A musical theatre star trades standing ovations for spiritual awakening, discovering that true performance transcends the stage
Josh Piterman. Where do I begin, when there is such an extensive universe to him? He possesses an inner Eden which spins on a silent axis of spiritual splendour. A quote from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night comes to mind, ‘If music be the food of love, play on’. Play, Music, Love. These are all words which unpretentiously tumbled out when referring to himself, be it his career, his journey, if not, his life.
For those who are immersed in the world of musical theatre, his name will instantly cause waves of excitement and admiration and yet, for the ones who hear him sing for the very first time, they will need to keep ever so still to perceive a deeply quiet, yet ephemeral stirring in their souls.
Freedom, is how he describes the sensation which enveloped every fibre in his adolescent body when he participated in his first school musical. It was an expression of creative transcendence, firmly rooted in feelings of joy, curiosity, adventure, fun; all of which stem from the simple, gratifying act of play. This was his vocation. His destiny. Prominence beckoned.
Over 20 years he has acted, performed in globally acclaimed musicals, and sung in concerts with symphony orchestras around the world. From youth the limelight has called to him and the road to international musical recognition has been tempting as well as undeniably glorious. However, his story is not commonplace and this is exactly what makes Josh so compelling. Under the beguiling spotlights of the world’s greatest stages, he has contemplated and faced his own hero’s journey, embracing the road less-traveled and discovering that it is the most illuminating one of all.
There are a number of elements which, once they collide, irrupt into a defining moment. For Josh there was a stream of events in 2019 of great professional magnitude which led to a shift, on many levels. Australia Day, a date of national celebration in his native country, saw him perform Puccini’s Nessun Dorma outside the Sydney Opera House in the midst of an overwhelming display of fireworks. His unrivalled vocal excellence, so captivating and emotionally rousing, sealed his West End debut as the Phantom of the Opera, the pinnacle role for all musical theatre performers.
The mask, persona in Greek—that necessary fiction between self and society—represented a recurring demand for more profound existential questioning within himself, to essentially go behind the mask. Personal analysis, therapy, self-reflection, meditation, and fundamentally the exploration of spiritual and emotional well-being had been part of him long before Phantom. He openly mentions that his divorce at age 30 was the catalyst that made him look inward. After exhausting the habitual initial reaction of blaming the other party, he began meditating more prolifically to quiet the anxiety he felt.
There was also an unsettling sensation that had hounded him for years which was the strong belief that there was more to him creatively, a potential that he had not fully unleashed and he was working internally to resolve this artistic stagnation. “The mask was everything,” he reveals. Essentially, the Phantom is a damaged character, devoid of admiration, love and respect, who literally hides his disfigurement behind the mask, but it is also a representation of his psychological wounds and isolation. The Phantom’s darkness, his traumas and wounds played into Josh’s own, morphing one into the other, commanding him to journey deeper into himself, to unravel the reasons behind his own torments and pain.
Whilst suffering from physical exhaustion and loss of voice, Josh found answers through hypnosis. He relived a childhood fear of abandonment that had been resurfacing as he interpreted the Phantom. “I could finally separate myself from the Phantom,” he reflects, “and return to play him without living the experience so intensely, so consciously.” This profound ordeal revealed something transcendental—his true calling was not merely performance, but exploring the depth of the human condition, expressing the beauty of the human spirit and enlivening it within others.
Six years have passed and Josh’s life has diverted to a different dimension, one far more spiritual and less external. His journey from a victim mindset to one of growth and resilience offers powerful lessons about transformation through adversity. In 2023, he suffered a vocal injury that put a significant dent in his career, but he emerged with a profound understanding of how suffering of the mind can be transformed into strength. After immense work, he reflects that resilience isn’t just an innate quality—it can be trained and developed through facing challenges head-on. His thought provoking philosophy centres on the understanding that nothing is forever, nothing is permanent. This lack of attachment to both positive and negative experiences has become central to his approach to life.
The mask-persona is central to Josh’s existential perspective—the persona being the ego, while the soul is the unchanging, ever-present essence within us. His spiritual philosophy distinguishes between ego, which exists in separation, and soul, which seeks connection and oneness. To look at Josh, one would find it hard to fathom his battles with performance anxiety, judgment, and public validation. Yet he’s transformed these struggles through his devotion to meditation, rooted in 5,000-year-old Vedic practices. Using a mantra repeated effortlessly in the mind, he traverses deeper states of consciousness, experiencing universal love, creativity, oneness, intuition, gratitude and forgiveness.
