriving fully formed. The out-of-town try-outs tell a different story. They remind us that even the most canonical works begin as provisional, fragile things — tested in snowstorms, reshaped in rehearsal halls, and carried forward by artists learning, night by night, what the work demanded of them.

______________________

Endnotes

* Even the show’s newspaper advertising for New Haven and Philadelphia reflected this provisional state. Press agent Richard Maney recalled that final costumes were not yet available and Harrison’s hairpiece was still in customs, forcing the production to improvise its earliest public images (Maney 1957, pp. 219–220). For a discussion of these early publicity portraits, see the preceding post: “Becoming Eliza: early character publicity for My Fair Lady, January 1956.”

______________________

Sources

Andrews, J. (2008). Home: A memoir of my early years. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Benefit for College. (1956, February 19). The Philadelphia Inquirer, p. SO-8.

B.H.S. (1956, February 8). Have you seen… My Fair Lady. The Meriden Record, p. 13.

Calendar of social events in Philadelphia. and suburban areas. (1956, February 19). The Philadelphia Inquirer, p. SO-16.

Garebian, K. (1993). The making of My Fair Lady. Toronto: ECW Press.

Hamilton, S. (2008, July 31). At this theatre: Shubert Theatre, New Haven, CT. Playbill. https://www.playbill.com/article/at-this-theatre-shubert-theatre-new-haven-ct-com-151760

Lerner, A. J. (1978). The street where I live. New York: W. W. Norton.

Lunden, J. (2000, July 15). NPR’s 100: My Fair Lady. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2000/07/15/1079541/nprs-100-my-fair-lady

Macdonald, L. (2017). Off, off, off, off Broadway: Musical development out of town and regionally. In E. L. Wollman (Ed.), A critical companion to the American stage musical (pp. 214–224). New York: Methuen Drama.

Maney, R. (1957). Fanfare: The confessions of a press agent. New York, NY: David McKay Company.

Maney, R. (1959). My Very Fair Lady. Saturday Evening Post, 231(44), pp. 34–114.

McHarry, C. (1956, February 15). Can Shaw duck hex? Amish sore. Daily News, p. 15C.

McHugh, D. (2012). Loverly: The life and times of My Fair Lady. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

McHugh, D. (Ed.). (2014). Alan Jay Lerner: A lyricist’s letters. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Murdock, H. T. (1956, February 16). Erlanger offers My Fair Lady. The Philadelphia Inquirer, p. 13.

My Fair Lady is sell-out for entire week. (1956, February 4). The Meriden Record, p. 8.

Musical delays opening date. (1956, February 7). The Philadelphia Inquirer, p. 12.

Rizzo, F. (2018, April 13). At first performance of My Fair Lady, the drama was offstage. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/13/theater/my-fair-lady-new-haven-rex-harrison-julie-andrews.html

Russell, F. (1956, February 7). Passing show: New musical pleases audience. The Connecticut Post, p. 19.

Shaw set to music. (1956, February 12). Today: The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, p. 24.

Shubert Theatre. (2026). History of the Shubert Theatre, New Haven. https://www.shubert.com/about-us/history/

T.H.P. (1956, February 8). New show at Shubert brilliant. The Hartford Courant, p. 10.

© 2026, Brett Farmer. All Rights Reserved.

[paneraissoyum]

Hello

so ig its nice to introduce myself before getting into my day. my name is Ayat I am 15 years old and I am so bord with my life so im going to start blogging online because each time i journal my father and mum find it and read through it. they dont know about tumblr soo... heres my day

hey guys so i lokey relapsed after like 47 days i believe? i relapsed yesterday and i diddnt mean to usually when i want to cut but dont want to leave a mark i take my blade and then i press rlly hard on my arm. but ig this time the blade i used was too sharp and it cut my arm. Im so mad cuz im supposed to wear a dress in a week and its like a uniform and people will see. and people at school think of me like someone to come and vent to and i enjoy helping others because i want to be a therapist when i grow older so like i dont want my friends to stop venting because i need help. Also, i cannot wait to start fasting cuz im finally going to loose the weight. And i dont want to go to school tmrw litterally just kms. anyways imma treat tthis like a personal diary so yea! i also made dubi chocolate for the fisrt time and its acctually not that bad. anyways i need to go study for my tests that are tmrw cuz i desided to procatinate. hopefully i dont relapse again! bye guys!!!

[smbhax]

From “The Fabulous Fantastic Four Meet Spider-Man!” in Fantastic Four Annual #1, September 1963. Stan Lee script, Jack Kirby pencils, Steve Ditko inks, Stan Goldberg colors, Ray Holloway letters.

Info from Grand Comics Database

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Take your daughter to work day: two-year-old Tana Pesso tries to match her mother Diane’s steps as she tries out for a show chorus, August 12, 1954.

Photo: Ed Ford for the AP

[iceclew]

I'm off work for a few days from today on and so looking forward to have more time drawing. I wanted to start right away tonight, but accidently caught myself in a 3 hour afternoon nap and now I really feel how drained I am at the moment.

So for starters have some experimental stuff I did last week and wasn't sure wether I like it or not just yet.. now I kinda like the idea of not using brushes and work with sharp shapes only stylewise..

I have some ref sheets close to be finished as well. But I am struggling so hard with my monitor and it's colors. I am not satisfied at all with them. Maybe I fully switch to tablet for coloring now..