If it's great comic drama you're after, The Play What I Wrote is a much acclaimed celebration of Britain's greatest double act, Morecambe and Wise and claims to be the only show with a surprise celebrity guest at every performance - so far they have included Roger Moore, Ewan McGregor, Neil Morrissey, Amanda Barrie, Honor Blackman, Richard Wilson, Nigel Havers and Sting. Who knows which celebrity will be making the journey to the Alhambra in Bradford Bradford?

A new production of The Rivals premieres in Wakefield

Another West End triumph, The Vagina Monologues, also comes to Bradford for just three performances in March. Lesley Joseph of Birds of a Feather fame is one of the three actresses (the others are yet to be confirmed) who will be giving voice to hilarious and human stories about women and their sexuality.

For good classical theatre get along to Wakefield's Theatre Royal where Compass Theatre are premiering their new production of The Rivals prior to their national tour. Sheridan's play, written in 1774, is about the tangled love story of Lydia Languish and Captain Jack Absolute - watch out for mistaken identities and Mrs Malaprop.

Mark Steel is at the Lawrence Batley in February

Wakefield also has a world premiere from Pilot Theatre of Bloodtide, based on a novel by Melvin Burgess whose novels for teenagers have sometimes attracted controversy. In a country divided by war a 14-year-old girl finds herself married off to the leaderr of the opposing clan and forcibly separated from her brother Siggy.

The Theatre Royal also plays host to a new John Godber /Hull Truck play Blood Tie And Tales. It is only a few months since Godber's last play Screaming Blue Murder premiered in Wakefield but it comes to Huddersfield at the end of March.

Other drama coming to the Lawrence Batley this spring includes the West End hit Stones in his Pockets, said to be "very Irish," as well as Theatre Clwyd's Portrait of The Artist as a Young Dog based on the short stories of Welsh bard Dylan Thomas. There's also a very strong seasonal offering from the Huddersfield Thespians - just keep looking at our weekly listings.

John Godber's new play Black Tie and Tales is at Wakefield's Theatre Royal

From Dick and Liddy's in Halifax to the Comedy Cellar in Huddersfield and Ribticklers in Wakefield, the theatres' monthly comedy clubs are back. Big comedy names coming to West Yorkshire include Mark Steel (Huddersfield), Ken Dodd (Bradford) and even Bill Bailey (Bradford) if you can wait until May.

West Yorkshire audiences also get another chance to learn all about the world's best literature when The Reduced Shakespeare Company come to the Victoria Theatre in Halifax with their newest show All The Great Books Abridged. And, if you're looking for something completely different, the Victoria is also playing host to the Moscow State Circus.

Halifax's other regular theatre, The Square Chapel, provides spine-chilling fare with Two Victorian Tales, a dramatisation of a couple of very different stories by Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy.

Yorkshire also gets its very own Shylock in February when Northern Broadsides once again take to the road after a week of performances at the Viaduct Theatre in Dean Clough with their new production of a Merchant of Venice. Barry Rutter stars and directs.

This season will also see productions at Theatre in the Mill and the Priestley Centre For The Arts, both in Bradford and both of which had gone "dark" this time last year.

Nor are this season's highlights confined to the professional theatre. The Ilkley Players take on The Beauty Queen Of Lehane, an award-winning drama by Irish writer Martin McDonagh. Set in wild Connemara the beauty queen is a woman in her 40s who is looking for her last chance of love but her mother is determined to stop her. Prepare to be both amused and shocked.

Many actors get their first real stage experience in amateur productions. The Bingley Little Theatre's (BLT) first production of the year has mother and son Gilly and James Rogers playing their real life roles on stage in Ray Cooney's comedy Caught In The Net. This is the first main house production for 16-year-old James, who is a member of BLT's youth drama group Kaleidoscope. He plays Gavin, the son of a bigamist taxi driver, who gets in touch with the daughter of his father's other family via the internet.

Of course, spring would not be the same without music and there's only a few weeks before the Alhambra audience can party along to the sound of Greased' Lightnin.' Willy Russell's hit musical Blood Brothers also returns to the theatre after only a very short time away. On a very different scale folk singer Kate Rusby is coming to Wakefield.

Looking ahead to the autumn theatre at its grandest comes to the Alhambra with a new production of the hit musical Miss Saigon.