Quality Music

The scores from "My Fair Lady" and "Camelot," both written by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner, are wonderful, with a good blend of beautiful melodies and sometimes poignant and other times humorous lyrics. Both shows had one major hit romantic ballad -- "On the Street Where You Live" for "My Fair Lady" and "If Ever I Would Leave You" for "Camelot" -- and both songs were dubbed in the movies by professional singers. The songs for the male lead are more melodious in "Camelot" and, at least in the movie version, the male lead, Richard Harris, had a better singing voice than Rex Harrison had in "My Fair Lady." With basically equivalent scores, it seems that it is not the music that distinguishes the two works.