Anne Rogers

Anne Rogers was born to Patrick and Ellen Rogers who lived at 2 Atkinson Street L3 (now demolished it was adjacent to St Anne Street) in Liverpool. She was evacuated at the start of WWII to Winsford, Cheshire.^[2]

In 1954, she had a minor part in the original West End production of Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend. "With only a day to go to opening the leading lady ^[who?] was taken ill ... Rogers recalls that 'the director said 'can anyone sing a top C?' I put up my hand and said 'I can'. And we opened the next night'." She played the lead role of Polly Browne for nearly four years.^[3]

She was unable to appear in the Broadway production of The Boy Friend due to London commitments paving the way to Julie Andrews's stardom, but Rogers later went to the U.S. to play Eliza Doolittle in the Hollywood and Chicago productions of My Fair Lady, winning the Sarah Siddons Award for her performance.^[4] After two years, she returned to London to play the same role for three years at the Theatre Royal (Drury Lane).^[5]

In 1964, she starred alongside Gary Raymond, Rita Moreno, Gary Miller, Karel Štěpánek, Peter Sallis, Gregory Phillips, and Carl Jaffe in the London West End production of She Loves Me.^[6]

She appeared on Broadway in Half a Sixpence and 42nd Street.^[7] When she played Jessie Matthews in the 2000 West End production of Over My Shoulder, the Telegraph welcomed her back as a "marvellous old trouper".^[8] She played Gladys in the gala New York performance of the musical Busker Alley in 2005, starring alongside Jim Dale, Glenn Close and George S. Irving.

Rogers was married to Michael Hall, the son of the famous bandleader Henry Hall.^[2]