Yay to musicals! Some of my lucky friends have seen The Phantom of the Opera on its run in Melbourne; me, being broke (but luckier than them, having spent my money on Muse and Silverchair among other things), will have to give that a miss. I've seen a few professional musicals live -- Oliver!, The Wizard of Oz and The Lion King. The kiddie musicals aren't actually my favourite genre, but the first two were gift tickets and the production for the last one was amazing, so that's what drew me to them. My favourite musical is Rent though; I love its sheer exuberance. Phantom isn't bad either, although Lloyd Webbers do tend to get fairly repetitive.

I've been in some school productions -- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and Oliver!, both times just as a chorus part. Can't dance to save my life and my acting's pretty shoddy as well. But I had so much fun doing those. Being on stage is addictive, I tell you. You get to meet some cool people too. It's a shame your school wasn't equipped to do productions, Tony, but does your uni do them? Apparently they're a lot tougher workload-wise than school productions adn people can get really serious, but you could have a look into it anyway. If you're in college, college plays are good too, and apparently a lot more fun.

Incidentally, my school did Guys and Dolls six years ago. It was absolutely amazing, and both Adelaide and Sarah really shone. Ah good times...

About the singing, I took vocal lessons for a while too, but being in year eleven at the time I was lazy and unwilling to spend my time practising or really paying attention to my vocal issues, unfortunately, so they didn't really help me... which sucked. But if it's a confidence issue, I suggest joining a community choir or something. It's good to meet people who are working towards the same thing as you are, especially if you have the same issues. Look for something casual though, because auditioned choirs (and some unauditioned ones, like the one I'm in) are damn intimidating. Preferably one where they say you don't have to read music and they mean it, and definitely one that sings styles of music you like. (Okay, it's pretty hard to find such a specific choir in Melbourne, I know...) But I reckon it helps because hanging around with people who sing makes singing feel so natural you lose your inhibitions.