Principal casting has been announced for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s spring production of the Lerner and Loewe musical My Fair Lady, to be led by Richard E. Grant as Henry Higgins and Lisa O’Hare as Eliza Doolittle.
Grant, the English actor known for an extensive film career ranging from 1987’s Withnail & I to the current Jackie, previously played Higgins onstage in 2008 at Opera Australia. O’Hare, an English stage actress, made her Broadway debut in 2013 as Sibella in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.
O’Hare’s Gentleman’s Guide costar, Tony nominee Bryce Pinkham, will play opposite her as Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Also on board are British opera performer Donald Maxwell as Alfred Doolittle and Nicholas Le Prevost as Colonel Pickering.
Lyric Opera’s production of the 1956 musical, adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, is billed as the American premiere of the production by Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet; director Robert Carsen recreates his staging. Also present on the creative team are choreographer Lynne Page, scenic designer Tim Hatley and costume designer Anthony Powell.
My Fair Lady is the fifth installment in Lyric’s American Musical Initiative, and the first non–Rodgers and Hammerstein piece in the series; it was announced in January 2016 as a substitute for South Pacific, which was rescheduled for 2018. My Fair Lady will run April 28 to May 21; tickets are on sale now.
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