Once again all the spectacle of the Phantom of the Opera comes to the Alhambra, but this time it is here with a difference as the Russian Ice Stars bring the show to Bradford on ice.

The Alhambra's stage is to be turned into a frozen ice rink. Artistic director Tony Mercer says it takes 14 tons of real ice together with one and a quarter miles of pipework to create the stage with his team working in a temperature of 15 degrees. This feat is all the greater because at the end of the week the company will have to move on and create the ice stage again in some other town.

Even when the rink is completed the surface temperature has to be monitored day and night and the surface scraped and re-surfaced with hot water during the intervals in performances.

Director Tony Mercer comments: "We were blessed to have an incredibly talented company of skaters, who worked tirelessly and were able to interpret nearly every request made of them onto the ice. One must always remember that all skaters learn their techniques on ice rinks that are usually 60 metres x 30 metres and here we were asking for the same spectacular jumps, spins and lifts to be completed in a space no more than 12 metres x 12 metres. No mean feat in itself. A skater might spend up to four days just working out how to confine a particular jump onto the small space we were giving them in order not to lose any of the excitement normally reserved for the big ice arenas."

In this new production of the show the Russian Ice Stars who include many of the world's finest skaters (many are former Olympic winners) are joined by members of the Moscow Circus on Ice to provide new and fantastic flying sequences.

The plot is, of course, based on the familiar love story of the Phantom for Christine, originally created in the novels of Gaston Leroux. Here the music and songs are provided by Italian composer Roberto Donova.

Live vocals are used to narrate the show. Kathy Dooley and David Lawrence are the singer-narrators on this tour. Kathy has achieved international success as a member of the Dooleys band.

The show is brought to the Bradford stage by Barnsley lass and theatrical producer Vee Deplidge who first conceived the idea of bringing the Russian Ice Stars to Britain in musical shows after watching a skating video.

Vee says: "It hit me like a sledgehammer. A new art form, a concept that had never been done before. Ice shows were becoming very popular at that time. I had always loved the theatre and thought that theatre on ice was long overdue and could be brought to the masses."