press release

The Ogunquit Playhouse Announces Cast for My Fair Lady

For Immediate Release:
August 1, 2008

The Ogunquit Playhouse is please to announce a star-studded cast for its stunning production of the magnificently romantic Lerner and Loewe musical, My Fair Lady, opening on August 13 and running through September 6. This beloved musical tells the tale of a stringent linguist, Professor Henry Higgins, who bets a colleague he can turn flower vendor Eliza Doolittle from a guttersnipe into a duchess.

Starring in the lead role of Eliza Doolitte is Gail Bennett who has just completed a year and a half run in the Las Vegas production of Mel Brooks’ The Producers. Her regional theatre credits include Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, Jellylorum in Cats, and Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Tony Award winning actor Jefferson Mays is set to play Henry Higgins. Jefferson recently appeared on Broadway as “Henry Higgins” in Roundabout Theatre’s Pygmalion and in the Tony-winning revival of Journey’s End. He won the Tony Award in 2004 for I Am My Own Wife and has been seen in numerous productions New York and across the country. In addition to the Tony award for Best Actor in a Play, he has also garnered Drama Desk, Outer Critics’ Circle, Obie (1994 & 2004), Lucille Lortel, Jefferson, Helen Hayes, Elliott Norton, Theatre World, Drama League, Dramalogue and Australia’s Sir Robert Helpmann Awards.

Conrad John Schuck, who will take the stage as Pickering, began his 40 some year career at The Cleveland Play House. Since then he has acted in over 200 productions across the United States and Europe. Plucked from San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre in 1969 by Robert Altman to play “Painless,” in the original “M*A*S*H” motion picture, John began what has been a non-stop film and television career. His most recent movies are Woody Allen’s, “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion!” and the award winning “String of the Kite.” On Broadway, he played Daddy Warbucks in Annie and then reprised the role in the recent Broadway revival. More recently he starred as Buffalo Bill in Annie Get Your Gun with the highly acclaimed Reba McEntire, Captain Jack in Juno, for Encores at New York City Center and Captain Brackett in South Pacific at Carnegie Hall. Television fans will remember John as Enright in “McMillan and Wife,” starring Rock Hudson.

Playing Mrs. Higgins is Nancy Dusseault, who among her many theatre credits, has appeared on Broadway as Maria in The Sound of Music and has been nominated twice for a Tony Award - as Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for Do Re Mi and again for Best Actress in a Musical for Bajour. On television, she was a regular on “The New Dick Van Dyke Show,” played Ted Knight’s wife in the role of Muriel Rush on “Too Close for Comfort” and was the first actress to portray the mother of character Jamie Stemple Buchman, in season one of the long-running TV series, “Mad About You.” Nancy was also the first anchor of “Good Morning America” working with David Hartman when it began in 1975.

Timothy Jerome will play Alfred P. Doolittle. His Broadway credits include The Phantom of the Opera, Me and My Girl, for which he was nominated for both a Tony and Drama Desk Award, Tarzan, Beauty and the Beast, La Boheme, Grand Hotel, Cats, The Magic Show, Lost in Yonkers, The Rothschilds and Man of La Mancha. His film career includes, “Thirteen Days,” “Cradle will Rock,” “Husbands and Wives,” “Everyone Says I Love You” and “Billy Bathgate.” Timothy is the Founding President of the National Music Theater Network and the New York Musical Theatre Festival.

Will Ray makes his Ogunquit Playhouse debut as Freddy. He was recently seen Off Broadway as John Truit in the Irish Repertory’s production of Meet Me in St. Louis. His regional credits include; Enjolras in Les Miserables and Lt. Cable in South Pacific, Malcom in Full MontySmokey Joe’s Cafe and Jamie Lockhart in The Robber Bridegroom. Will has performed with such orchestras as the Cincinnati Pops and the Tokyo Philharmonic. He is a graduate of University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.

Directing My Fair Lady for the Ogunquit Playhouse is Shaun Kerrison, who has staged the show all over the world, working with Trevor Nunn. Among Shaun Kerrison’s many achievements are positions as Associate Director of Les Misérables at the Palace Theatre in London and Tour Director for the national company, Associate Director of My Fair Lady at both the National Theatre and Theatre Royal Drury Lane, the Associate Director on J M Barrie’s original play of Peter Pan and The Pirates of Penzance, both at The Savoy Theatre, London, the resident director of The Lion King (Lyceum) and last year staged Les Misérables in concert for a special gala performance at Windsor Castle to celebrate 100 years of the Entente Cordiale, for Her Majesty the Queen and President Chirac.

My Fair Lady runs from August 13 to September 6 and is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Contact the box office at 207-646-5511 to order your tickets today or purchase online at www.ogunquitplayhouse.org.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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