Lisa Jane O'Hare is an English actress who has played Eliza Doolittle in ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical theatre, musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story, based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'' and on the Pygmalion (1938 film), 1938 film ...

'' and the title character of ''

Mary Poppins Mary Poppins may refer to: * Mary Poppins (character), a nanny with magical powers * Mary Poppins (franchise), based on the fictional nanny ** Mary Poppins (book series), ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fanta ...

'' in the West End and UK stage. She more recently has appeared in several prime-time American television shows on TNT, ABC and NBC. She most recently starred on Broadway in the musical, '' A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder''.

Career

O'Hare was trained as a ballet dancer, and performed in dance-oriented shows such as ''Alice and the Others'' at Sadler's Wells and ''Defile'' at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

. Moving to musical theatre, O'Hare joined the original London production of ''Mary Poppins'' as the understudy for the original

Laura Michelle Kelly Laura Michelle Kelly (born 4 March 1981) is an English actress and singer, best known for originating the roles of Mary Poppins in ''Mary Poppins'' in the West End, for which she received the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical, and ...

as well as a member of the original ensemble in December 2004. She left the production in July 2005. From 28 September 2005 at the Palace Theatre in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, O'Hare joined the National UK Tour of Cameron Mackintosh's production of ''My Fair Lady'' as the alternate Eliza Doolittle, sharing the role with

Amy Nuttall Amy Abigail Nuttall (born 7 June 1982) is an English actress and singer. She is known for her roles as Chloe Atkinson in the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale'' (2000–2005), housemaid Ethel Parks in the ITV/ PBS period drama ''Downton Abbey'' (201 ...

until the UK tour ended on 12 August 2006 at the Wales Millennium Centre in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

. On 6 November 2006, O'Hare returned to the London production of ''Mary Poppins'' assuming the title role on a full-time basis. She replaced Scarlett Strallen, making her the third actress to hold the West End title role. Her last performance with the London Company on the show was on 19 May 2007. In 2007, O'Hare reprised her role as Eliza Doolittle in the national US tour of ''My Fair Lady'' alongside Christopher Cazenove as Henry Higgins, who had starred with her in the National UK Tour. The US tour opened on 12 September 2007 in

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, and closed on 22 June 2008 in Tempe, Arizona. at MyFairLadyTheMusical.com For her portrayal of Eliza Doolittle in the States, O'Hare was nominated for the 2008 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Non-Resident Production and was nominated and won the 26th Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Musical Performance. Since returning to the UK, O'Hare starred as the title role in '' Gigi'' from 6 August to 13 September 2008 at

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, Borough of Camden (and historical ...

Open Air Theatre. On 6 July 2008, O'Hare and two other actresses who had portrayed Mary Poppins on stage ( Scarlett Strallen and

Caroline Sheen Caroline Sheen (born 7 January 1976) is a Welsh actress who has played leading roles on stage in the West End alongside TV and film appearances. She won a Helen Hayes award for playing the role of Mary Poppins on the National Tour of America ...

) performed the song "Practically Perfect" for a special concert of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe's songs, "A Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe", at

Her Majesty's Theatre His Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated in the Haymarket, London, Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The building, designed by Charles J. Phipps, was constructed in 1897 for the actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who ...

. This version was released on CD in December 2008. O'Hare most recently reprised her critically acclaimed role as

in the National UK tour of ''Mary Poppins''. She assumed the role on 27 October 2008 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, replacing

, and continued through

and

until the tour's closure on 18 April 2009. In April 2012 she returned to the role in the Perth, Australia season of the play along with Matt Lee playing the role of Bert. Lisa O'Hare made her American television debut in 2010, guest-starring in the sixth season of TNT's award-winning show ''

The Closer ''The Closer'' is an American police procedural television series starring Kyra Sedgwick as Brenda Leigh Johnson, a Los Angeles Police Department Chief of police#United States, deputy chief. A CIA-trained interrogator originally from Atlanta, G ...

'' playing Jenny in "Last Woman Standing". Shortly afterward, O'Hare guest-starred as Kitty Canary in ABC's ''

Castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

'' – "A Deadly Affair". As the premiere episode in ''Castles third season, O'Hare was able to showcase her dancing talents as the owner and performer of a burlesque bar to millions of dedicated viewers. In October 2010, O'Hare guest-starred in J.J Abrams action-thriller series ''Undercovers'' on NBC. She played Marie Murphy, a double-crossing wife of Irish descent in "Jailbreak". In 2011, she played

Sally Bowles Sally Bowles () is a fictional character created by English-American novelist Christopher Isherwood and based upon 19-year-old cabaret singer Jean Ross. The character debuted in Isherwood's 1937 novella ''Sally Bowles'' published by Hogarth Pre ...

in ''Cabaret'' for the Reprise Theatre Company at the Freud Playhouse. She won the LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Lead Performance. She originated the role of Sibella Hallward in the Broadway musical, '' A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder'', and was followed by Scarlett Strallen. In 2015, O'Hare once again picked up her carpet bag and reprised the role of Mary Poppins in the Mary Poppins Musical in Zurich, Switzerland. After returning from Europe, Lisa once again reprised another one of her favorite roles, playing Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady at Chicago's Lyric Opera starring opposite Richard E. Grant. Lisa received enormous praise for her portrayal. In 2018, she was cast as Georgia Goodwin on NBC's hit show, ''

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

'', starring opposite Ryan Eggold. O'Hare resides in Hest Bank, Morecambe and is a member of SAG/AFTRA and Actors Equity.

Personal life

She is from the

seaside town A seaside resort is a city, resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of an official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requi ...

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

in the

City of Lancaster The City of Lancaster, or simply ''Lancaster'' (), is a non-metropolitan district, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Lancashire, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Lancaster, Lanca ...

, England. She attended the

Royal Ballet School The Royal Ballet School is a British school of classical ballet training founded in 1926 by the Anglo-Irish ballerina and choreographer Ninette de Valois. The school's aim is to train and educate outstanding classical ballet dancers, especially ...

from age 11 to 16.

Filmography

References

External links

My Fair Lady US Tour Article
at BroadwayWorld.com

at Playbill.com
O'Hare profile @ Official Mary Poppins website

Article announcing Lisa taking over title role in West End's Mary Poppins.

Announcement of Lisa leaving Mary Poppins for My Fair Lady.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:OHare, Lisa Living people American musical theatre actresses American television actresses English emigrants to the United States English musical theatre actresses Actors from Morecambe 21st-century English actresses 21st-century American actresses Year of birth missing (living people) Actresses from Lancashire