Rupert Everett & Kara Tointon Star in Pygmalion

As previously tipped, Chichester Festival’s 2010 revival of Pygmalion, starring Rupert Everett as Professor Henry Higgins, will at last transfer to the West End this spring. It will have a limited season, from 25 May to 3 September 2011 (previews from 12 May), at the Garrick Theatre, where the role of Eliza Doolittle will be played by Strictly Come Dancing winner and former EastEnders star Kara Tointon.

George Bernard Shaw‘s 1901 play was famously the basis for Lerner and Loewe’s 1956 Broadway musical My Fair Lady. Philip Prowse’s revival of Pygmalion ran from 9 July to 27 August 2010 at Chichester Festival Theatre, where the cast was led by Everett and Honeysuckle Weeks as flower-girl turned duchess, Eliza. Others previously rumoured for the role in the West End included Billie Piper.

The Chichester cast also featured Susie Blake (as Mrs Pearce), Phil Davis (Alfred Doolittle), Peter Eyre (Colonel Pickering), Peter Sandys-Clarke (Freddy Eynsford-Hill), Candida Benson (Clara Eynsford-Hill) and Stephanie Cole (Mrs Higgins). Casting for the West End has not yet been confirmed.

The West End transfer of the the Chichester festival Theatre production is presented by Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer for Nimax Theatres, Duncan C Weldon & Paul Elliot in association Carole Winter and Michael Edwards for MJE Productions, Theatre Royal Haymarket.

Opening this week at the Garrick is The Hurly Burly Show, the burlesque-inspired revue led by Miss Polly Rae, which runs from 11 March to 1 May 2011 (previews from 3 March).