Q 01/05

Shaw's Pygmalion opens with Londoners sheltering from rain under a church portico in which district?

A) Piccadilly Circus

B) Covent Garden

C) Trafalgar Square

D) Notting Hill

Answer · why

B) Covent Garden

Covent Garden is home to St Paul's, nicknamed the actors' church, whose portico was designed by Inigo Jones. Shaw used it to crowd people in evening d...

Q 02/05

In Pygmalion, Henry Higgins boasts that within months he could pass Eliza Doolittle off as what?

A) A governess

B) A countess

C) An actress

D) A duchess

Answer · why

D) A duchess

A duchess is the target of the bet: Colonel Pickering offers to pay for every lesson if Higgins can manage it in six months.

Q 03/05

Which actress played Eliza Doolittle in the 1964 film My Fair Lady, the musical version of Pygmalion?

A) Audrey Hepburn

B) Julie Andrews

C) Elizabeth Taylor

D) Grace Kelly

Answer · why

A) Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn took the role from Julie Andrews, who had played Eliza on Broadway, and most of her singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon.

Q 04/05

Shaw named Pygmalion after a figure of Greek myth who fell in love with his own work in which craft?

A) Painter

B) Goldsmith

C) Sculptor

D) Architect

Answer · why

C) Sculptor

Sculptor Pygmalion carved an ivory woman so lifelike that he fell in love with her, and a goddess brought her to life. Higgins shapes Eliza in the sam...

Q 05/05

Which swear word spoken by Eliza Doolittle created a sensation when Pygmalion opened in London in 1914?

A) Damn

B) Bloody

C) Blasted

D) Hell

Answer · why

B) Bloody

Bloody caused such a sensation that for years afterwards the word itself was nicknamed a pygmalion. The actress who spoke it in London was thought to ...