WRITER and comedian Ben Elton says that jukebox musicals – shows that use old hits as the show’s score – are good value for money. Well, he would say that wouldn’t he as the writer of two such shows, We Will Rock You and Tonight’s The Night.

The former features the songs of Queen, the latter takes its pick from Rod Stewart’s songbook.

“I will argue to anyone who wants to listen that jukeboxes are not something to be ashamed of,” says Elton.

“They are filled with memories and dreams and love and laughter and they are good, fun things, and the theatre can be good fun as well. In my view, it’s a perfectly legitimate and honourable thing to seek to entertain the public with music that they love.

“The fact that the music is old and the story is new strikes me as no more reprehensible than attaching new music to an old story, such as The Lion King and Billy Elliot.”

We Will Rock You closes in May, in London’s West End, after run of 12 years. There have been countless other productions that have toured the UK and Europe.

But Tonight’s The Night, first seen in the West End over a decade ago, is getting a new lease of life in a touring version that’s coming to Sunderland and York.

Elton has always loved the show for the same reasons he’s always loved the theatre. “It’s wonderful to be a part of this community of artists, who dedicate themselves to their art and backstage may be rinsing their socks out in the sink, or whatever, and then go out and make everybody in the audience feel like champions,” he says. “What we want to say with this show, in particular, is that there’s nothing wrong with theatre being a fantastic night out that makes you feel great so that you go home feeling better than you did when you arrived – that’s what people are paying for and that’s what the theatre can do.”

What he does with Tonight’s The Night is wrap an original story around the Rod Stewart songbook. Set on the mean streets of Detroit and the glamorous clubs of uptown LA, it’s the tale of a shy young man who wants to be like his hero Rod Stewart and sells his soul for Rod’s. It’s certainly not Shakespeare or Chekhov and, besides, everyone has come to hear songs like Sailing, Do You Think I’m Sexy, Hot Legs and Stay With Me.

Elton feels even people like Bono and Paul Mc- Cartney may not surpass what Stewart has achieved.

“What’s great is that when you listen to Rod’s music and then look at his life, he always seems so fabulously good-humoured as well,” he explains.

Stewart has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, during a career spanning more than five decades. The Brit and Grammy award winner has been a pop superstar since he topped both the UK and the US charts at the same time, in 1971, with Maggie May and the album from which it came, Every Picture Tells a Story. That’s something that neither The Beatles nor Elvis Presley managed.

“So I thought what would work might be a story that brought to the stage his grace and good humour and something of his devilish side while also recognising the fact that he sings about heartache as well as anyone ever has,” says Elton.

His script involving Satan, a “soul swap” and a geeky young mechanic, called Stuart, from Detroit was conceived after a week listening to Stewart’s music intensively and trying to identify the overriding spirit of the songs all about love, good times, winning and losing girls and “all the things that quite frankly make for good stories,” he says.

“Our show’s really about a shy kid who wishes that he could be like Rod and gets his chance only then to discover that only Rod can be like Rod and that what Stuart can be is himself. The point is that you’ll do better in life if you try and build on your own strength and personality rather than being jealous and wishing you were somebody else. It’s a simple story which I think is perfect for a musical.”

Elton sent a synopsis of the script to Stewart’s manager Arnold Stiefel for his opinion. He loved it and said he was going to say that to Stewart and hoped that he’d love it too.

“To this day, I’m not sure whether Rod ever read the synopsis, but what happened was that he came to our workshop and turned to me at the end and said, ‘well, you’ve made me a legend, haven’t you?’ – which was, of course, hilarious because he’s been a legend all along.”

  • Tonight’s The Night Sunderland Empire, March 31-April 5. Box Office 0844-8713022 and atgtickets.com/sunderland York Grand Opera House, April 28-May 3. 0844-8713024 and atgtickets.com/york