Mariah Carey Eyes Stage Debut in The Prince and the Showgirl

News By Broadway.com Staff December 29, 2008 - 3:17PM

Pop superstar Mariah Carey said in a recent interview that starring in a stage version of The Prince and the Showgirl in London—an idea first announced five years ago—remains on her professional to-do list. Carey, who owns the rights to the 1957 British film comedy, told the Daily Star, “I like the idea of doing it but it’s all down to the time—you have to commit for a rather long time and now is really hard for me. But it’s a dream that I want to achieve in the future.”

In October 2003, producer Bill Kenwright announced that Carey would make her West End debut in The Sleeping Prince, Terence Rattigan's 1956 play that Rattigan then transformed into a movie script. Carey would play showgirl Elsie Marina, a role created on Broadway by Barbara Bel Geddes and on film by Marilyn Monroe. The film, a romantic comedy set in London in 1911 just before the coronation of George V, co-starred and was directed by Laurence Olivier as the Prince Regent of Carpathia.

Carey, whose most recent CD is E=MC2, will release a compilation recording titled The Ballads in January. As an actress, she has appeared in the films The Bachelor, Glitter, Wise Girls and Tennessee. As noted five years ago, Carey is a big fan of Marilyn Monroe who sang a song in The Prince and the Showgirl and bought the iconic blonde bombshell's piano at an auction.