To celebrate Opera Australia’s 60 anniversary, Dame Julie Andrews is heading to Sydney in 2016 to direct a 60 anniversary production of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s musical My Fair Lady – the latest co-production between Opera Australia and producer John Frost (following South Pacific, The King and I and the Helpmann Award-winning Anything Goes, soon to open in Sydney).
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Playing the irresistible Eliza Doolittle was a young Julie Andrews, in only her second role on Broadway, a role that would catapult her into worldwide stardom.
My Fair Lady tells the story of young Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle and her phoneticist Professor Higgins.
The actress said in a statement that she was thrilled to have been asked to direct the production.
“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”.
It has since undergone numerous revivals and was adapted into a 1964 film starring Audrey Hepburn.
Andrews will be in Sydney later this year to start casting for the production. Her experience as a director is confined to a 2003 production of The Boy Friend, and a dramatisation of of her children’s book The Great American Mousical.
The 79-year-old created the role on Broadway before its transfer to London’s West End.
The upcoming theater production will premier in August, 2016.
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Lyndon Terracini added: “I can’t think of a more fitting musical to present with John Frost in Opera Australia’s 60th birthday year. Presented by John Frost and Opera Australia, this is My Fair Lady for a new generation of audiences and it is sure to be a spectacular musical event for Sydney”.
