IT launched the careers of musicians Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Hannah Reid of London Grammar fame.

Youth Music Theatre, which also has a host of successful alumni currently on the West End stage, is touring the country looking for stars of the future.

Auditions for the class of 2017 will take place at The Point in Eastleigh on Saturday January 28.

Each audition team is made up of a professional director, choreographer and musical director, who will identify, through group workshops, the skills and talents which make up the best performers.The experts will be assessing strengths and abilities in acting, singing and dancing. But it's not all about bags of training, they're looking for energy, inventiveness and a willingness to learn.

One of the flagship shows of the Youth Music Theatre season 2017 will be the world premiere of A Teenage Opera, a new musical with a 50 year history behind it! As the booming British music industry exploded at Abbey Road in 1965-67 and the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper, A Teenage Opera became one of the great mysteries of musical theatre. Originally envisaged as an animation along the lines of Yellow Submarine, it has taken composer Mark Wirtz until now to bring it to the stage.

The season will also feature a powerful new contemporary dance and song project, Dance Connection 2, exploring new interpretations of the Swan Lake story; the tragic tale of Tess of the d’Urbervilles will be juxtaposed through the form of commedia dell’arte; see a rip-roaring, fantastical Gulliver’s Travels with music from Duke Special; and a darkly imaginative Jabberwocky takes a modern view of characters from Alice through the Looking Glass as experienced by a teenage girl at a London comprehensive.

Young people will have the chance to perform in some of Britain’s most exciting venues – including the architectural award-winning Lyric Theatre, Belfast; Victorian classic, Theatre Royal, Portsmouth; the Edinburgh Festival and London.

Previous performers are currently appearing in a number of West End shows - Kayleigh McKnight in Les Miserables, Luke McCall in Phantom of the Opera, Richard Lowe in Avenue Q and Gabriel Mokake in Dreamgirls

To book an audition, call 020 8563 7725 or visit youthmusictheatre.org