JASON Donovan has not one, but two good reasons for coming to York.

First, he will don the frocks to play Tick/Mitzi Del Bra in the latest tour of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, The Musical at the Grand Opera House from tonight to Saturday.

Later, he will visit York Barbican on May 15 next spring when he returns to his pop roots on a 31-date solo tour, built around reactivating his 1989 debut album, Ten Good Reasons, complemented by his Greatest Hits.

York missed out on Jason when he was last on board the battered old bus as three drag artists venture into the Australian desert in search of love and friendship in Priscilla, but his love affair with the musical has brought him back to the show once more. This time, the Grand Opera House is on his itinerary.

"Look, I think for me, Priscilla is the shoe that fits, the gift that keeps giving," says the 47-year-old Aussie actor and singer. "It resonates all ways. I love this musical; it's a great Australian story, driven by the plot rather than the songs just being put together.

"That said, I have to work, I have three children who need things, so if you're going to work, why not do Priscilla, rather than just sit and wait for Ridley Scott to ring. There's currency for me, particularly in touring, where I'm happy to step in and out of the tour schedule. I have a week off, then I do York; a week off, then Edinburgh."

Jason had around five years away from the show, doing "other stuff", such as The Sound Of Music and The King's Speech, but you sense his attachment to it. "We'll be in Australia for two weeks with Priscilla; why would I say 'No' to that?!," he asks himself, with no answer needed.

He impressed in the role of Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue in The King's Speech at the Leeds Grand Theatre in May. "I loved that show and I was surprised when it didn't go into the West End, but I get it that you have big A-listers like Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh [in The Winter's Tale] doing shows in town at the moment," says Jason.

York Press:

Jason Donovan, left, as Lionel Logue, with Raymond Coluthard in The King's Speech

"But I thought it was a great English story as well as an Australian story...and I love acting! Coming back to doing Priscilla, it resonates with me as an actor again with its template of these three very strong characters and their journey through adversity."

Jason believes the musical is superior to The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, Stephan Elliott's 1994 film that inspired the spin-off. "Though you can't deny the success of the film, I think it was basically like an MTV video with characters and it arrived in the right place at the right time," he says. "What you have with the musical is a very crafted piece of theatre that has been really thought out, whereas I think Stephan wrote the movie in eight days.

"The story has a wonderful heart and it deals with issues that some people might not be comfortable with, but the world has come a long way, and I do believe we're in an age where barriers are being broken down."

Jason is in a contented place right now. "I'm enjoying this show even more than before as I don't feel I really have anything to prove," he says. "I've done the circuit; I've proved my worth. I've toured it; it's been successful; I did it in town and it was successful, and now I'm doing a bit of a victory lap with it, though after this tour, I don't think you will see it for a while. It needs a break."

He is already in the planning stage for next years's Ten Good Reasons and Greatest Hits tour. "The basis of the tour is very much the Ten Good Reasons album, which was highly successful in 1989 [achieving quintuple platinum sales]," says Jason. "I haven't toured for six years, but if your catalogue isn't current, you never feel happy just doing a greatest hits show, when you haven't been in the studio, but this new show is a good reason to do a show, playing some of the songs live for the first time."

Looking back on his days as a soap opera pin-up, playing Scott Robinson in Neighbours, Jason says: "What happened to me was that this show was in your living room every day and then I made records that complemented that show and that was the perfect storm.

"The thing about music and now the tour is that it puts you in a place like no other; music is like a drug, it becomes your god, so that once you have tapped into an emotion, it never leaves you."

Jason Donovan stars in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, The Musical at Grand Opera House, York, tonight to Saturday, 7.30pm and 2.30pm, Wednesday and Saturday.

His Ten Good Reasons and Greatest Hits tour plays York Barbican on May 15 2016. Box office: Priscilla, 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york; Ten Good Reasons, 0844 854 2757 or yorkbarbican.co.uk Ten Good Reasons also visits Leeds Town Hall, March 4; Sheffield City Hall, March 16; Hull City Hall, May  18; tickets, 0844 338 0000 or BookingsDirect.com