Nancy Churnin

Throngminh Do, who goes by the name Tommy, was too busy with ice-skating lessons and competitions to catch High School Musical mania – until he was cast in Disney's High School Musical: The Ice Tour.

"I didn't really know what it was all about until I got on tour," the 18-year-old says by phone from his native Boston. "None of us knew what this would bring us until our opening night in Florida when all the kids were screaming, screaming, screaming and waving their hands. It was an amazing, amazing feeling to have so many kids come up for autographs!"

And now, you won't find a bigger High School Musical fan than Tommy, who skates the part of Gabriella's smart buddy Brainiac in the show. It will be at American Airlines Center from Wednesday through March 30, and at the Fort Worth Convention Center in early April.

The High School Musical story mixes a little Romeo and Juliet with Grease, with contemporary and G-rated twists. Troy, the captain of the basketball team, and Gabriella, a whiz in math and science, fall for each other but are kept apart by the resistance of their respective cliques. They try to break out of other people's expectations for them (as well as their own safety zones) by auditioning for the high school musical. Their daring inspires others to take some chances as well.

"I can't believe I'm part of something so big and so great," says Tommy, who is the youngest performer in the cast. "It feels like a fifth year of high school, too, because a lot of us are figure-skating competitors straight out of high school."

The show merges High School Musical and High School Musical 2 , allowing Mr. Do to also play one of the pool boys who brings Sharpay "towels imported from Turkey, turkey imported from Maine" in the song "Fabulous."

Although the songs are taped, all that ice skating is very much live, and very high-energy, thanks to the direction by Kenny Ortega. Mr. Ortega also directed those high-stepping moves in both High School Musical movies.

Mr. Do started skating when he was 5. He was all set to head off to college after his high school graduation when a friend helped him get an audition tape to a Disney on Ice casting director in Florida. A Disney on Ice show came to town, and he was invited to demonstrate his skating edges, jumps and show tricks. A month later, he had the part. His tour began in August and was just extended to next August.

His parents, who emigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam, were a little surprised, but "they got it," he says of his choice of skating over college. "They were very supportive."

It's the second job he's held, and he says it absolutely beats his first one, working in a shoe store.

He loves the 34-person ensemble, the 100 percent effort everyone puts into the skating and the audience's roaring approval. But it's the message of the show that really gets to him, he says, because it says so much about why he is where he is in his life.

"It's about following your passion, and if you love to do something, then go out and do it," he says.

Even now, after performing the show as many as three times a day in a 12-show week, he still gets a thrill at the end of Act One, when the company performs to the song "We're All in This Together." It's a thought he really likes: "We're different in a good way."

$1 from each ticket sold for Wednesday's performance will be donated to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America to support youth initiatives.

'Musical' mania continues

Think you'll need another High School Musical fix?

•High School Musical: The Ice Tour will be at the Fort Worth Convention Center April 4-6. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

•Dallas Summer Musicals will present High School Musical on Tour! July 2-13 at the Music Hall at Fair Park. Individual tickets will go on sale in May. More details at www.dallassummer musicals. com.

•The big-screen High School Musical 3: Senior Year is due in theaters Oct. 24.