TELEVISION star Paul Nicholas is taking the lead role in Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to a North-East theatre.

The Leslie Bricusse and Frank Wildhorn hit Broadway musical is playing at the Sunderland Empire from May 17 to 21.

A tale of romance and the epic battle between good and evil, it is based on Robert Louis Stevenson's story about a brilliant doctor whose experiments with human personality create a murderous counterpart.

Convinced the cure for mental illness lies in the separation of Man's evil nature from his good, Dr Henry Jekyll unwittingly unleashes his own dark side, wreaking havoc in the streets of late-19th Century London as the savage, maniacal Edward Hyde.

The pop score includes the hit songs This is the Moment, A New Life, Someone Like You and Once Upon a Dream.

Tickets are £9 to £25, available by calling the box office on 0870 602 1130.