Eliza Doolittle is the flower seller transformed by Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady.
At the beginning of the musical, Eliza speaks a strong Cockney dialect and sells flowers in London. Higgins, a professor of phonetics, makes a wager that he can pass her off as a refined society woman by changing her speech and manners.
My Fair Lady is based on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion. Alan Jay Lerner wrote the book and lyrics, while Frederick Loewe wrote the music. The original Broadway production opened in 1956, with Julie Andrews as Eliza and Rex Harrison as Higgins.
Eliza is sometimes confused with Audrey Hepburn’s film portrayal, but the character exists in both stage and screen versions. Her transformation also raises questions about class, education, independence, and who gets to define respectability.