Taryn Fiebig, who plays Eliza, with Richard E. Grant, who says he is giving Henry Higgins a little bit of sexual spark.
Photo: Edwina Pickles

The Sydney Morning Herald Online – 7th October, 2008

By Emily Dunn and Elicia Murray

MY FAIR LADY is famous for crisp consonants, round vowels and very, very big hats, but Richard E. Grant believes he will bring something new to Opera Australia’s production of the classic show.

“I’m giving it some sex life.” he told our sing-along correspondent, Louise Schwartzkoff, at the launch of the second Sydney season, which opens tomorrow at the Theatre Royal.

Grant has replaced Reg Livermore, an actor 18 years his senior, in the role of Henry Higgins, bringing the two leads closer together in age.

“It’s more credible now that there could actually be some romantic involvement between them, and that’s given it new life,” said Taryn Fiebig, who plays the cockney flower seller, Eliza Doolittle.

Grant has never performed in a musical, but when the show’s director, Stuart Maunder, saw him interviewed on Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope, he decided he would make a perfect Henry Higgins.

“I’m not quite sure what that means, because Higgins is an arrogant, misogynist shit,” said Grant. “But he does have a level of charm. He may be petulant and he does get hysterical, but he has no malice whatsoever. He’s not mean, which is good, because otherwise he’d be unbearable.”