Michael Feast is to join the cast of Pygmalion from 23 May, replacing Simon Ward as Alfred Doolittle. Ward was forced to leave the show after contracting a viral infection.
Feast joins a cast including Rupert Everett, Kara Tointon, Diana Rigg and Ward’s understudy Brendan Hooper, who has been playing the father of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle since Ward fell ill during the show’s previews. Hooper will continue in the role until Feast takes over next Monday.
Feast’s last London outing came in Plague Over England, in which he played lauded English actor John Gielgud. His many credits include The Accused, Macbeth, The Tempest, No Man’s Land, Measure For Measure and Phaedra.
George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion tells the story of Professor Henry Higgins (Everett) who gambles on turning Eliza Doolittle from chirpy Cockney into a society lady by teaching her manners and elocution. This production, directed by Philip Prowse, was first seen in Chichester before transferring to the West End.
MA