But during the Albury Wodonga Theatre Company's production of The Phantom of the Opera, stars Venetia Heath and Lachlan McIntyre, who portray the love struck leads Christine and Raoul, found their real world colliding with their onstage performance in some unexpected ways.

Ms Heath said she worked to bring her personal experiences to the role of Christine.

"You almost end up becoming the character," she said.

"Well me in particular.

"[Lachlan] and I are now in a romantic relationship after being in the show together."

Mr McIntyre said they'd officially become a couple a few weeks ago.

"It's a wonderful symmetry," he said.

"It doesn't often happen that way, so it's quite special to us."

Mr McIntyre said it was one of many parallels the pair had discovered between their real lives and their characters.

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"In the dressing room scene, which is early in the first act, Raoul visits Christine after her performance to see whether she remembers him and to see if there's any fondness there," Mr McIntyre said.

"They reconnect after several years of not really being in contact with each other and something similar has happened again between Venetia and I."

Mr McIntyre said he and Ms Heath had worked together on the Vicar of Dibley production in 2012.

"I remember being quite taken with her then," he said.

"She's since reminded me of all this, because she's got a better memory than I do, but apparently, I asked her out and she wasn't sure.

"I did get her number, but apparently I never really followed it up and then I moved away after about a year to study and didn't really think about it again until I was cast in this show."

Mr McIntyre said when they were thrown back together for rehearsals their love started to bloom.

"We found we have so many common interests," he said.

"We enjoyed each others' company."

Ms Heath said the music was instrumental in bringing them together.

"We like the same music," she said.

"And we both really love Phantom, it's our favourite musical.

"We just get along so well and singing 'All I ask of you' to each other everyday, it obviously gets to you."

Mr McIntyre said he, like Raoul to Christine, was drawn to Ms Heath because of her voice.

"That voice, the singing," he said.

"That was the first thing and then everything follows from there.

"If someone likes singing like I do, then you hear people in that way and you can communicate with them in that way, which is different to speaking with someone. Completely different.

"So if you can understand someone on that level, there's a whole other connection there, there's a whole other set of feelings.

"But if you've heard her sing, you probably understand."

Mr McIntyre said it was nice the couple had come together in such a beautiful way.

"There's an amazing symmetry in the way that this show runs and the experiences that we've had," he said.

"It's quite unique in that regard."

The Phantom of the Opera is showing at the Albury Entertainment Centre on Thursday and Friday at 7.30pm and on Saturday at 2.00pm and 7.30pm.

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