The first will be on October 19 at Rome's Teatro Sistina, when Monica Guerritore will play the part of Judy Garland in 'End of the Rainbow', a musical comedy by Peter Quilter.

Another homage to an immortal star of the theater world, Sarah Bernhardt, will be 'La Divina Sarah' with Anna Bonaiuto, directed by Marco Carniti and opening in February at Teatro India in the Italian capital.

Several heroines from history will also go on stage including Princess Diana in 'Diana e Lady D', a musical that Vincenzo Incenzo created alongside Serena Autieri.

The debut will be in February at Teatro Sistina. 'Evita', Argentina's national icon and illegitimate tailor's daughter who became an actress and then the wife of President Juan Domingo Peron, will be played by Malika Ayane in the first Italian version of the musical by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, directed by Massimo Romeo Piparo.

The debut will be in November at Assago's Teatro della Luna.
'Il Segreto della Vita' on Rosalind Franklin, a British scientist who was the first to photograph a DNA sample but whose discovery was stolen by her colleague James Watson (who won the Nobel Prize nine years later) will debut at Rome's Teatro Eliseo in March.

Others will focus on the lives of the Italian poet Alda Merini and the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaja, and works that revolve around women such as 'Madame Bovary' and Eduardo De Filippo's 'Filumena Marturano' will be in the line-up as well.

by Daniela Giammusso - Ansa