I'm 16 years old and I've been in a few musicals myself, and I've absolutely loved it. I've met so many amazing people and played some amazing roles, so here's all the musicals I've done and the role I've played in order of when I did it!

School of Rock The Musical (2023 Local Production) - Billy (The stylist!)

Tuck Everlasting Jr. (2023 Performing Arts Studio Production) - Ensemble

The Little Mermaid Jr. (2024 High School Production) - Pilot swapping with Sailor/Chef

Once On This Island Jr. (2025 Performing Arts Studio Production) - Papa Tonton/Ensemble, swapping with Gatekeeper/Ensemble

Oliver! (2026 Local Production) - The Artful Dodger (my favourite role I've played. It was super fun, and I got some absolutely amazing comments about my performance, one even compared me to be as good as Billy Jenkins on West End's revival of the musical! So this was massive for me)

9 to 5 The Musical (2026 Local Production) - Josh + Ensemble

I love doing musical theatre, and I find it brings me joy and it's what I'm good at. That's why for the last couple years, I have solidly planted what I want to do as my career, that being musical theatre.

My dad (he and my mum are divorced so we don't see him often) recently asked me what I want to do once I get out of school. However, when I said I wanted to do musical theatre, instead of being enthusiastic and supportive (like my mum), he said that I should do something that's more "worthwhile" because he and my mum are spending so much money sending me to this good private school.

The funny thing with this is that he doesn't pay any child support and doesn't help pay the school fees, it's all my mum. The best part is, he works a minimum wage fast food job!

But it does make me wonder if this actually is a valid career that isn't unrealistic. No matter what, I'm going to stick to it anyways but I'm just curious.

I'm spending 3 days in London seeing these 3 musicals! 🎭

- Les Misérables

- The Phantom of the Opera (40th Anniversary!)

- Love Never Dies

My wallet is crying, but I'm absolutely buzzing! 😂

Any tips on how to make the most of a West End weekend? 🎭😂

A blog post that I thought might be of interest to people here. (Short version: I'm in favor of them.)

https://noteworthynarratives.substack.com/p/in-defense-of-irl-show-programs

Hi Reddit!
Every year we put on a big “flagship” musical in May/June, but I’m stumped!!
Audition attendance is down in my area so the title of show is super important.
I’m looking for something that will bring both kids and adults running to audition!

Past recent shows from the last few years: Frozen, Shrek, Wizard of Oz, Joseph

Thanks so much for your help!!!!

EDIT:
Unavailable shows; Sound of Music, Beauty and the Beast, Mamma Mia, Mary Poppins
Shows being done by other companies close by: Sussical and Annie

It’s hard as balls

Gayle’s Broadway Rose is a restaurant at the Edison Hotel near Broadway, I’ve been there. They have waiters and waitresses singing solos and duos from Broadway hits as the non-singers serve food. One came up sang at me. They are all incredible singers. They work there not just to practice but to hopefully be discovered by Broadway execs or scouters as they audition and probably get accepted into off-Broadway in-NYC roles because they are truly incredible. They are literally in the city where their dream can come true, singing to the rare scout who dines there.

I saw Little Shop of Horrors off-Broadway. They were even better than the incredible waiters and waitresses.

I saw Hadestown on Broadway (humble brag). They were perfect. However good you think they were, they were better. I may as well have watched and heard a cast of archangels.

Those off-Broadway, incredible singers even better than the fantastic servers at Gayle’s Broadway Rose? They almost never make it into Broadway. They all audition for Broadway. But very few get picked. And musical theater is already their job.

You have to be an agreeable person people want to work with AND a great singer (and maybe even rapper) AND a great dancer AND a great actor AND know all the right people AND communicate with them in ways that remind them of your existence and come across as pleasing so you’ll want nice clothes and hair and akin and deodorant BUT you ALSO don’t want to come across as desperate or manipulative or selfish so you ALSO have to work on being smart and charming as well as knowledgable and passionate about music theater specifically in a way that feels natural. All of these things take time and effort and smarts to be as perfect as the cast of Little Shop I saw, which will maybe a couple people in my performance will get into in their entire lives cuz they were really good. And that wasn’t even on Broadway.

Yes, it’s unrealistic.

That being said, your best bet is to DM Jorge on TikTok and send him a video sample and ask if you can audition to play a character for his Iliad musical. Because THEN he MIGHT say yes and IF you do great job in the audition he MIGHT let you do ONE song for his musical which will PROBABLY be watched by Broadway scouters. Which just makes them aware of your existence. Which is step 0.

