Stan Egi, Ellen Crawford, Paige Lindsey White, Bruce Turk, Greg Watanabe and More Set for Jessica Kubzansky helmed PYGMALION at The Pasadena Playhouse, March 17- April 12, 2015

Directed by Jessica Kubzansky (Theresa Rebeck’s Mauritius at The Pasadena Playhouse), the cast of PYGMALION features Ellen Crawford (Broadway: Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? Off Broadway: The Misunderstanding, A Touch Of The Poet, NBC’s “E.R.”) as Mrs. Pearce, Stan Egi (Broadway: Anything Goes, Off Broadway credits include The Public Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons) as Colonel Pickering, Sarah Hollis (FOX’s “24”) as Ensemble, Alex Knox (Antaeus’ Macbeth d. Jessica Kubzansky, South Coast Rep’s Euridyce) as Freddy,

Ellen Crawford

Mary Anne McGarry (AMC’s “Mad Men”, TNT’s “Major Crimes”) as Mrs. Higgins, Lynn Milgrim (Broadway: Bedroom Farce, Otherwise Engaged, international tour of Brighton Beach Memoirs, Trip to Bountiful and many more at South Coast Rep) as Mrs. Eynsford-Hill, Carolyn Ratteray (Off Broadway’s Hecuba and The Cherry Orchard) as Clara Eynsford-Hill, Tom Shelton (eleven seasons with L.A.’s Hillside Repertory, In The Next Room, Italian Straw Hat and many more at South Coast Rep) as Ensemble, Bruce Turk (Broadway’s The Green Bird and Juan Darién as well as six seasons at San Diego’s Old Globe) as Henry Higgins, Greg Watanabe (Off Broadway’s Golden Child, HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) as Ensemble, LA Drama Critic’s Award winner Paige Lindsey White (Trying (International City Theatre), Other Desert Cities (Arizona Theatre Company and Indiana Repertory Theatre, Jessica Kubzansky’s R II (Boston Court) as Eliza Doolittle and Time Winters (Broadway’s Amadeus, Yes, Prime Minister (Geffen Playhouse) as Alfred Doolittle.

Greg Watanabe

Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director of The Pasadena Playhouse says, “Shaw is a wonderful, but demanding playwright. In order to be successful in his plays actors must have tremendous dexterity with language, fierce intelligence, wit, and a passion to explore and elucidate challenging ideas. Jessica has brought together a cast that displays all of those qualities and we are fortunate to have them at the service of Mr. Shaw and his brilliant and dazzling play.”

PYGMALION Director Jessica Kubzansky says, “I am so blessed to have this truly stunning cast with which to make this production sing. They are passionate, fierce theatre artists with great craft and amazing humor and depth. I know they will make the play vivid and kinetic and alive. I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to direct this witty and brilliantly profound piece of theatre. George Bernard Shaw was really in some ways a feminist before that idea had made its way into the zeitgeist, and he is playing with such genius questions about whether or not transformation is as simple as giving someone new language, and whether or not transformation is liberation, or simply exchanging one cage for another.”

PYGMALION remains Shaw’s most popular play, which is most widely known for being the inspiration behind the highly romanticized Broadway musical and film My Fair Lady. In this delicious and gritty interpretation of PYGMALION, phonetics professor Henry Higgins bets that after he finishes transforming Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle, her flawless speech and delicate facade will allow her to pass for a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party. Centering on language as a defining characteristic, social satire about class barriers and the stifling of female independence, PYGMALION manages to be both playful and heartbreaking with a narrative whose relevance to our world today is as profound as ever.

The Pasadena Playhouse is located at 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. The performance schedule is Tuesday through Friday at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday at 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Tickets, priced from $30.00 to $75.00, plus premium seats at $125.00, are available online at www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org; by calling The Pasadena Playhouse at 626-356-7529; or visiting The Pasadena Playhouse Box Office, Tuesday – Sunday from 1:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. during non-performance dates. On performance dates the Box Office is open Tuesday – Saturday from 1:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, visit www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org.