In thousands of bedroom across this county, and millions across this country, his poster hangs.

He's a teen, with a genuine, 24-carat 'Ken and Barbie' face; a smile more Photoshopped than any Girls Aloud pull-out, and a hair style that says "I care so little I spent three hours with my own personal make-up artist sweating over this'.

His name is Troy (in real life it's Zac, yes, Zac Efron). He plays basketball, attends high school and girls aged 10 upwards absolutely ADORE him.

His girlfriend is called Gabriella, she's pretty, she sings, and she's incredibly clever.

Almost no self-respecting boy has posters of her on his bedroom wall, but girls everywhere do, because she's dating Troy and they want to be just like her...

The school holidays may be dragging to an end, but at last anyone who has children can relax a little, safe in the knowledge that, starting next week, High School Musical, or more correctly, Disney's High School Musical - Live On Stage! opens at the New Theatre in George Street, Oxford.

And for anyone over the age of 16 for whom HSM means nothing, let me just fill you in on some of the fine print.

Troy and Gabriella meet on a karaoke stage one night while on vacation. Despite the magical song they sing together, they live in different parts of America and have to accept they'll never see each other again.

But thanks to Disney, Gabriella's mum gets transferred and Gabriella ends up going to the same high school as Troy (NO WAY!).

Yup, but just to ensure that the course of true love isn't all plain sailing, it turns out Gabriella's a bit a of geek and Troy's a real sporting 'jock'.

Can they ever fall in love...?

Anyway, now you've wiped the saccharin away from your mouth, you'll doubtless be delighted to learn that the 'live' version of this astonishingly successful film takes to the stage of Oxford's New Theatre on Monday.

And let's be clear about this - you CAN expect queues.

The stars of this theatrical hit are Ashley Day, 22, and Lorna Want, 21.

According to Lorna, who trained at the Carlton Television Workshop in her home county of Warwickshire, the film's success is simple: "It's a very innocent film which all the family can enjoy. There's a lot of bad in the world so it is nice to watch a film and see something happy."

She adds: "The music is great and works terrifically well. And what's great about the show is that it has such a similarly wide appeal - it has a character for everyone. Girls dress up as cheerleaders and boys in basketball outfits. I have, unusually, even seen a mum in a cheerleading outfit..."

Having said that, Ashley is honest enough to admit that he had never even watched the movie and indeed, ONLY watched it after he'd auditioned for the lead role.

He said: "I did not have the Disney Channel at home so I never saw the film, but after a few auditions I decided to watch it.

"I had no idea what a massive thing it was, but after the first night of performing the show, Lorna and I were shocked. It was nothing like I have ever experienced in theatre before."

Lorna admits she too only sat down and caught the hype once she'd won an audition: "When I was called for the audition, I did my homework and watched the film a few times," she said.

"But once I watched it I knew it was definitely something I wanted to do."

Both stars knew they wanted to perform from young ages. Ashley started as a toddler aged three and later went on to training at Stoneland School Of Ballet and Theatre Arts with the National Youth Music Theatre.

He wowed audiences by treading the boards with various productions such as Oliver!, Oklahoma and Nutcracker. Ashley's success continued when he recorded the original cast album of Evita and Mary Poppins.

Lorna had her first claim to fame at the age of nine with her first theatre credit role of Cosette in Les Miserables and went on to other productions such as Romeo and Juliet and Evita and has had television appearances in Casualty, Holby City and Arcadia.

So despite, rather belatedly, learning of the film's huge appeal, did they ever believe that art would imitate art? (i.e., that simply by playing Troy and Gabriella here in Britain, they would experience the same level of idolisation).

Ashley added: "I didn't believe there would be screaming kids there and each night the show would be a full house. I can't even get tickets for my family!"

The HSM team have been touring cities for months now. The original Troy in the film has been a pin-up for screaming fans from here to Beijing and Ashley admits he too gets recognised after performing in the same city for a while.

He said: "I get a lot of screaming girls coming up to me after the production asking me for an autograph."

In the story, Troy is a basketball captain, so Ashley was forced to train for hours, but claims it's not a pastime he's thinking of carrying on.

He said: "I found it hard to bounce the ball, look at the audience and sing at the same time. It's a different space for each theatre nearly every week, so the floors are different, and it's very difficult."

Both Ashley and Lorna say their favourite scene in the show is singing Breaking Free and warn that Oxford should prepare itself for HSM mania.

"It's going to be a week of screaming and neighbours complaining," laughed Ashley.

Incidentally, many HSM fans naturally want to follow in their heroes footsteps, so here is some wise advice from Laura: "If it's something you really want to do and it keeps you happy, then keep doing it.

"That's really important. But once you have got that, then you have to be focused and be determined. Have fun and just enjoy it!"

Disney's High School Musical: Live on Stage, is showing at the New Theatre for one week only. For ticket information call the box office on 0844 847 1585.