Playbill On Line
November 4, 2000
My Favorite Thought: I guess I asked for it. Leaving the floor open for any topic + “Phantom of the Opera” references = glut of pro-Crawford/anti Banderas letters. Rosemary is just one of several people to notice a casting choice at the televised “My Favorite Broadway” concert:
“Hopefully, Lord [Lloyd] Webber was in New York two weeks ago when the fabulous Julie Andrews (almost) sang lines from her most memorable musical, My Fair Lady! And who was Professor Higgins to her Eliza Doolittle? None other than the outstanding, delicious and superb Michael Crawford. Was it a coincidence that Andrews, who was not cast in the movie of My Fair Lady (because she was relatively unknown), shared the stage with the original Phantom (also considered relatively unknown to American audiences)?” ... If [potential ‘Phantom’ director] Shekhar Kapur casts Crawford as the lead, he will go down in history as one director who had the integrity to keep this story intact and not fracture it, as was ‘My Fair Lady’ many years ago.”