AN epic love story, a Sixties icon and a 20th Century Boy are all lighting up the Alhambra stage’s shimmering new season.

The 2018 spring/summer season opens with 20th Century Boy - The Musical, celebrating the glam rock hits of Marc Bolan - including Metal Guru and I Love to Boogie - 40 years after his untimely death. Also heading for the Alhambra is Titanic The Musical, based on real people aboard the doomed ship, claimed by the sea in 1912. The stirring show focuses on the hopes and dreams of passengers.

Other new musicals include An Officer And A Gentleman, with a score of 80s anthems including Up Where We Belong and Girls Just Want to Have Fun; Fat Friends The Musical, Kay Mellor’s stage adaptation of her hit TV comedy; and Son Of A Preacher Man, a funny, touching show about Dusty Springfield, featuring hits such as The Look Of Love and I Only Want To Be With You, directed and choreographed by Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood.

Other highlights include Cameron Macintosh’s Miss Saigon, coming to Bradford for a month. In the last days of the Vietnam war, a young woman falls in love with an American GI. When they’re torn apart by the fall of Saigon, she embarks on an epic journey of survival to find her way back to him.

The Play That Goes Wrong, a hit West End comedy, is described as "Fawlty Towers meets Noises Off", An Evening of Eric & Ern, pays homage to Morecambe and Wise; and Thoroughly Modern Millie, set in Jazz Age New York, stars Hayley Tamaddon as a feisty flapper girl re-writing the rules of love. Also working its way back to Bradford is smash hit Jersey Boys, winner of nearly 60 awards worldwide, including the Olivier for Best New Musical.

For dance fans there’s Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella, re-worked as a wartime romance set in Blitz-hit London, and Strictly Come Dancing favourites Kevin And Karen Cliftons’ show Dance - The Live Tour.

Ahead of his 20th Alhambra panto, Billy Pearce is in town with his stand-up show, and other comics include Rich Hall, Tez Ilyas and Count Arthur Strong. There’s music from The Searchers and the Bowie Experience’s Golden Years tour.

* For tickets call (01274) 432000.