Book & Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Music by Frederick Loewe

Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s "Pygmalion"
Original Broadway production directed by Moss Hart

With songs like "The Rain in Spain," "I Could Have Danced All Night," "On the Street Where You Live," and "I’ve Grown Accustomed to her Face," My Fair Lady is truly "one of the best musicals of the century" (The New York Times). The original Broadway production won an unprecedented nine Tonys, and the film won eight Oscars.

Now, the New York Philharmonic presents Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady in four very special performances at Avery Fisher Hall, March 7 – 10. In the tradition of our sold-out Sweeney Todd and Candide, the Philharmonic is performing this exquisite music in a fully costumed, semi-staged concert production, on stage along with the cast.

Kelli O’Hara is currently starring in the Tony Award-winning revival of South Pacific at Lincoln Center as Nellie Forbush, for which she has received her third Tony Award nomination. In March 2007 she made her New York Philharmonic debut as Eliza Doolittle in the Orchestra’s semi-staged production of My Fair Lady. That same year she made her Carnegie Hall debut, and completed her first album. Ms. O’Hara’s other Broadway credits include The Pajama Game with Harry Connick, Jr. (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critic Award nominations); The Light in the Piazza (Tony and Drama Desk nominations); The Sweet Smell of Success with John Lithgow; Dracula; Jekyll & Hyde; and Follies. Her Off-Broadway and regional credits include Sunday in the Park with George, My Life with Albertine, and Beauty. Among Ms. O’Hara’s film and television credits are The Dying Gaul, starring Patricia Clarkson and Campbell Scott; Alexander Hamilton, starring Brian F. O’Byrne, NUMB3RS; All My Children; and numerous live performances on national television shows. Her recordings include South Pacific (Sony), The Light in the Piazza (Nonesuch; Grammy nomination), The Pajama Game (Sony; Grammy nomination), The Sweet Smell of Success (Sony), My Life with Albertine (PS Classics), Jule Styne Goes Hollywood (PS Classics), and her solo album, Wonder in the World (Ghostlight). Ms. O’Hara has performed with the New York and Philly Pops; at The Kennedy Center with Marvin Hamlisch; and at Joe’s Pub. She recently participated in the Kennedy Center Honors as part of the Barbara Streisand tribute, and will make her debut at the Café Carlyle in April 2009.

New York Choral Artists, a professional chorus founded and directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, has been heard with the New York Philharmonic in recent seasons performing repertoire ranging from Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time to Mozart’s Requiem. Among the memorable collaborations with the New York Philharmonic was the concert on September 20, 2001, of Brahms’s A German Requiem, commemorating the events of September 11. The chorus opened the Philharmonic’s 2002–03 subscription season performing the world premiere of John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic with Lincoln Center’s Great Performers. Other highlights of include participation in the 1995 New York Philharmonic concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, and a televised performance of the 1986 Statue of Liberty Concert in Central Park. The chorus performed Verdi’s Requiem with the Philharmonic in March 2006, conducted by Lorin Maazel, and in the October 5–6, 2006, and February 2009 Philharmonic concert performances of Ravel’s one-act opera, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, also conducted by Mr. Maazel.

Find additional upcoming performances with New York Choral Artists

Thomas Z. Shepard (producer) is a producer/consultant for live theatrical and classical events, and a composer, arranger, pianist, and educator. As a recording executive, he is the recipient of 12 Grammy Awards for production of a variety of albums, ranging from classical (such as Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra with Pierre Boulez and the New York Philharmonic), to children’s (including Sesame Street Original Cast) — to theatrical, including Follies in Concert, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, and Ain’t Misbehavin. He was the 1984 recipient of the NARAS Governors Award for Lifetime Achievement. Mr. Shepard has written five operas, including collaborating on the comic Love in Two Countries with Sheldon Harnick; the score for the film, Such Good Friends, directed by Otto Preminger; and, most recently, the music for the lost Gilbert and Sullivan opera, Thespis. He has also authored works for children, including a cantata and The Children’s Symphony (the latter on commission from The Carnegie Hall Explorers Program), and he is a composer-lyricist for the PBS show, Between the Lions, for which he has received an Emmy nomination. His music has been recorded or performed by artists as varied as William Bolcom, Lena Horne, Joan Morris, and Richard Tucker. Mr. Shepard produced the New York Philharmonic’s semi-staged production of Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady in May 2007, and the New York Philharmonic’s 1985 semi-staged production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, as well as a recording of the live performances. He has served as producer and director of CBS Masterworks, and vice president — classical and theatrical — for both RCA Red Seal and MCA Records.