"I wasn't one of those kids who knew at age two that they wanted to be Broadway stars," Doug LaBrecque says. Then he adds, "my family was so non-musical, when my brothers say they can't carry a tune in a bucket, they're absolutely right. But, somehow, I got the gift."

And that gift has taken him on a straight line from Michigan to Broadway, where the 33-year-old starred as "The Phantom of the Opera".

An All-American springboard diver, the Monroe-area resident started singing at the University of Michigan. In his 10-year professional career since graduation, LaBrecque has touched musical bases of Broadway talents who once lived in this region.

Here are some of his musical connections:

On Broadway, he starred as Gaylord Ravenal in "Showboat" - the landmark musical written partially in Tuxedo Park and Central Valley by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein. Regionally, he sang the lead in Stephen Sondheim's "Follies", written at Sondheim's retreat home on the Orange/Sullivan county line; and "A Chorus Line" whose author James Kirkwood lived in Callicoon. LaBrecque was featured in the world premiere of "A Wonderful Life" written by Ulster County's Joe Raposo; and starred in the premiere revival of Kurt Weill's "Love Life". Weill fled Hitler in the early 1930s and lived in Nyack with his wife, singer Lotte Lenya.

Before starring as The Phantom, the handsome, critically acclaimed tenor performed the role of Raoul, Christine's lover, in the show's Toronto production and on the national tour.

But this year, except for concert appearances such as those next weekend with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, he's become "a home-improvement person. I bought an old house and I'm restoring it." With a laugh, he said, "What people say about fixing up an old house, that it's a money pit, they're right."

This "break" from Broadway comes "after working non-stop for 10 years. I needed a break from the eight-shows-a-week routine."

One reason he picked the Monroe area: "I love the proximity to the city. It's easy to commute when I'm doing Broadway. I'm only 48 miles away. And I love living here. There is such a friendly spirit about Orange County. The people are really nice. It's like family."

Besides working on the home, "I entertain a lot. I have a lot of friends who enjoy coming up to the country for a weekend," he says, borrowing a line from Sondheim's "A Little Night Music". He adds that his guests enjoy his cooking. "I won't say that I'm a chef, but I think I'm a good amateur cook."

Single, he lives with two dogs, and relaxes from the hammer-and-nailing by playing golf, "a game I love. I'm beginning to discover some of the golf courses in the county, and I'll make up my mind soon about which one to join."

When LaBrecque performs with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, he'll be joined by two other Broadway artists. The three have done these concert shows a number of times throughout the U.S.

Soprano Jan Horvath was in the original Broadway cast of "Phantom" and appeared opposite Sting in "The Threepenny Opera". She won raves in the European press as Queen Isabella in the world premiere of "Encounter 500" at La Sistina, in Rome.

Baritone Douglas Webster has enjoyed a widely varied career, including playing Jean Valjean on Broadway in "Les Mis" and singing the lead in the opera "Don Giovanni". Two of his proudest musical moments: on Jan. 16, 1989, he starred on a live, international radio broadcast celebrating Martin Luther King; and he is "Prince Charming" on Telacr Record's "A Disney Spectacular". He also recently recorded Beethoven's folk songs with the New York Vocal Arts Ensemble Vanguard Records.