Thatcher: The Musical . . .which will receive its world premiere in Coventry next month . . . does include a scene about the Brighton bomb, but it casts its heroine more in 9/11 firefighter mode than as prickly politician. As regards all other Irish influences on a very British leader, it's a case of Out, Out, Out.

Instead, the musical focuses on issues like the Falklands war, the miners' strike and Thatcher's protracted and occasionally beautiful relationship with Ronald Reagan.

The show also promises to reveal "the contents of the most famous handbag in history".

Potential show-stopping musical numbers include The Cabinet Shuffle, The Grocer's Daughter and Tory Blues, while It Was Surely Purely Chemistry is a tender love song in which Thatcher addresses first her husband, Denis, then Reagan, and finally her handbag.

Eight different actresses will play Thatcher in her many incarnations: Grocer's Daughter, Twinset Maggie, Power Suit Maggie, Military Maggie, Britannia Maggie, Sacrificial Maggie, Broken Maggie and Diva Maggie, each wearing a more voluminous wig than the last.

The all-female cast also play the parts of her male friends and adversaries, among them Reagan, Michael Heseltine and Geoffrey Howe.

The show is the brainchild of the all-female Foursight Theatre Company, widely acclaimed for its unusual take on strong women in history.

Previous productions have focussed on Eva Braun, Mae West and Henry VIII's six wives, but this is the first time the company has turned its attention towards a living person.

"We'd been pondering Mrs Thatcher for some time, " says Foursight director Naomi Cooke. "Many of us are 'Thatcher's children'. I was 13 when she came to power. She is a great subject for a play. It's an epic story."

According to Cooke, Thatcher: The Musical neither denigrates nor glorifies its subject.

"Rather, it presents Maggie herself looking back over her meteoric rise from grocer's daughter to being the most powerful woman of her day. What would Maggie tell us now and how does this inform our understanding of the political machine and leadership today?"

The former prime minister . . . first dubbed 'The Iron Lady' by the Soviet newspaper, Red Star, 30 years ago this week . . .

is now 81 and in poor health.

She has been invited to the premiere of Thatcher: the Musical at Warwick Arts Centre on 7 February but, according to Foursight, has yet to RSVP.

She might just enjoy the ride: other subjects of recent post-modern musicals like Jerry Springer and Roy Keane have given ringing endorsement to sideways takes on their lives and works.

But they didn't face the unsavoury prospect of having their handbags rummaged through for the amusement of the masses. All the iron in the world can't prepare any woman for that.