There's something truly magical about a really good musical - and My Fair Lady certainly fits the bill. It's almost exactly 62 years since the show was adapted from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and given its Broadway debut, winning the hearts of critics and audiences alike. In fact, it went on to secure no less than six Tony awards (and a further four nominations), and to run for a whopping 2,717 performances, making it the longest-running Broadway musical of all time.

Now the show is coming to Malta as part of FM Theatre Production's 20th anniversary celebrations (which will also see them stage the modern musical Mamma Mia at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in April).

Malta-based British actor Antony Edridge will be taking on the iconic role of Professor Henry Higgins, which was made famous by Rex Harrison in both the film and stage versions. Edridge is thrilled.

"Higgins is the biggest challenge I've faced yet," he says with a smile. "It's a monster role and he is a complex character. Higgins is fiercely intelligent and can seem to be out of touch with the real world, but I think that there are moments that show he has genuine compassion. He also learns a lesson from Eliza, a hard lesson, and this is as difficult to play as it for him to accept!"

Directed by Denise Mulholland and starring Maxine Aquilina as Eliza Doolittle, Edward Mercieca as Col. Pickering, Thomas Camilleri as Freddie Eynsford-Hill and Alan Paris as Alfie Doolittle, My Fair Lady tells the tale of a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from Prof. Higgins, a phoneticist, so that she may pass as a lady. It features much-loved numbers including Just You Wait, I Could Have Danced All Night, and Get Me to the Church on Time. "The songs are wonderful. It has quickly become one of my all-time favourite musicals!" the actor continues.

Edridge himself began his career at the Circle-in-the-Square in New York. He performed in a number of off-off-Broadway productions before moving back to the UK and taking on roles including Dan in Burning Blue at the King's Head Theatre in 1995, which later transferred to the Haymarket Theatre. "That was an adventure!" he smiles.

He spent many years appearing in the upstairs and backrooms of London pubs - places they now call off-off-West End. He did Robin Swados' play A Quiet End above a pub in Amsterdam, and, more recently, spent two years in Dirty Dancing in London - "an experience that my knees have never recovered from!"

Looking back on his career so far, Edridge says that he very much enjoyed being in Kathryn Bigalow's film Zero Dark 30. "I was playing a two star general and we filmed on the Jordanian Parachute Regiment's base in the middle of the desert and I arrived in uniform. I heard that the American personnel on the base were angry that they hadn't been told about the visit of a two star general and I eventually went over to a gaggle of them to put them out of their misery. A sergeant asked if I was really an actor and when I said 'yes' he ripped one of the Velcro flashes off my shoulder, turned it over and slapped it back on saying: "It's been driving me nuts all day!"

Now based in Malta, Edridge says he moved here a couple of years ago because the island is English-speaking, with a good international movie-making scene. "I have thoroughly enjoyed being here so far," he says. "In the past I have moaned about long show runs - but that's not something I will have to worry about over here!

"As for My Fair Lady, I am so looking forward to bringing it to the stage. The show is so packed with wonderful moments that it would be difficult to choose one favourite. However, Higgin's put downs of Thomas Camilleri's character Zoltan Kapathy threaten to make me laugh out loud. It's a very witty piece," Edridge adds with a grin. 

My Fair Lady will run at the Mediterranean Conference Centre from 2-4 February. Tickets are available at www.mcc.com.mt or by calling 7944 5030.