THE last time Jason Donovan was seen on the Leeds Grand Theatre stage, he was strutting around in fishnets and stilettos as Frank N Furter in the 25th anniversary tour of The Rocky Horror Show, or The New Rocky Horror Show as it was known in that 1998 incarnation.

His return to West Yorkshire, 13 years later, could not be more contrasting. He is playing the straight and proper Captain Von Trapp in The Sound Of Music at the Grand.

“The film was never something I got particularly excited about as a child… if you’re a boy like myself, I was more interested in Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory than in Maria’s passage,” says the Australian star of stage and screen and erstwhile Neighbours pin-up.

“But now that I’ve studied it for the tour, I’ve discovered that Captain Von Trapp is a very stern man. He’s a captain, he regiments his kids, he’s stilted, but underlying it all is this sadness that he has lost his wife. So there’s a very human side to it.”

When deciding whether he should take the role, Jason did not look at the film but caught the stage play in Liverpool last year, having previously seen it at the London Palladium.

“I wanted to see if the role was right for me,” he says. “I watched it with me in mind and what I saw was that it was primarily an actor’s part, and that’s when I feel most comfortable. It’s not that I’m not comfortable with singing but I like it being an actor’s role.

“I saw the show, I loved the show and having just done Priscilla Queen Of The Desert and Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds, I thought this was another interesting person to play, in a quality production, and I do like to do quality.”

Jason had played Tick, the Hugo Weaving character from the Aussie drag-queen film, in Priscilla for a year in the West End – “that was pretty unique!”– and the Artillery Man in the arena tour of Wayne’s musical epic.

“That was great. I enjoyed myself on stage like never before as it was a character I wasn’t expecting to find, but once I locked on to it, I found this dishevelled dreamer,” he says.

Jason leaves the role of Captain Von Trapp on June 20, but will return for another four-week stretch after re-living his Eighties’ pop-darling days on the Here And Now tour with Boy George, Belinda Carlisle, Midge Ure and Jimmy Somerville.

Here and now, however, he is enjoying himself in The Sound Of Music.

“It’s probably the world’s most popular musical and there’s a reason for that,” he says. “It’s a well-told story, a Cinderella story essentially, a wonderful family piece with great songs but with darkness underneath, and it really commands all those elements.

“And for me it’s a chance to play an older character. Do the maths. I’m 43. I could have seven children.”

• The Sound Of Music, Leeds Grand Theatre, until June 25. Please note, Jason Donovan will not be appearing in the show from June 20 to 25. Box office: 0844 848 2705 or leedsgrandtheatre.com