Following his transformative journey through crisis and healing, Josh found a natural outlet for sharing his insights through podcasting and writing. He launched his podcast, appropriately titled Behind The Mask, in 2024, a year after completing his run as the Phantom in Australia in 2023. This new venture, along with his recently published book, also titled Behind The Mask, represents an organic evolution of his personal growth journey. The combination of his experiences with vocal injury, divorce, ongoing therapy, and dedicated meditation practice had given him a wealth of wisdom to share. Both the podcast and book have become platforms, enabling him to help others navigate their own challenges, embodying his belief in using what you’ve learned to support others—a full-circle moment that converted his personal struggles into a source of support for his community.
My heartfelt wish to see Josh again on the West End, led me to ask him in all sincerity if a potential return was foreseeable and his response revealed both acceptance and hope. Without a doubt, his vocal injuries have caused irreversible damage and, despite presently undergoing several treatments, he feels he cannot trust his voice for the demands of an eight show week at the moment.
Furthermore, beyond those physical limitations, his priorities have fundamentally shifted. Approaching 40, he no longer desires the constant travel and lifestyle that once defined his career. As a devoted ‘fur-daddy’ of his mischievously adorable toy cavoodle, Ziggy, he hopes to become a father one day, and acknowledges how challenging it has been to sustain personal relationships throughout his performing career. The combination of personal patterns, the demanding work schedule, and the nature of theatrical life made finding stable foundations difficult. Building lasting relationships has become his priority.
This evolution doesn’t mean abandoning performance entirely. He continues singing at concerts and corporate events, with more scheduled ahead. But his relationship with his art has transformed. He no longer needs singing work to define his sense of worth and is actively creating other income streams to move away from financial dependence on performance alone.
Through his journey of self-discovery, Josh confesses that he has learnt he’s an introvert whose most joyous moments come from being of service and contributing positively to the lives of other individuals. These are the moments that bring him the deepest sense of purpose and bliss. His younger years were spent seeking external validation and experiences, but now he focuses on what he can give to life rather than what he can get from it.
He’s discovered that balance serves him best—activities that ground his nervous system rather than the extreme highs of performance life that inevitably led to crashes and burnout. As an artist who feels creativity deep in his soul, Josh views this period as creative gestation. “I know that this journey and all I have experienced are seeds of creativity that will blossom,” he reflects, “and hopefully I will share my voice like I never have before.” He embraces that creativity forms best in silence and stillness, in simply being rather than constantly doing.
He feels a deep sense of duty to help and coach others who wish to enter musical theatre. He regularly works with universities in Australia, conducting workshops for 30-40 young theatre performers at a time. This active commitment to paying it forward is integral to his philosophy, having worked through his experiences and grown from them, he believes in passing that learning on to create ripples of positive impact, just as he learnt from others before him. “Remember,” he tells them, “you are human beings, not just human doings. We are all souls in human costumes wearing masks.”
People naturally question why someone at theatrical heights would change direction. For Josh, the answer is Ananda—”this ineffable, indescribable bliss,” he explains, “that feels equally grounded as it is euphoric.” This state of being, sought externally but found within, defines his new path. While open to future performances when destiny calls, Josh finds peace knowing he’s touched countless lives. He speaks of himself as a vessel through which the divine gift of song flows, awakening entire worlds of emotion within hearts which is both overwhelming and transcendent
I truly wonder if a blinding dawn can outshine the mysticism of a starlit night … There is undeniable splendour in both, yet I find myself returning to this contemplation. For here is a man who has illuminated the world’s greatest stages, whose voice has soared through darkness like a constellation of sound.
But stars, even the brightest, must yield to dawn. And in this sacred pause, this deliberate stillness where he tends to his soul’s garden, something extraordinary stirs. The seeds of transformation, watered by tears and tended with meditation, push through the darkness toward a light only he can see.
In finding the treasure within, Josh is poised to share it with a world that desperately needs such light; and when that dawn breaks fully, we will understand at last that touching hearts is the performance that matters most, the one that echoes long after the final curtain falls, resonating in the silence between breaths, in the space where souls recognise their own reflection mirrored in another’s journey.
This, perhaps, is his Vincerò—his, I will be victorious. Not on stages, but in the immortal theatre of the human spirit.
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