A luverly chance for North Potomac native

Dana DeLisa learns — and unlearns — a ‘‘dream role” for National Theatre of Great Britain’s ‘‘My Fair Lady”

One detail he was able to overlook is the leading lady’s colonial pedigree.

‘‘I’m the first American to ever play Eliza for this production team,” De Lisa says proudly. ‘‘Learning the accents, the dialects, was very difficult for me. I just did what they told me, and they would stop me at every other word!”

DeLisa remembers the first line she ever uttered. ‘‘Sometime around nursery school I got bitten by the bug,” she says.

As a teenager she spent her summers at Montgomery College in the dinner theater program, playing Maria in ‘‘West Side Story,” Minuet in ‘‘Camelot” and Sarah in ‘‘Guys and Dolls.” Playing Eliza, though, is special.

‘‘It’s a dream role,” says DeLisa. ‘‘One of the most coveted female roles.

‘‘It’s sort of a breakthrough for me!”

Old movies

DeLisa remembers loving the movie version of ‘‘My Fair Lady” as a child. Audrey Hepburn ‘‘was my idol,” she says.

But when you’re starring in a production of ‘‘My Fair Lady,” which originally opened at the National Theatre of Great Britain and transferred to the Theatre

Royal Drury Lane on London’s West End for a two-year run before touring the world, everything has to be perfect. And Hepburn, iconic though she was, is not the role model here.

‘‘They didn’t think Audrey Hepburn did a good job with the Cockney accent,” DeLisa confesses. In fact, before the 1964 movie came out, a young Julie Andrews originated the role of Liza (opposite Rex Harrison) in Lerner and Loewe’s musical take on George Bernard Shaw’s play ‘‘Pygmalion.” Andrews’ immediate successor, Sally Ann Howes, plays Mrs. Higgins in this production — serendipity for those who remember her best as Truly Scrumptious, Dick Van Dyke’s singing candy girl in ‘‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”

Is she truly, well, scrumptious?

‘‘She’s amazing!” says DeLisa. ‘‘So warm and friendly and loving. She has such a heart for this — and built-in comedic timing.”

One of the highlights of the ‘‘My Fair Lady” experience, DeLisa recalls, was the night the cast and crew got together to watch a certain classic movie.

‘‘We put ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ on the big screen and watched it,” says DeLisa, ‘‘with her commentary!”

And you can hear the thrill of it in her voice.

Family ties

What’s really thrilling, though, is the fact that this actress will be at the Kennedy Center: ‘‘Such a big deal for me! I’m so grateful to be coming home to my dream theater, to play my dream role.”

Such a dream role, she moved the date of her wedding back from September to August, the better to focus on performing. Such a dream role because she sees in Eliza Doolittle a modern feminist heroine with strength and character to spare.

‘‘She is such a symbol of a strong woman,” says DeLisa. ‘‘When she does learn to speak properly and dress beautifully, she could just decide to ‘marry up’ — but she doesn’t.”

And DeLisa, having gone through a journey similar to the character’s when she had to learn a whole new way of speaking, sees a role model in Eliza — and a paradigm in the story itself.

‘‘It makes people think,” she says of the tale of a poor Cockney flower girl who was made a ‘‘lady” as a bet. ‘‘There’s a lot of humor in it — and the singing and dancing is out of this world!”

DeLisa can’t wait to see her own family — and her new husband’s — in the audience. But she thinks the show is just right for all families, for theater-goers young and old.

‘‘Children are loving it,” she says. ‘‘And adults are loving it for its writing. There are a few changes, but ultimately, I think it’s the best production of ‘My Fair Lady’ that’s ever been.”

Like Eliza Doolittle, Dana DeLisa speaks for herself.

The Kennedy Center presents Cameron Mackintosh⁄The National Theatre of Great Britain’s award-winning West End Production of Lerner & Loewe’s ‘‘My Fair Lady” starting Thursday and running through Jan. 20 in the Kennedy Center Opera House, 2700 F St. NW, Washington, D.C. Performances are Tuesday through Sunday evenings at 7:30 p.m., with matinee performances on Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 1:30 p.m. Tickets range from $36 to $95. Call 202-467-4600.