Mariah the West End girl

Firmly in the category of 'different' and 'unusual', Mariah Carey has chosen to make her theatrical debut on the West End stage recreating a role made famous by Marilyn Monroe on the big screen.

Ms Carey, a singer with a tremendous voice, will star in Terence Rattigan's play, The Sleeping Prince, which as a 1957 movie vehicle for Ms Monroe and Laurence Olivier was known as The Prince And The Showgirl.

The singer, who has had a tempestuous private life, will begin rehearsals in January and take the stage at, possibly, the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in late February or early March.

Ms Carey's managers in New York and Los Angeles insist she is serious about wanting to act.

She was serious about acting on screen, too, and that was torture for her as much as for audiences.

However, she has been having lessons in voice projection, diction and in how to walk on and off stage with grace and elegance. The whole package.

She's desperate to be part of a theatre company and wants to be treated as a thespian, not a star.

She will leave her diva at the stage door because it is her dream - indeed, she believes, her destiny - to play the role of Elsie the showgirl on the London stage.

The play is about an American showgirl appearing in London while a European Prince is visiting the city.

Representatives of the Rattigan estate confirmed the plan to bring the play to the West End.

There's a song in it that Ms Carey, who played Wembley last night, will perform during what is hoped to be an 18-week run.

Ms Carey has long been a Monroe devotee, and four years ago paid £500,000 at an auction for Marilyn's babygrand piano.

The Sleeping Prince's producer, Bill Kenwright, was not available for comment as he was preparing to travel to New York for the opening on Sunday of his sell-out production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.