Musicals allow a depth of emotion that you don't get in another form of acting, the chord changes, the lyrics really affect people, so that in two hours, you've forgotten about things.

I'd always had this hankering to try some opera.

I need to have a sleep before a show and a quiet hour. I need to get dressed following the same routine. And I like to smell right for a show.

I play roles, but when I'm off stage, I always try to be myself.

I've recorded a few Bacharach songs over the years and performed some in concert and always felt they suited me.

All you have to offer as a performer is yourself.

Try to leave people feeling better for having met you.

I used to bottle things up.

Songs from the theatre can be taken and put on record in a commercial and contemporary way, be reinvented and become standout tracks on their own.

I will always tour, it's hard work it really is hard work, but the feedback and the buzz you get back from it is worth it.

I love a drink. But I've never, ever in my life been on a stage and done a performance with an alcoholic drink inside me. Never have, never would. I've seen people who do and invariably they're never as good as they think they are.

You can generate a phenomenal relationship with an audience. It's very gratifying, a real privilege.

As a performer, once you've understood the genre of musical theatre, you can tire very quickly of the two-dimensional stuff. With Sondheim, it's always a challenge. It's difficult and exhilarating and he's so good on the complexities of relationships and on things going wrong.

Bacharach has such a brilliant ear for melody and his music has a completely timeless feel to it; I thought it would be great to do a whole album of his music and to record with a full orchestra and big band which is something I hadn't done before.

I tap my fingers and cheekbones before going on stage to calm down. But nerves are necessary; if you ever lose them, it's a bad sign.

You can't ever make assumptions about a family tree.

I understand the power of music, I understand the therapeutic nature of music, the sense of community that music engenders, so I totally understand why it still goes on, choirs come together as a focal point for a community.

This was a seminal moment in my life - my dad took me to see the original production of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' at the Palace Theatre in 1973. I thought it was just amazing, so powerful. The idea of using rock music to tell the story of Jesus was incredible.

That's the only show where, if anyone says to me, 'Is there a role you want to play?', I say, yeah, I want to play Sweeney Todd. Stephen Sondheim's so clever; it's a profoundly brilliant piece of work.

You have to be on your game with a live audience because anything can change.

You can't get down and dirty at the opera.

Well, I try not to let people down in the work that I do or in how I conduct myself.

The first time I encountered Stephen Sondheim was like everyone else: through snatches of old songs people performed in drama school, through 'Send in the Clowns,' which everyone knew. I wasn't aware at the time that he was the writing force behind 'West Side Story' and 'Gypsy.'

Country songs are theatrical songs, they tell stories, and wear the hearts on their sleeves and they have great melodies.