William McInnes Stars In My Fair Lady

MEDIA RELEASE
Embargoed till Saturday, December 20 2008

Two-time Logie Award and 2008 AFI Award winner announced to star in NZ season of My Fair Lady

Star of Australian stage-and-screen, William McInnes (Blue Heelers, SeaChange, A Country Practice) will make his New Zealand stage debut as the world’s most-loved curmudgeonly misogynist, Henry Higgins, in the Broadway musical, My Fair Lady.

This spectacular production will play a strictly limited season at Auckland’s The Civic, THE EDGE® from 25 March 2009.

McInnes will star alongside Taryn Fiebig, who has been critically acclaimed around Australia for her performance in one of the most coveted roles in musical theatre history, Eliza Doolittle.

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s musical, My Fair Lady, is an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion.

Featuring some of the most memorable Broadway hits of all time, the magic of My Fair Lady continues to endure. Few can forget ‘The Rain in Spain’, or be able to resist singing along to ‘I Could Have Danced all Night’, ‘Get Me to the Church on Time’, and ‘Wouldn’t it be Loverly’.

Transporting audiences to the lively heart of London, My Fair Lady features a delightful mix of comedy and romance. This international production comes to New Zealand after return seasons in Sydney and Melbourne and rave reviews across Australia.

With a stellar cast, extravagant sets, outstanding performances, a virtuosic chorus and a veritable fashion parade of stunning costumes – My Fair Lady is a guaranteed night of pure theatre magic.

William McInnes – Professor Henry Higgins

William McInnes is one of the most accomplished and popular actors on the Australian landscape today. In 2006 William was awarded the Sydney Morning Herald, Sun Herald and the Age Australian Star of The Year Award. Equally at home in theatre, film and television, comedy and drama, he has played countless lead and supporting roles in some of the most successful and memorable productions Australia has had to offer and has multiple AFI and Logie nominations for this extensive body of work, this year picking up the AFI Award for Best Actor in a Feature Film – Unfinished Sky.

In television, William has shone in dramatic lead roles in The Shark Net, My Brother Jack, Blue Heelers, Stepfather of the Bride, Seachange and more recently in the critically acclaimed and ratings success ABC telemovie Curtin, about Australia’s wartime prime minister and in the hard hitting SBS television series East West 1-0-1

William’s work in Australian Cinema is also widely acknowledged, by both industry peers and audience alike. The feature film, Look Both Ways, saw William achieve a nomination for best lead actor by the Australian Film Institute and receive the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actor. He can be seen currently in the film Unfinished Sky and has just completed filming on Prime Mover.
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His many lead roles on the stage only further highlight William’s remarkable career. His performances include Don Juan for Sydney Theatre Company, Macbeth and Ray’s Tempest for Melbourne Theatre Company and Darcy for both company’s landmark productions of Pride and Prejudice.

William is also the author of two best selling books. A Man’s Gotta Have a Hobby, winner of a 2006 Australian Book industry award and Cricket Kings, which is a 2007 Australian book industry award nominee. His third book That’d Be Right has just been published.

Taryn Fiebig – Eliza Doolittle

Taryn Fiebig graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1993 with a Bachelor of Music in Cello performance after which she commenced vocal training with Molly McGurk and later with Megan Sutton.

It was her particular interest in early music repertoire which won her two scholarships to the Dartington International Summer School in 1995 and 1996, studying with Emma Kirkby, Evelyn Tubb and Anthony Rooley continuing her studies with Evelyn Tubb in 1999 on an Arts WA Scholarship. Further study with Jane Manning was made possible by a Churchill Fellowship in 2000. She completed the Emerging Performers Programme at the Australian Opera Studio in 2003, having studied with Gregory Yurisich and Patricia Price.

As a soloist, she has performed the 15th Century Masterpiece El Cant de la Sibil-la with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra for their popular Noël Noël Christmas concerts. Internationally, Taryn has performed in Los Angeles with the contemporary music ensemble L.A. EAR unit, in England with the English Chamber Orchestra in St. John’s Smith Square, London and on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 in the radio dramas Southland and Pembroke, Arcadia.

Her operatic work includes several leading roles for the Australian Opera Studio, Marie in Lindsay Vickery’s opera-noir Rendez-vous (Tura Events 2001), Mary Magdalen in Les Saintes Femmes au Tombeau (1999 York Early Music Festival, UK) and Angel in Plainsong (2000 Perth International Arts Festival/Black Swan Theatre Co.)

In 2005, Taryn Fiebig joined Opera Australia's as a principal soprano. Her roles with this company have included Zerlina in Don Giovanni, The Plaintiff in Trial by Jury, Papagena in The Magic Flute, Rose in Lakmé, Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito, Karolka in Jenufa, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance and Gianetta in The Gondoliers. In 2008, she sang Clorinda in Cenerentola, Musetta in La bohème and the leading role of Eliza Doolittle in the national tour of My Fair Lady.

In 2009, Taryn will perform Musetta, Galatea in Acis and Galatea, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas, Anne in A Little Night Music and Yum-Yum in The Mikado for Opera Australia. She will also appear for Pinchgut Opera and in concert with the Queensland, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras; she will also take the soprano solos in Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s Mozart Requiem.

Taryn Fiebig’s discography includes French Baroque Cantatas, The Concert Français and Old American Songs for ABC Classics.

Further details of the star-studded cast of My Fair Lady to be announced soon.

Tickets on sale now from THE EDGE®
Phone 0800 BUYTICKETS or www.buytickets.co.nz

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