Higgins in Harlem

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw is reset in Harlem in 1938 during the Harlem Renaissance-a time when the affluent black society of Sugar Hill found itself at odds with the uneducated blacks of Harlem struggling through the Great Depression. Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, discovers Eliza Doolittle, a homeless, Harlem girl whose speech is nearly unintelligible, outside the Apollo Theatre. Appalled at her slang-filled dialect, Higgins declares that with just six months of phonetics training, he could pass her off as a university-educated African princess! Intrigued by the idea, Eliza shows up at his Sugar Hill home the next day in search of a better life. With the help of Conrad Pickering, Higgins goes about transforming Eliza into a high-class woman of Harlem. At the end of her six months, she makes her debut at the annual Abyssinian Baptist Church Gala, where her transformation is confirmed by the minister, who declares she must be an African princess! Declaring himself the greatest teacher alive, Higgins abandons Eliza, who seeks refuge from Henry's mother. Mrs. Higgins attempts to make a match between Eliza and Freddie Hill, who is head-over-heels in love with her, but Eliza forgoes the relationship, and, in the end, must choose between a platonic existence with Higgins or a life on her own.