Robert Sean Leonard and Charlotte Parry to Lead The Old Globe's PYGMALION

The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team of its 100th anniversary production of the George Bernard Shaw classic Pygmalion. Starring Tony Award winner Robert Sean Leonard (The Invention of Love, Born Yesterday) as Professor Henry Higgins and Charlotte Parry (The Importance of Being Earnest, The Real Thing) as Eliza Doolittle, the production coincides with the 100th anniversary of Pygmalion's 1913 premiere in Vienna, Austria. Directed by Nicholas Martin (Butley, Present Laughter), Pygmalion will run on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, Jan. 12 - Feb. 17, 2013. Preview performances run Jan. 12 - Jan. 16. Opening night is Thursday, Jan. 17 at 8:00 p.m.

Shaw's story of a speech professor who makes a bet that he can pass off a common Cockney flower girl as the pinnacle of English society is an enduring one. In addition to its long life on the stage, the play was adapted by Shaw for the screen in 1938 with Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller. It was adapted most famously as the beloved musical My Fair Lady starring Rex Harrison with Julie Andrews on Broadway and with Audrey Hepburn on film.

Leonard last appeared on The Old Globe stage as Edgar in Jack O'Brien's renowned 1993 presentation of King Lear starring HAl Holbrook. He received a Tony Award for his performance in Tom Stoppard's The Invention of Love and was also nominated for Long Day's Journey Into Night and Candida. His other Broadway credits include Born Yesterday, The Violet Hour, The Music Man, The Iceman Cometh, Arcadia and Brighton Beach Memoirs, among others. At 19, he made his film debut in the acclaimed Dead Poets Society, and he appeared for eight seasons on the Fox medical drama "House."

Parry's Broadway credits include Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest, Coram Boy and The Real Thing. She was a member of the inaugural year of Sam Mendes' Bridge Project, performing The Cherry Orchard and The Winter's Tale at Brooklyn Academy Of Music, on the West End and internationally.

Four Old Globe Associate Artists return to the Globe stage for this lavish new production of Pygmalion. Kandis Chappell (Mrs. Higgins) has appeared in over 30 productions at The Old Globe, more than any other actress in Globe history, including The Dining Room, Richard III, The Norman Conquests, King Lear and Collected Stories. She has also appeared on Broadway in Rumors and Getting Away with Murder. Don Sparks (Mr. Doolittle) has been featured in more than 30 Globe productions including The Show-Off, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night and the title role in Springtime for Henry, and he has been featured on Broadway in Take Me Out. Deborah Taylor's (Mrs. Pearce) Globe credits include Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Bell, Book and Candle and A Midsummer Night's Dream, among others, and she has also appeared at Hartford Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Shaw Festival. Paxton Whitehead (Colonel Pickering) has been seen at the Globe in The Mask of Moriarty, The School for Scandal, Much Ado About Nothing and as the title role in Richard III. He is also well known for his many appearances in films and television series such as Kate & Leopold, The Adventures of Huck Finn, "Mad About You" and "Friends."

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