Comparison between Pygmalion and My Fair Lady: act 1, scene 1 Why the focus of musicals is more concerned with singing and dancing and less with dialogue compared to simple comedies it is obvious that musicals try to simplify the plot to make enough room for numbers, where simple comedies are free to elaborate and experiment with character choices through dialogue rather than music. The comparison between the two is quite clear in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and its musical adaptation, Alan Jay Lerner's My Fair Lady, particularly in the first scene of each. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Pygmalion begins on a rainy day in London, just as My Fair Lady does, but its opening dialogue is long and wordy and lasts until the end of the second page of the play text to also introduce the female protagonist. “I feel chilled to the bone,” the daughter complains to her mother. “What can Freddy be doing all this time? He's been gone twenty minutes” (Shaw 3). the mother and a passerby each argue at length about the time and difficulty of finding a taxi for two whole pages before the flower girl even enters. And when he does, he clashes with Freddy but despite his agitation, his line takes its time: "Nah then, Freddy: see why you go, deah" (4). The lack of music in the direct play version allows for longer beats like this. In My Fair Lady, the pace is significantly sped up, no pun intended. Rather than a long discussion about time between mother and daughter, the first to speak is in fact Eliza, and it concerns the collision between her and Freddy. “Aaaoooowww!” she cries (Lerner 106). This very simplified version of the dialogue seems almost rushed on a comedic level, but it serves an important purpose in the musical; where in a simple play the plot and conflict would be conveyed solely through dialogue, most of these things in a musical are conveyed through song. Therefore, less revealed in conversation lines and more revealed in musical numbers is actually beneficial and is done with intention.