TORONTO - "Sex and the City" star Kim Cattrall says she's thrilled to be returning to the stage in Canada for the first time in over 30 years.

The British Columbia-raised actress will star as Amanda in the Noel Coward play "Private Lives" in Toronto this fall, part of the newly announced Mirvish Productions 2011/2012 subscription season.

Cattrall, who played the same role on London's West End last year, says she hasn't done theatre in Canada since around 1976 when she co-starred with Maury Chaykin in a Martin Kinch play in Toronto.

"I'm thrilled -- this has been a long time coming," Cattrall, wearing a form-fitting Michael Kors dress and strappy heels, said in an interview after Tuesday's splashy season unveiling at the Princess of Wales Theatre.

"To be involved with a show like 'Private Lives' on the West End, which was such a big success and we had terrific audience support, and to be so proud of that show and to bring it to Toronto and then on to New York is really a dream for me."

"Private Lives," which hits Broadway after the Toronto run, is one of seven subscription shows in the 2011/2011 Mirvish subscription lineup.

Also there is the Broadway smash "Mary Poppins," which will hit the city in November and December with songs from the revered 1964 film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.

Quebec maestro Robert Lepage will bring "The Blue Dragon," about a Canadian in modern-day China, to the city in January and February 2012.

"War Horse," adapted from the novel by Michael Morpurgo, arrives in February 2012 with astonishing life-size horse puppets and a backdrop of 1914 England.

Coming in September and October is "Chess, the Musical," an allegory of political intrigue and international conspiracy set during the Cold War to the music of ABBA singers Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.

"Hair," winner of the 2009 Tony Award for best musical, brings its flowing locks to the city in March and April 2012.

And the seventh subscription show is the previously announced "The Railway Children," which features a huge locomotive and is adapted from Edith Nesbit's classic novel.

Mirvish will also present four "bonus shows" that will not be included in the subscription package: "Ghost Stories," "2 Pianos, 4 Hands," "Good Mourning Mrs. Brown" and "Women Fully Clothed: Older & Hotter."

"I'm excited every year about the season but I'm particularly excited about the year that's coming," said producer David Mirvish, who flew in stars from several of the productions to perform onstage Tuesday.

"I think we went all over the world to find this group of shows. Four or five years of work have all suddenly coalesced into one really exciting year."

In "Private Lives," Cattrall plays Amanda, who reunites with her ex-husband while on honeymoon in France with her new spouse.

Coward debuted the play in 1930 and Cattrall said her character represents women who yearned for independence during that era.

"This was a time when women had just gotten the right to vote so I think that she has a feminist spirit to her," said Cattrall, who starred as lusty publicist Samantha Jones on TV's "Sex and the City" for six seasons and played her in two franchise films.

"She's a product of my experience, which is I consider myself a feminist and I live in a post-feminist world so I fight many different issues that affect women, so I feel very much at home in this skin."

Cattrall got her start in theatre

Cattrall, who was born in Liverpool, England, got her start in theatre in New York before expanding to TV roles and films, including "Police Academy," "Mannequin" and "Porky's."

She said she was inspired to get into theatre at age 10, when she saw Janet Suzman star in "As You Like It" at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

"I literally fell in love. I just thought, 'That's what I want to do,"' she said.

"I never had dreams of being in movies or TV when I was a kid -- I always had dreams about being in the theatre."

While Cattrall has done theatre throughout her career (her other recent productions include "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" in London), she now has more time to devote to the stage since she's no longer on a TV series.

Amanda, she said, is the type of character she wants to play more of onstage.

"I like to play very strong, courageous women who take risks, as I do," she said.

"When I was a young actress here in Toronto, I did a film with Jack Lemmon and one of the things that I spoke to him about on one of the breaks between setups filming, I said, 'How do you decide on material? How do you know?' and he said, 'I read something and if it scares me and if it gets my blood going, that's the reason to say "yes" because that's where you learn and you get stronger in whatever you do."'