Bond girl Diana Rigg to appear on the West End in 'Pygmalion'

British stage and screen icon Diana Rigg will play Mrs. Higgins to Rupert Everett’s Professor Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion on the West End. The Chichester Festival Theatre production transfers to the Garrick Theatre beginning on May 12 with an official opening on May 25. Phillip Prowse designs and directs -- writes Broadway.com

Rigg’s Broadway credits include Abelard and Heloise, The Misanthrope and Medea, a West End transfer for which she won both the Evening Standard and Tony Awards for Best Actress. Other theater credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Mother Courage, Follies, Humble Boy, Suddenly Last Summer, Honour, The Cherry Orchard and Hay Fever. Her most famous screen credits include a starring role as Emma Peel in ‘60s British TV hit The Avengers, and the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

In addition to Rigg and Everett, the cast includes Peter Eyre as Colonel Pickering, and Strictly Come Dancing winner Kara Tointon, who will make her West End debut as Eliza Doolittle. Rounding out the cast are Marty Cruickshank, Roberta Taylor and Peter Sandys Clarke.

Best known as the inspiration for the hit musical My Fair Lady, Pygmalion tells the story of Henry Higgins, a Professor of Phonetics who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can transform the manners and speech of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle and pass her off as a lady in society.

The limited engagement will run through September 3.

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