A COMPREHENSIVE season celebrating the work of Bradford writer JB Priestley is to begin at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds which has just announced its autumn and winter schedule.

The J B Priestley season will comprise three stage plays and a weekend conference. Between September and November the Playhouse explores the life, work and politics of Priestley.

From August 29 to September 29, Jude Kelly directs Johnson over Jordan with Patrick Stewart leading a cast of ten.

This is the first time that Johnson over Jordan has received a major revival for more than 50 years.

Laurie Sansom directs Dangerous Corner from September 7 to October 13, presented by West Yorkshire Playhouse, Nica Burns for Really Useful Theatre, Max Weitzenhoffer and Lee Dean.

Following performances at Leeds, Dangerous Corner will make a West End transfer.

From October 26 to Nobvember 24, Playhouse associate artistic director Ian Brown directs a new production of Eden End.

A weekend event, 'Priestley, the Politics of Reputation, takes place from September 14 to September 16 comprising lectures, debates, play readings, excursions and film screenings.

As wll as the Priestley season, the Playhouse will also stage comedian Griff Rhys Jones starring in Horse and Carriage, a farce directed by Deborah Norton.

Horse and Carriage is adapted by former Goodie Graeme Garden from Le Mariage De Barillon, written in 1891, by Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallieres.

The play is set on Monsieur Barillon's wedding day. Everything is going to plan - he just has to fend off the amorous advances of the bride's mother, stop the young suitor Patrice from stealing his bride to be, and avoid the mayor whom he has inadvertantly challenged to a duel. Horse and Carriage runs from November 2 to December 1.

Jude Kelly's hit musical Singin' in the Rain returns to West Yorkshire Playhouse from December 10 to February 23, prior to a nation tour.

The hugely successful show played to sell-out audiences at the Playhouse in the winter of 1999 and at the Royal National Theatre for summer and Christmas 2000. It won a 2001 Olivier Award for Most Outstanding Musical Production.

The first new production of 2002 is Jude Kelly's adventurous staging of the Wizard of Oz in the Courtyard Theatre.

The show ill combine live action and a virtual cast of hundreds, with Patrick Stewart appearing in digital form as the Wizard. It will run from February 11 to March 30.

Children and families have a great choice of entertainment to pick from over the next few months. Two shows by Leeds-based writer Mike Kenny will be performed - Blah Blah Blah's production of Ho Ho Ho from December 5 to December 29 (for all ages), and Gail McIntyre directs a Playhouse Schools Touring Company production of Visiting Grandad (for three to seven year olds), which will be performed at the Playhouse from December 17 to December 22, in addition to a tour of local schools.