Broadway Shockers 2018: Diana Rigg Blasts Lauren Ambrose for Taking Sundays Off

Don’t leak your backstage spats to the press.

| Broadway |

December 22, 2018

As 2018 draws to a close, TheaterMania looks back on some of the most jaw-dropping stories of the year.

Lauren Ambrose (Eliza Doolittle) and Diana Rigg (Mrs. Higgins) in the original cast of Lincoln Center Theater's 2018 Broadway revival of My Fair LAdy. — Lauren Ambrose (Eliza Doolittle) and Diana Rigg (Mrs. Higgins) in the original cast of Lincoln Center Theater's 2018 Broadway revival of *My Fair LAdy*.
(© Joan Marcus)

Lincoln Center Theater's stunning revival of Lerner and Loewe's classic musical My Fair Lady was one of the great gifts of 2018. It was also the source of one of the year's greatest backstage dramas. When the show's original star Lauren Ambrose decided to cut her workload from eight to seven shows a week without informing the rest of the cast, Diana Rigg (the production's original Mrs. Higgins) took her frustrations straight to Michael Riedel at the New York Post.

"I'm flying the old flag for a generation of actors who performed even when they were at death's door," said the 80-year-old actor, who herself powered through a torn vocal cord during her 1994 Tony Award-winning performance in Medea. Through all the commotion, the production soldiered on, Ambrose completed her run, and Laura Benanti can now be found performing the role of Eliza Doolittle on the Vivian Beaumont stage — seven times a week.