“My Fair Lady” opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in New York on March 15, 1956 where it ran for 2,717 performances.

Local theatre company, The 17th Street Players, will restage this classic musical at the Historic Paramount Theatre in Austin on Thursday, where it will run for 5 performances.

This will be a restaging of the group’s performance at the Lighthouse Event Center in Albert Lea in February 2011.

“My Fair Lady” was written by Alan Jay Lerner with music by Frederick Loewe. It’s based on George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” a tale from an ancient Greek myth by Ovid in which Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures that came to life.

The musical follows the Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle as she turns to professor Henry Higgins for lessons to speak properly so she can get a job as an assistant in a florist’s shop.

Having bet a colleague that in six months he could turn Eliza into a lady by teaching her to speak properly, Higgins agrees to the arrangement.

The musical’s 1956 Broadway production was a hit, setting, what was at that time, a record for the longest run of any major musical theatre production in history. It’s success was followed by a hit London production, a popular film version, and numerous revivals.

With well-known songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?,” “I Could Have Danced All Night” and “On the Street Where You Live,” this is a wonderful show great for the entire family.

Performances will beat 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday with 2 p.m. performances on both Saturday and Sunday.

Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door, and can be ordered online at paramounttheatre.org or by calling 434-0934.