What do former boy and girl band stars do once their chart-topping days have ended? They head the cast of frothy pop musicals touring regional theatres, that’s what.

Antony Costa of Blue, Kelle Bryan of Eternal, Russ Spencer of Scooch and Anthony Kavanagh of, erm, Kavana join Kevin Kennedy, alias Curly Watts in Coronation Street, Hollyoaks actress Jennifer Biddall and musical theatre star Suzanne Carley in The eXtra Factor, a new stage show based on – you guessed it – a TV talent show.

Written by former Emmerdale writer Dave Simpson – who wrote pole-dancing comedy The Naked Truth, which was at St George’s Hall earlier this year starring Bradford’s Jayne Tunnicliffe – The eXtra Factor is billed as a cross between Big Brother and Fame Academy, ‘a comedy musical taking an ironic and hilarious look at reality shows.’ The show swings from live singing action taking place in a TV studio, as the wannabe pop stars fight for their 15 minutes of fame, to the living quarters where six finalists are holed up, all desperate to win the £1million recording contract. The winner will be decided each night by the audience.

The show is held together by Ricky St Claire, chief judge and all-round Mr Big, and its eclectic score ranges from Robbie Williams’ Angels and Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love to Donny Osmond’s Puppy Love, David Essex’s Gonna Make You a Star and Europe’s The Final Countdown. Yes, really.

Kevin Kennedy, who was at the Alhambra this year starring as Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, plays Ray, a larger-than-life Northerner who doesn’t take life particularly seriously. Married twice, he’s an irritating joker but a likeable bloke underneath. And he just happens to be living with a terrible secret! Antony Costa, who shot to fame aged 20 in boy band Blue, takes on the role of contestant Cal, a naïve, unworldly lad who’s the only child in a single parent family. His mother has doted on him and, realising his potential as a singer, has turned into a pushy showbiz mum. Before long, Cal finds he’s out of his depth.

Kelle Bryan, best known as one quarter of Nineties girl band Eternal, plays Gina, a sharp-witted, gutsy girl who, with a college education, is the brightest of the contestants. Grounded and practical, she’s the mother hen of the group but her strong moral base doesn’t fit easily with the reality of the music business.

Anthony Kavanagh knows what his character Jamie is going through, since he reached the final of a real-life TV talent show last year. Anthony made something of a name for himself in the Nineties as singer Kavana, with hits such as I Can Make You Feel Good, and more recently he was the runner-up in ITV’s Grease Is The Word, after battling it out to play the role of Danny in the West End show.

In The eXtra Factor, Anthony plays Jamie, who thinks he’s God’s gift to everyone. He’s good-looking and he knows it, and he’s also loud-mouthed, opinionated, selfish and sexist. But, hey, wouldn’t you just know it, it’s all a front. Deep down, he’s really quite insecure.

Jennifer Biddall is best known as posh student Jess in Hollyoaks. Here, she plays Harriet, the show’s token bitch who also has one of the best voices. Determined to win at any cost, she’s a bit of an enigma who has secrets that are surprising – but are they truthful? She may or may not be who we think she is.

This time last year, Russ Spencer was probably still licking his wounds after failing to set the Eurovision Song Contest alight with UK entry Scooch. The band’s memorable performance of Flying The Flag, which Russ wrote, saw them camping it up in air steward uniforms but, alas, it wasn’t enough to win over those tough-voting Balkans. The song did make the Top Five in the UK charts though, so it wasn’t all bad.

Russ is also a TV presenter, recently hosting ITV game show Make Your Play and presenting The Great Big Quiz on Five.

Finally, Suzanne Carley plays Ellie, a girlie kind of girl in her early 20s, who always looks immaculate and is aware of her beauty but, guess what, she’s insecure too! What is it about pretty young wannabe starlets – who have presumably been through stage school since they were old enough to walk, plus the rigorous audition process of a TV talent show – that makes them so insecure?

Ellie’s a bit of an airhead who must learn to toughen up if she’s to make it in the business they call show.

Suzanne made her professional debut as Sandy in the UK tour of Grease, starring opposite Jonathan Wilkes, before playing Linda in Blood Brothers.

The show arrives in Bradford just as the new series of X Factor gets underway on ITV, so it’ll be interesting to see if any of the characters mirror the real contestants. Can’t help thinking the freak show auditions might have made a much more entertaining production…

The eXtra Factor runs at St George’s Hall on September 22 to 24. For tickets ring (01274) 432000.