Hannah Makes Stage Debut as Monroe's Girl

Following in the footsteps of Kathleen Turner and Nicole Kidman, Daryl Hannah looks to be the latest Hollywood film actress en route to the West End. According to newspaper reports, Hannah will make her stage debut in a new West End production of The Seven Year Itch, which is scheduled to open at the Queen's Theatre on 9 October, following previews from 2 October.

Hannah will play the part simply known as 'The Girl', made famous by Marilyn Monroe in Billy Wilder's 1955 film version of The Seven Year Itch. Based on the original Tony Award-winning Broadway play written by George Axelrod, The Seven Year Itch is about a middle-aged, married man whose wife and child leave him alone in his New York flat while they take their summer holidays out of the city. Everything's fine and normal until the sexy Girl moves in upstairs and the man starts to fantasise.

Though comparisons will doubtlessly be made, Laurence Myers, producer of the new stage production, insists that Hannah 'won't be doing a Marilyn impersonation'. The film became most famous for the scene in which Monroe stands over a street grate, her white dress billowing up around her, but this scene will not be re-enacted.

A seduction scene that was cut from the 1955 film for being too raunchy will, however, be in the stage version. Its inclusion has already prompted speculation as to whether Hannah - like Turner, Kidman and Jerry Hall, currently performing in the stage adaptation of another film classic, The Graduate - will bare all on stage.

Hannah, now 39, is best known for her roles in films such as 1984's Splash, and Roxanne and Wall Street in 1987. Although she has continued to work, the actress's more recent screen projects - such as last year's My Favourite Martian and Speedway Junky - have met with less success.

Hannah was persuaded to make her stage debut by British film-maker Michael Radford, who directed her in her latest film, Dancing at the Blue Iguana, in which she plays a stripper. Apparently, though, she remains apprehensive, having admitted yesterday, 'I've never done a play before and I have such stage fright that it renders me nearly catatonic. I'm really going to try to confront that fear.'

Radford will also be making his London debut as the play's director. The Bafta Award-winning director's films include 1984, White Mischief and Il Postino.

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