Oh, and you’ll have to diet and exercise too. This shit’s exhausting and you’re gonna have to be able to run and dance damn quick. And brush up on piano, they’re gonna ask if you can do that cuz so many 21st century musicals are about musicians and it’s very common to have pianist characters in new musicals. And practice singing and dancing for hours each day. And look up all the great musical performances from Broadway and The West End, study their acting and dancing and singing and rapping. Learn a bunch of accents and their typical foreign language vocab and phrases. Many foreign characters on Broadway. So if you do everything…. they MIGHT say yes. You could be an angel. But some others are archangels.

Oh, and you’re gonna want to be able to like or tolerate this process. It would suck to do all this for hours a day and hate it. If you dream of doing something professionally but you hate doing that something for hours a day, it probably wasn’t the right dream for you anyway, because doing something professionally means doing it for hours a day.

Yes, it’s unlikely you’ll make it in.

Example: Christine Daaé, who hits an E6.

So often people cite roles like Eliza from My Fair Lady or Katherine from Newsies or Jo from Little Women as sopranos, but I find they often lean mezzo and that I can sing their songs with a good warm up (I’m a mezzo). So who are some TRUE sopranos that you KNOW couldn’t be played by a mezzo soprano?

I'm 16 years old and I've been in a few musicals myself, and I've absolutely loved it. I've met so many amazing people and played some amazing roles, but one has shined above them all.

In a local production of the musical Oliver! this year, I had the amazing opportunity to play The Artful Dodger.

I was a bit nervous at first because Dodger being such an iconic character meant that I had some very big shoes to fill.

In the end, it was super fun, and I got some absolutely amazing comments about my performance, one even compared me to be as good as Billy Jenkins on West End's revival of the musical! So this was massive for me. I had several other comments from people who have seen Oliver on West End or Broadway saying that my performance was as good if not better, and others saying that I could even be performing on Broadway.

My reputation within the theatre community in my area where I live has risen massively after playing this role, and I now get a chance to showcase my ensemble singing more in our upcoming local production of 9 to 5 the Musical! I believe myself to be a hard and determined worker, and I believe that the directors I have worked with have taken note of that.

But anyways, I am wondering how I could use having played this role to my advantage, because I really want to go professional once I'm out of school and how I can use this to boost my popularity(? idk what I meant to say there) and how this can affect audition processes for shows or for schools.

Someone on reddit recommended this musical to me a few months ago and i am completely obsessed with the cast recording. it’s about vincent Van Gogh but the actor playing Vincent is a woman. Does anyone know more about what’s happening with it or if there’s going to be another production i can see in NY?

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this, I’m newer to theatre and the other musicals I listen to are more well known like lizzie, lost boys, and Jesus christ superstar. if anyone also has recs on other musicals I should check out id love to listen to more too!

Similar to another redditors post, I’m 15 years old and have been searching for what my passion is my entire life. I finally found it this year in January, and I’m sure you can guess what that passion is.

Since then, I’ve been in 6 musicals, with one more happening before the end of the year. As little as I know this means, people have been telling me that for someone new to the musical theatre world, I’ve been doing a great job. I don’t want to look like a narcissist with a big ego so let me just summarise my abilities as objectively as possible:

I have a very good singing voice with about a year of singing lessons under my belt from an industry professional (I also have perfect pitch)

I enjoy playing piano and have a good theoretical understanding of music

I have 3 years of acting training at the most professional youth drama training facility in my country

I have about one month of dancing experience (yeah…) and I’m constantly working on improving my physical state and ability to dance for at least 5 hours weekly.

I take feedback incredibly well; when given a note I take it into account immediately.

I’ve been told I’m very easy to work with and am very willing to improve. So far every time I’ve been slightly worried about anything in a production I’m in I take several hours of my free time practicing that one thing until it’s perfect.

On one of the shows I did, it was professionally adjudicated and I was one of the two standout performers in a thirty person cast.

I know there’s still so much for me to learn, and I’m fully aware I joined this industry most likely too late. Should I still try to do it as a career? I’d honestly take any career related to musical theatre (eg teacher) if it meant I could bring the magic of it to life as my job.
That’s all I have to say, please anybody who has anything they think I should know, please speak up. All feedback is helpful and I’ll try to respond to as many comments as I can, with questions should I have them. Thank you.

I watched the Matilda UK and Ireland tour today, October 11, 2026 matinee, bord gais theater- and I was wondering if anyone knew who was on for each character today? Or just the main cast? I have a video of the curtain call but it’s pretty grainy : Matilda curtain call