‘My Fair Lady’ and ‘Pygmalion’ are similar in several ways, primarily because ‘My Fair Lady’ is a musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s play ‘Pygmalion’. Both works share the same basic plot, characters, and themes.
The story revolves around Professor Henry Higgins, a phonetics expert, who makes a bet that he can transform Eliza Doolittle, a poor flower girl with a strong Cockney accent, into a refined lady by teaching her to speak proper English. The transformation of Eliza is central to both the play and the musical.
Additionally, both works explore themes of social class, identity, and the power of language. They critique the rigid class structures of society and question whether true change is possible merely through external transformation.
While ‘My Fair Lady’ adds musical numbers and some changes to the original play, the core narrative and character dynamics remain largely the same, making the two works strikingly similar in their essence.