Alexandra Burke brings The Bodyguard to Playhouse

X FACTOR winner Alexandra Burke is coming to the Capital to play the lead role in a smash-hit musical.

Alexandra Burke. Picture: Getty

Romantic thriller The Bodyguard, which starred Whitney Houston in the big-screen version, will be staged at the Playhouse next autumn.

Burke, 26, will play Rachel Marron, an Oscar-nominated music superstar who is being stalked and sent death threats.

She then hires former Secret Service agent turned bodyguard Frank Farmer – played by Kevin Costner in the film – to protect her

The show’s UK tour reaches Edinburgh in September and October next year after starting its run in Southampton in February.

Burke, a three-time Brit nominee who won the fifth series of X Factor, said: “I couldn’t be happier to be joining the tour and I’m excited to get started.

“Being on the theatre stage has brought me great happiness. It is an honour to have been asked to join the team and I look forward to creating new and long lasting memories with the cast.”

Matinee performances during the run will see Zoe Birkett – the highest-placed female contestant in the 2002 series Pop Idol – in the role of Marron.

Tickets are on sale at www.atgtickets.com/venues/edinburgh-playhouse.