Claire Danes to Star with Jefferson Mays in Roundabout’s Pygmalion

Claire Danes will play Eliza Doolittle opposite Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays as Professor Henry Higgins in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, scheduled to play the American Airlines Theatre September 21-December 16 and to open officially on October 18.

The production will be directed by David Grindley, who directed the Tony-winning revival of Journey’s End. The creative team includes Jonathan Fensom (sets and costumes), Jason Taylor (lighting), and Gregory Clarke (sound design). Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

Pygmalion, which was first seen on Broadway in 1914, focuses on a British professor who takes a poor Cockney girl named Eliza Doolittle off the streets and tutors her in diction in order to pass her off as a society lady. The play was the basis for the musical My Fair Lady.

Danes, who is making her Broadway debut, has appeared at P.S. 122 in Christina Olson: American Model and Edith & Jenny. She is currently appearing in the film Evening and will be seen on the big screen later this year in Stardust. Her other film credits include The Family Stone, Stage Beauty and Little Women. She received an Emmy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award for her starring role on the ABC-TV series My So Called Life. Mays won the Tony Award for Best Actor, among several other honors, for I Am My Own Wife. His stage credits also include Journey’s End, Of Thee I Sing, Quills, Orestes, and The Beauty Part.