Initial casting has been announced for the upcoming London transfer of Lincoln Center Theater's 2018 production of My Fair Lady. Again directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher, performances will begin May 7 prior to an official opening May 18 at the famed London venue.
Amara Okereke (Spring Awakening, Les Misérables) will star as Eliza Doolittle with Harry Hadden-Paton (Downton Abbey, Flying Over Sunset) reprising his Tony-nominated performance as Henry Higgins. Dame Vanessa Redgrave, most recently on the West End stage in The Inheritance, will play Mrs. Higgins with Maureen Beattie as Mrs. Pearce and Sharif Afifi as Freddie Eynesford-Hill. Additional casting will be announced.
The London staging will also feature 36 musicians from the English National Opera Orchestra.
Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s play and Gabriel Pascal’s motion picture Pygmalion, My Fair Lady has a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The classic score includes “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Get Me to the Church on Time,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” “On the Street Where You Live,” “The Rain in Spain,” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”
The production will also have sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Donald Holder, sound by Marc Salzberg, hair and wigs by Tom Watson, musical direction by Gareth Valentine, musical supervision by Ted Sperling, and choreography by Christopher Gattelli.
During its Broadway bow, the production earned a Tony Award for Zuber’s costume design and received nine additional nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Lauren Ambrose’s performance as Cockney flower seller-turned-“proper lady” Eliza Doolittle (Laura Benanti subsequently stepped into the role).
Lerner and Loewe’s Pygmalion-inspired musical was last seen in a major London revival in 2001 from producer Cameron Mackintosh. The original Julie Andrews-led production transferred to London in 1958, going on to run for over five years.
James L. Nederlander, Jamie Wilson, Hunter Arnold, Playful Productions, and the English National Opera present the Lincoln Center Theater production.
Visit MyFairLadyMusical.co.uk.
