Pygmalion: Jefferson Mays to play Henry Higgins

The Roundabout Theatre Company have announced that Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays is to play Professor Henry Higgins in a new Broadway production of George Bernard Shaw�s Pygmalion, directed by David Grindley.

The comedy will open at the American Airlines Theatre on 11 Oct 2007, following previews from 14 Sep 2007, and will run through to 15 Dec 2007.

George Bernard Shaw�s famous play, Pygmalion, inspired the legendary and award winning musical My Fair Lady, written and composed by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. Based on the classical myth, Pygmalion plays on the complex business of human relationships in a social world.

When Professor Henry Higgins (Mays) comes across a poor and uneducated Cockney girl named Eliza Doolittle, Higgins makes a bet that he can take Eliza from the gutters of London and pass her off as a society lady, by simply teaching her the right dialect in which to speak. Higgins soon discovers that this task involves much more than knowledge; it involves patience and most importantly, affairs of the heart.

Jefferson Mays (Henry Higgins) currently appears on Broadway as Private Mason in Journey's End. He made his Broadway debut as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in the one man show I Am My Own Wife (2003) for which he won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Best Actor in a Play.

Pygmalion premiered on Broadway in 1914 at the Park Theatre and subsequently was revived on Broadway in 1927, 1938, 1945 and 1987.

Roundabout Theatre Company has a long association with George Bernard Shaw�s work, having staged over twenty productions since 1971. The most recent Shaw plays seen on Roundabout stages include Heartbreak House (2006-2007), Major Barbara (2000-2001), Arms and the Man (1999-2000), You Never Can Tell (1997-1998) and Misalliance (1996-1997).

David Grindley made his directorial debut on Broadway with Journey's End, which despite opening to unanimous critical acclaim, still struggles at the box office.