BRADFORD Playhouse spent yesterday frantically preparing for its annual 24-hour Show, with cast and crew in a race against time to be ready.

The ambitious production, which was in its third year, involved building sets, making costumes and auditioning the entire cast and learning the script all in just one day, before performing the show at 7:30pm tonight.

This year’s show, The Nightmare Before Christmas, was put together by experienced players alongside novices to the theatre, and was designed to build on the success of the inaugural production of Chicago and last year’s Rocky Horror Picture Show.

It was revealed which show the Playhouse would be performing at 7pm yesterday, and the cast and crew had been working hard to get the show ready for the performance.

Harry Walton, from the Playhouse, said the scale of the challenge of preparing a show in such a short space of time had really hit home in the week leading up to it.

He said: “When people started arriving, it started to sink it that the time was almost here for the show.

“It really hit home what the show was going to require.

“Last year, we did Rocky Horror, which gives you an idea of what kind of show to expect.

“Our directors had been putting out little hints on social media through the week, but until the big reveal last night we kept it under wraps to make it a surprise.”

He said the unique challenges associated with putting on The Nightmare Before Christmas included finding a "walking bathtub" and also recruiting someone to do puppetry to pretend to be a ghost dog.

The show was a community-orientated event, with everyone invited to come along and join in, whether that be as part of the cast, stage management team, set and costume designers and even in technical jobs.

People do not require any previous experience in working in the theatre, and those involved came from both near and far, with one of the directors, Gillian Harrison, coming from the Netherlands.

“We found people from all over the region,” said Mr Walton, “and they all have different levels of skill and experience, so it should be a really diverse bunch.”

To buy tickets, which cost £8 each, you can visit https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/boxoffice/select/cfVwOVHgoQcL or contact the box office on 01274 800415.