Tony Award winner Laura Benanti assumes the leading role of Eliza Doolittle in the Tony-nominated Lincoln Center Theater revival of My Fair Lady starting October 23.
Benanti is set to play a limited engagement through February 17, 2019, at the Vivian Beaumont. Ambrose played her final performance October 21, exiting to film the recently announced untitled M. Night Shyamalan series for Apple.
Benanti joins a cast led by Harry Hadden-Paton, Norbert Leo Butz (who will play the role through January 6, 2019, with Danny Burstein set to take over), Rosemary Harris (who replaced Diana Rigg beginning last month), Allan Corduner, Jordan Donica, Linda Mugleston, and Clarke Thorell. The production is directed by Tony winner Barlett Sher and choreographed by Tony winner Christopher Gattelli.
Read: BARTLETT SHER DIRECTS MY FAIR LADY FOR 2018 AUDIENCES
“Eliza Doolittle has been my dream role for as long as I can remember, so I couldn’t be more excited to join this brilliant company,” Benanti said in a statement. “Working with Bart and getting to be part of this show is a dream come true.”
Beginning October 30, understudy Kerstin Anderson, who had been playing Eliza on Sunday matinees, will assume the role at all Tuesday evening performances.
Benanti most recently appeared on Broadway in Steve Martin’s comedy Meteor Shower last fall. Prior to that, she starred as Amalia Balash in Roundabout Theatre Company’s 2016 revival of She Loves Me, for which she earned a Tony nomination. The actor appeared as Candela in Lincoln Center Theater’s production of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in 2010, also directed by Sher and choreographed by Gattelli, and Lincoln Center Theater’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room.
She won her Tony Award as Louise in Gypsy, starring opposite Patti LuPone. Her additional Broadway credits include The Wedding Singer, Nine, Tony-nominated performances in Into the Woods and Swing!, and The Sound of Music. Recently, Benanti has been working in television on series such as Nashville, Supergirl, and a guest arc on the latest season of TV Land’s Younger starring Sutton Foster.
