QUIRKY “road musical” Little Miss Sunshine is lighting up the Alhambra stage.

Based on the 2006 film, it’s the story of ten-year-old Olive Hoover, who desperately wants to enter a beauty pageant - 800 miles away. Her dysfunctional family is determined to get her to the show, and they all set off on a memorable journey across America in their grandfather’s rickety old campervan.

The show, at the Alhambra until tomorrow, stars Lucy O’Byrne, who reached the final of TV’s The Voice in 2015. “It’s a gorgeous story, with beautiful music, a lot of humour and a fantastic set. It’s not big or flashy; it’s a really lovely telling of a story about love and coming together,” she said.

“It’s about how everybody’s love for Olive, and their desire to do everything they can to get her to this pageant, brings them together as a family. Just when you think it can’t get any worse on this trip, something else comes along. But through it all they keep humour among them.”