Eliza Doolittle at Buckingham Palace: An Assessment of Shaw’s Impact in the Twentieth-First Century

ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of Bernard Shaw in the twentieth-first century, through looking at the performance of an excerpt from Pygmalion (1913) at Buckingham Palace, London. This performance was part of a Gala held to celebrate the UK’s dramatic arts, to mark the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art’s (RADA) 110th anniversary, and to celebrate sixty years of Queen Elizabeth II’s patronage of RADA. It was attended by Queen Elizabeth II, the Duchess of Cambridge who is now the Princess of Wales, and Prince Michael of Kent, together with 250 guests, including superstars from the theater, radio, TV, and films holding Academy, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, and numerous other awards. The ways these personages encountered Shaw reflected not only the various renditions of Shaw’s plays in modern times, but also the high-level possibilities to revive Shaw, which still need championing before they can materialize.