Waterman Joins My Fair Lady Cast, 15 Mar

Dennis Waterman will join Jonathan Pryce and Martine McCutcheon in the National Theatre's revival of the classic musical, My Fair Lady, which opens at the NT Lyttelton on 15 March 2001 (previews from 5 March).

The award-winning 1956 musical, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, is adapted from George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion. An opinionated linguistics professor, Henry Higgins (Pryce), sets out to prove that he can turn anyone into a lady. He chooses as his specimen one cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle (McCutcheon), and introduces her to high society.

Waterman – who will play Eliza's father, Alfred Doolittle - is best known to TV audiences for his roles in Minder and The Sweeney. On stage, his musical credits include A Slice of Saturday Night, Windy City and Up the Junction. The actor's last UK stage appearance was in the 1999 production of I ll Be Back Before Midnight at Windsor's Theatre Royal. He recently toured Australia in a revival of Don't Dress for Dinner.

The National's production of My Fair Lady is the first major London revival of the musical in 20 years. It is presented in association with Cameron Mackintosh, directed by NT artistic director Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Matthew Bourne of Adventures in Motion Pictures fame, with design by Anthony Ward, lighting by David Hersey and sound by Paul Groothuis. The musical supervisor is David White, musical director Nick Davies and orchestrator William D Brohn, with original orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett.

Following its initial stage success in both New York and London, My Fair Lady was made into a film in 1964, directed by George Cukor and starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. The famous score includes 'I Could Have Danced All Night', 'Wouldn't It Be Loverly', 'I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face,' 'Why Can't the English' and 'The Rain in Spain.'

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