'Frasier' star to headline 'My Fair Lady'

NEW YORK, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Actor Kelsey Grammer, who starred in the TV series "Frasier," is set to take on one of the leads in the New York Philharmonic's upcoming run of "My Fair Lady."

The 51-year-old actor, who portrayed the title character on the popular NBC sitcom, will play Professor Henry Higgins in the musical production that is scheduled to begin performances at New York's Avery Fisher Hall on March 7, Playbill reported.

Also signed onto the production, that will run until March 10, are two-time Tony award nominee Kelli O'Hara, film actor Brian Dennehy, along with stage actors Charles Kimbrough, Tim Jerome and Marni Nixon.

Based on George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion," the production is taking over for a recently canceled production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's "Company."

The musical will not mark the first stage performance for Grammer, who earned four Emmys for portraying Dr. Frasier Crane, as the actor previously starred in Broadway productions of "Othello" and "Macbeth."