Theater News

Meg Bussert, Joe Grifasi, et al. Join Cast of N.Y. Philharmonic’s My Fair Lady; James Brennan to Direct

Joe Grifasi
Joe Grifasi

Meg Bussert, Philippe Castagner, Michael J. Farina, and Joe Grifasi will respectively appear as Mrs. Pearce, Freddy Eynsford-Hill, Jamie, and Harry in the New York Philharmonic’s concert performances of the classic Lerner and Loewe musical My Fair Lady, March 7-10. James Brennan will direct and Peggy Hickey will choreograph.

As previously announced, the concerts will star Kelsey Grammer as Professor Henry Higgins, Kelli O’Hara as Eliza Doolittle, Brian Dennehy as Alfred P. Doolittle, Charles Kimbrough as Colonel Hugh Pickering, Marni Nixon as Mrs. Higgins, and Tim Jerome as Zoltan Karpathy.

Rob Fisher will conduct the New York Philharmonic in these performances. The production team also includes Ken Billington (lighting design), Ray Klausen (set design), and Gail Baldoni (costume design).

Bussert has appeared on Broadway in revivals of Brigadoon, The Music Man, Camelot, and Damn Yankees, in addition to having played opposite Dick Van Dyke in The Music Man at City Center in 1980. Castagner made his professional concert debut in 2001 with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra in Verdi’s Requiem and his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2002 in Beethoven’s Fidelio. Farina was seen on Broadway as Al/God in the Joe Brooks musical In My Life. Grifasi’s Broadway credits include Dinner at Eight, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Happy End, The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and The 1940s Radio Hour; he has also worked extensively in film and television.

Brennan has directed shows at such theaters as Pittsburgh CLO, the Goodspeed Opera House, the Cape Playhouse, and the Paper Mill Playhouse. Recently, he directed the Off-Broadway premieres of the musicals Fanny Hill and Richard Corey. His Broadway credits as a performer include Crazy for You, Me and My Girl, and the original production of 42nd Street.

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My Fair Lady

Closed: March 10, 2007