THE big ticket show of the Derby Live autumn season sees homegrown star Robert Lindsay return to Derbyshire for a pre-West End run.

The opportunity to see the Ilkeston-born actor on the Derby Theatre stage has seen a big rush for tickets, and he delivers a performance that lives up to all the hope and promise.

He captures all the shades of Aristotle Onassis's complex personality in Martin Sherman's dramatisation of the life and loves of the Greek shipping magnate.

Lindsay oozes both charisma and danger, showing us the charm that allowed Onassis to seduce the most beautiful women in the world and demonstrating the power that made him such a dangerous man to make an enemy of. It's a fascinating snakepit of moods.

The play dives aboard the fabulously rich tycoon's yacht at the time he was chasing Jackie Kennedy, the president's wife who was the most photographed woman of her day.

To make room in his bed, Onassis rejected his long-time lover, Maria Callas, the opera singer who as good as invented the word diva.

In the end, it wasn't a fair fight. Onassis wanted Jackie Kennedy's "class" and what he wanted, he got.

The play is beautifully lit and staged, a Greek dream of sea, sand and sun suggested by a minimalist set.

The drama itself is a flotilla of conspiracy theories that Oliver Stone would be proud of, floating on a sea of Greek mythology, as we witness the power games and seductions of a celebrity set elevated to demi-god status by their obscene wealth.

Ordinary mortals are Onassis's playthings, craving his divine attention. Indeed, Sherman's script is so full of Greek mythology references you almost expect to see Zeus floating out of the clouds.

Onassis shapes the drama whether on stage or off and so strong is Lindsay's performance that the rest of the cast sometimes seem to merely orbit the star.

But Lydia Leonard captures Jackie Kennedy's glamour and Anna Francolini has a suitably operatic air of tragedy as Callas

Like the Greek gods, however, it is a jet set whose time has come and gone. Celebrity glamour fades nearly as fast as a paparazzi flashbulb.

We will have to wait and see whether the Onassis-Kennedy match still has the glamour to attract West End theatre-goers.

But it's easy to see why Lindsay was enticed by a role that allows him to demonstrate his formidable talent.

Let's hope it's not the last we see of him on the Derby Theatre stage.

WHAT: ONASSIS

WHERE: Derby Theatre.

WHEN: Until September 25.

TICKETS: From £8.

BOX OFFICE: 01332 255800.