AUSTRALIAN star of stage and screen Jason Donovan is returning to the musical Priscilla Queen Of The Desert – Our Journey in the role of Sydney drag queen Tick, visiting the Grand Opera House, York, from November 30 to December 5.

Based on the Oscar-winning movie, The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert, this award-winning musical adventure follows three friends who hop aboard a battered old bus searching for love and friendship and end up finding far, far more.

The show features more than 500 costumes, 200 extraordinary head-dresses and a hit parade of dancefloor favourites such as It’s Raining Men, Boogie Wonderland, What’s Love Got To Do With It, I Love The Nightlife, Pop Muzik, I Will Survive and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

Donovan, the one-time Neighbours soap regular, has played Joseph in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Captain Georg von Trapp in The Sound Of Music, along with roles in Festen, Sweeney Todd, Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds and Annie Get Your Gun.

This week, Donovan, 46, is playing maverick Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue in The King’s Speech opposite Raymond Coulthard’s King George VI at Leeds Grand Theatre, where he appeared in Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert in July 2013.

Meanwhile, Donovan will go back to his pop roots next year on a 20-date solo tour where he will play his 1989 debut album, Ten Good Reasons, in its entirety complemented by his greatest hits. Among the shows between February 26 and March 24 will be Leeds Town Hall on March 4 and Sheffield City Hall on March 16.

Ten Good Reasons was the biggest-selling album of 1989, spawning two solo number ones, Too Many Broken Hearts and Sealed With A Kiss, and a chart-topping duet with fellow Neighbours star Kylie Minogue, Especially for You.

Neighbours celebrated 30 years in production this year, when Jason appeared alongside Kylie in a special edition, Neighbours 30th: The Stars Reunite, as cast members past and present looked back on the years of Ramsay Street. Jason also became an honorary member of EastEnders when the BBC1 soap opera’s cast paid tribute to the antipodean counterpart’s anniversary.

Next year’s concerts will be the first time Donovan has toured as a solo artist for six years and his first tour of the Ten Good Reasons album.

“You know, I’ve never played some of these songs live ever before,” he says. “Music has a wonderful opportunity to put you in a time and place, an emotional connection that no other creative medium can. Ten Good Reasons was a defining moment for me and my fans. It was the perfect marriage between music and personality. I was 21 at the time. Wow!”

The opportunity to work with Stock Aitken and Waterman, the Eighties pop producers, was a “dream come true”. “I was a big fan of Rick Astley’s album and absolutely loved Never Gonna Give You Up and couldn’t believe my luck when working with SAW became a reality. The melodies, the production, the whole package was like a first-class ride,” says Donovan.

“Hearing the completed versions of Too Many Broken Hearts and Especially For You, in particular, were moments in my professional life that I’ll never forget; the door was wide open and I was at the centre of this incredible moment in time. You just knew that something magical was happening. It was very exciting. Only when I realise now that these are distant memories, do I appreciate how lucky I was.”

Too Many Broken Hearts was to be the first of four Donovan solo hits to make the top spot. “It changed my life. To this very day, every time I play that song live the entire audience goes nuts,” he says.

Donovan took inspiration from Peter Gabriel when deciding to perform Ten Good Reasons in concert. “One of my favourite albums of all time was Peter Gabriel’s So. When I saw ads for a So album tour, I thought ‘what a good idea’. It’s the opportunity to play an album from top to bottom in its true authenticity while giving the fans exactly what they want,” he says.

Donovan promises passion and memories aplenty in his performances. “Whether it’s theatre or touring, I’ve always placed a high importance on giving my fans a great live show,” he says. “Although so much time has passed since I recorded Ten Good Reasons, it has the ability to transport us all back to the halcyon days of the Eighties and Nineties.”

• Tickets for Leeds can be booked on 0113 224 3801; Sheffield, 0114 2789 789.

• Tickets for Priscilla’s 7.30pm evening shows and 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees in York cost £11.50 to £44.50 on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york

• Tickets for The King’s Speech on sale on 0844 848 2700 and at leedsgrandtheatre.com; performances start at 7.30pm plus a 2.30pm Saturday matinee.