”My Fair Lady” UK and Ireland tour announces casting

Initial casting has been confirmed for the previously announced UK and Ireland tour of My Fair Lady.

The Lincoln Center Theater production, which plays its final performance at the London Coliseum this Saturday, will open in Bradford on 9 September 2022 before heading to visit Dublin (6 to 30 October), Cardiff (8 to 26 November), Edinburgh (14 December to 7 January), Southampton (12 to 29 January), Birmingham (7 to 26 March) and Canterbury (20 June to 1 July) with further venues still to be announced.

The cast will be led by Michael D Xavier (Sunset Boulevard) as Henry Higgins, Charlotte Kennedy (Les Misérables) as Eliza Doolittle, Adam Woodyatt (EastEnders) as Alfred P Doolittle, Heather Jackson (The Phantom of the Opera) as Mrs Higgins, John Middleton (Emmerdale) as Colonel Pickering, Lesley Garrett (The Messiah) as Mrs Pearce and Tom Liggins (who made his professional debut in the Coliseum run of My Fair Lady) as Freddy Eynsford-Hill.

The company also includes ensemble members Dammi Aregbeshola, Bernadette Bangura, Joseph Claus, Jordan Crouch, Jamie Cruttenden, Francessca Daniella-Baker, Barry Drummond, Bethany Huckle, Emma Johnson, Sinead Kenny, Jenny Legg, Rebekah Lowings, Carl Patrick, Tom Ping, Dominique Planter, Joseph Poulton, John Stacey, Joshua Steel, Oliver Tester, Adam Vaughan, Annie Wensak and Paul Westwood.

Additional casting will be revealed in due course.

With a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s play and Gabriel Pascal’s motion picture Pygmalion, My Fair Lady follows Eliza Doolittle and her chance encounter with Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who has taken a wager to transform the young Cockney flower seller into his idea of a “proper lady”. The score features such standards as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Get Me to the Church on Time,” and “On the Street Where You Live”.

The musical first debuted on Broadway in March 1956, taking home six Tony Awards (including Best Musical) and transferring to the West End in 1958 for a five-and-a-half-year run.

Directed by Bartlett Sher, the show has sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Donald Holder, sound by Marc Salzberg, hair & wigs by Tom Watson, UK music supervision by Gareth Valentine, UK musical direction by Alex Parker, musical supervision by Ted Sperling and choreography by Christopher Gattelli.