Lerner and Loewe’s first Eliza will recreate the original production, Cecil Beaton and all.

John Frost and Opera Australia have announced that Dame Julie Andrews will direct a 60th anniversary production of My Fair Lady in Sydney for an exclusive 2016 season. Dame Julie will be recreate the original production of Lerner and Loewe’s cherished masterpiece, complete with Cecil Beaton’s iconic costumes, alongside Tony award-winning choreographer Christopher Gatelli.

“I am thrilled to have been asked to direct My Fair Lady at the Sydney Opera House in August 2016,” said Andrews on her appointment. “I look forward to coming to Sydney this November to cast the production and begin the process of bringing this great musical to life once again.”

The choice of Dame Julie will mark her return to what is a long-standing relationship with the original Broadway production. In 1956, Andrews soared to international stardom when she played the irresistible Eliza Doolittle in Lerner and Loewe’s Broadway adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. It was only Andrews’ second Broadway show (she’d previously scored a hit in sandy Wilson’s The Boyfriend), but the show went on to run for six years and picked up six Tony Awards. “To think that...