"I 'ate to say it guvna, but...."

I saw a clip the other day of Andrew Lloyd Webber. In it he was praising My Fair Lady as "the greatest musical ever written. This seems to be a common opinion among musical theater critics. I can't understand why. I think My Fair Lady is a shamelessly overrated musical. While entertaining enough, it has major flaws. For one thing it's very claustrophobic, considering how much action takes place in Professor Higgins's stuffy library. Also the character's lack believability, much more so in this musical than in the play. Eliza doesn't just learn to speak properly, she becomes another human being. Pedantic  Henry Higgins would never say, "...should be taken out and hung." He would have used the correct "hanged". And who can argue that "Without You" and "Just You Wait" are too perfectly horrible book songs? While "On the Street Where You Live" can be charming it also come across as  maudlin. The much celebrated,  "I'm Getting Married in the Morning" while amusing is no greater than similar pub songs in such forgettable shows as Walking Happy and Blitz!  While Lerner and Lowe have done masterful charmers like Brigadoon, they have also written the leaden, yet surprisingly popular, Camelot. This is just one of their better musicals, not the world's greatest. So why is this show so over-praised?  For one thing it introduced Julie Andrews. Making her shine even more was Rex Harrison, the ideal Professor Higgins's. And you couldn't have a better foundation than George Bernard Shaw's, Pygmalion. And let's face it, Cecil Beaton's spectacular sets and costumes alone were worth the price of admission.  Besides Cinderella stories almost always do well.  My Fair Lady is a very entertaining, but the greatest musical ever written? I don't think so.