‘Don’t sing like a bloody girl’ was the best advice this actor ever had. Now, from Sondheim to Hairspray, he’s an old musical hand.

I didn’t come from a musical household at all, but I found myself drawn to music very early. When I was in primary school I wanted to be Burt Bacharach. My mum was completely in love with him and had all his albums. Meanwhile, our Greek next-door neighbours had a piano and I used to just wander in, I was fascinated by it. I worked out how to play when I was about five or six, I think. Playing and singing, I thought that’d be cool.

Somehow we scraped some money together to get me lessons and I studied piano in high school. I remember going for my Grade 5 exam. You did an aural thing where you had to sing the intervals and the examiner said to me, “Well, for a piano player you’ve got a fantastic voice!” I said, “Yeah, but what was my piano playing like?” and she said, “Well, it’s a really good voice…” Nowadays I’m timidly coming back to piano – I’d love to learn to play again.

On the other...