Just because you are successful in one area does not necessarily mean you're going to be successful in another.

I don't listen to so much music now. I did when I was younger. Music is so much part of my work. I like peace and quiet now when I go home.

I've never been very good at manipulating my career, but fortunately I haven't needed to.

My first singing role was as Susanna in a school production in a shortened form of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. I loved to sing and I was given lots of encouragement by a wonderful music teacher Mrs Ann Hill and by my parents who suggested I go to drama school.

I have been extremely pleased to support the Trust's work in the Lupus Unit ever since. Personal experience also motivated me to become involved to help raise the awareness of the disease and hopefully thereby improve the speed of diagnosis.

You couldn't even write me a paper about the roles you would dream of playing in modern musical theatre.

"Evita" obviously would always be very special to me because it was the first major musical that I did on stage and created in the U.K. with Hal Prince directing.