A secret centre of the musical theatre universe lies almost 5,000 kilometres (3,000 miles) from Broadway in a modestly grand house in Toluca Lake, in the US city of Los Angeles.
Pop singer Ariana Grande, who plays Galinda in the film adaptation of Wicked, has spoken often and at length about how long and how rigorously she worked on raising her pitch and honing her voice before auditioning for her dream role – and the house’s owner, Eric Vetro, is the man who coached her.
Vetro is perhaps the leading vocal teacher and trainer of big names on stage and screen, including several of the leads in the Wicked adaptation.
The list goes on and on and on.