Dame Julie Andrews, star of The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins has announced she will direct a 60th anniversary production of My Fair Lady in Sydney next year.
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“I am thrilled to have been asked to direct My Fair Lady at the Sydney Opera House in August 2016. I look forward to coming to Sydney this November to cast the production and begin the process of bringing this great musical to life once again,” she said.
The Cinderella story about the Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle and the appealingly arrogant phoneticist, Professor Higgins, is an endearing tale that charms audiences with its warmth and vivid characters.
The clash of cultures sparks some of the theatre’s most jubilant songs and witty dialogue. The triumphant score features unforgettable numbers including Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?, On The Street Where You Live, I Could Have Danced All Night and Get Me to the Church on Time.
In 1956, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's masterful retelling of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion took the world by storm. Playing the irresistible Eliza Doolittle was a young Julie Andrews, in only her second role on Broadway, a role that would catapult her into international stardom.
Theatre producer John Frost said “To think that Broadway’s original Eliza Doolittle, Julie Andrews, will direct our new production at the Sydney Opera House 60 years later will, I’m sure, excite both Australian and international audiences.”
Opera Australia Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini said “I can’t think of a more fitting musical to present with John Frost in Opera Australia's 60th birthday year. I am delighted and it is indeed a privilege to work with Dame Julie Andrews as she creates a new My Fair Lady that will capture the magic of the world’s greatest musical for a new generation of classic musical lovers.”
Andrews will be working alongside Tony-award winning choreographer Christopher Gattelli (The King and I, South Pacific)
