A new stage in Ms. Barbie’s career

IT had to happen. Never content to just sit on a shelf, Mattel’s Barbie is ready for her next career move.

Apparently bitten by the acting bug after the small-screen success of her computer-animated, direct-to-video movies, the glam doll will come to life in her theatrical stage debut this spring. She’ll play Elina, a wingless flower fairy who travels via butterfly, in “Barbie Live in Fairytopia!,” an original family musical inspired by her recent DVD, “Barbie Fairytopia.”

The non-Equity production’s notable professional creative team includes Susan Di Lallo (book and lyrics), Robbie Roth (music and lyrics) and choreographer Christopher D’Amboise. Eric Schaeffer, artistic director of Virginia’s Signature Theatre, will direct.

And what will the famous fashionista wear? That’s up to costume designer Gregg Barnes, a Tony Award nominee whose credits include “Flower Drum Song,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and “The Drowsy Chaperone.”

Schaeffer, whose New York and London directing credits include “Putting It Together” and “The Witches of Eastwick,” will begin “Barbie” rehearsals this week. (The actress who will play Barbie hasn’t been announced.)

“Lord, there’s a lot of pressure there,” Schaeffer jokes. “It’s that whole sense of putting that iconic figure on the stage.” He points out that the stage Barbie, who plays a fairy who earns her wings, will be, like her plastic counterpart, “an all-American gal -- she’s a little sassy and she’s totally fashionable, of course.”

“We’ve had a wonderful time creating the world that Barbie’s going to live in. There’s lots of glitter, lots of color, and I think it’s going to be fun for kids to get caught up in that world.”

Presented by Mattel Entertainment and Live Nation (formerly Clear Channel Entertainment), the initial “Barbie Live” tour will launch in April and May in venues in Columbus, Ohio; Chicago; Boston; and Milwaukee. The show is scheduled to come to Los Angeles Aug. 16-20 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

-- Lynne Heffley