Post by Talissa on Apr 14, 2006 14:32:31 GMT 11
From Sydney Morning Herald
Wild about cabaret, part II
By Bryce Hallett
April 14, 2006
After heading down a few musical dead ends, David Campbell returns to
what he does best.
ABOUT FIVE YEARS, ago David Campbell decided he didn't want to be
typecast as a cabaret crooner destined to play the red velvet lounges
or late-night cabaret spots. By then he had made an impression with
cabaret audiences in New York and was signed to perform in some of
Manhattan's sophisticated haunts, including the prestige Rainbow and
Stars room.
The Broadway singer Barbara Cook and crooner Michael Feinstein were
ardent fans. A reviewer in New York's Time Out magazine declared that
Campbell was "the hottest thing to hit the Village circuit since
Streisand".
But the Adelaide-born singer-actor was having none of it. He wasn't
even sure if he wanted to don a black jacket and tie again.
Most surprising of all, he turned down a leading role in the Broadway
production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, admittedly a boy-next- door
character that didn't challenge him as an actor, but how many
opportunities like that come along?
Living in New York was costly and money was scarce. The performer had
also broken up with his fiancee, Natalie Mendoza, whom he had met in
1998 when performing the role of Marius in Les Miserables. It was
time to return home and reconsider his future, he recalls.
It is the morning after Campbell has been showing Melbourne audiences
his erection - in a very coy, cute way - in William Finn's musical
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, co-starring Magda
Szubanski, Marina Prior, Tyler Coppin and Mendoza.
The Melbourne Theatre Company production, directed by Simon Phillips,
opened in January and was a big hit and is expected in Sydney later
this year. For Campbell, 32, it has helped rescue him from a career
cul-de-sac.
For a time he tried, with some success, to make a name as a pop
singer. On the strength of his star turn as Johnny O'Keefe in the
musical Shout!, Sony gave him a recording contract and he released a
number of pop singles, including Hope, When She's Gone and End of the
World. The record company sent him to London and Europe to work with
pop artists and he dabbled in songwriting.
"I went into the wilderness after Shout!," he says. "I try and learn
from my mistakes and open myself up to different experiences but
there are frustrating periods when you think, 'Should I have done
that? . . . Should I do this?' ... There are not enough opportunities
in Australia and it's hard to develop because of that. There are so
many great performers out there but too few shows . . . Unless you
can do puppet work and belt out Elton John songs, you're out of work."
Campbell, who lives in Milsons Point, is rarely seen on stage in
Sydney these days. Most of his theatre work has been in Melbourne,
notably for Jeanne Pratt's Production Company presentations of
Guys ... Dolls, Carousel - for which he won rave reviews as Billy
Bigelow - and, most recently, Sunset Boulevard, playing the
screenwriter Joe Gillis opposite Judi Connelli's shunned goddess
Norma Desmond.
His last big role in Sydney was in Shout! in 2002, the last show
Richard Wherrett would direct before he died. "I had to gather myself
after that show," Campbell says. "It was exhausting playing O'Keefe
for a year. I tore a ligament and regret that I wasn't more able-
bodied at the end. I'm a natural ham and can get evangelical on
stage . . . I probably don't give myself the time to be
introspective. After Shout! I didn't want to take control and do jobs
that would help
make me a more accomplished entertainer.
"Hosting a radio show helped enormously but the pop thing didn't work
out and the album clearly wasn't working. I've learnt that you can't
shut the door [to different things] if you're passionate about live
performing."
Last year, Campbell went to see his friend Tim Draxl perform his
cabaret show at the El Rocco Room @ Bar Me, a small, unpretentious
basement room in Kings Cross. Several years earlier he had introduced
Draxl to audiences during one of his cabaret shows and soon Draxl
would carve an impressive career on the same turf. And just like
Campbell, he too would be anxious about being pigeon-holed as the
handsome young crooner.
"When I saw Tim's show I saw how much fun he was having," Campbell
says. "I realised it was time for me to give it a go again." And so
he did, for a sold-out season in the same modest venue. He mixed
Springsteen and Sondheim, threw in O'Keefe and Sammy Davis jnr, and
brought the room to a hush singing Mr Bojangles. On the opening night
of Doin' Cabaret 'n' Stuff, his old man, the rock'n'roller Jimmy
Barnes, joined him on stage for a duet. The crowd went wild.
So successful was Campbell's intentionally brief return to cabaret
that it has paved the way for the performer's most ambitious, self-
styled show to date, called Wild with Style, directed by Dein (Tap
Dogs) Perry. Opening at the Opera House Drama Theatre next Friday, it
features a band led by musical director Michael Tyack.
"It's Buble with balls," says Campbell half-jokingly in reference to
singer Michael Buble, who has been hailed by some as the new
Sinatra. "It's a big show and in some ways it will feel as though I'm
making my debut."
Campbell's production aims to reflect his eclectic musical tastes;
his heroes include Davis, Bobby Darin,
Bette Midler and, of course, "Barnesy".
"I went to see Dad's last show at Crown Casino [in Melbourne] and he
began with an acoustic number and he didn't shout," Campbell
recalls. "I said to him, 'You're ripping off my act!' I think Jimmy
is a better singer now than 10 years ago and he's continually pushing
himself.
"I am very combative with myself and it's great to have such an
inspiration around to draw from. We are singing a
lot together and we've become close."
It wasn't always the case. When he was 12, Campbell was told that
his "mother" Joan was actually his grandmother and that he was the
product of a one-night stand between Barnes and a woman he had known
until then as his sister, Kim.
Understandably the news came as a shock but, outwardly at least,
Campbell remained the happy-go-lucky extrovert. He stayed in Adelaide
with Joan, who remains a parental figure, until he left school and
went to live briefly in Bowral with Jimmy Barnes and his wife, Jane,
and their four children.
Campbell is an assured, often spontaneous performer whose acting
instincts make him a fine interpreter of other people's songs, while
his charm and sense of mischief win over audiences. Close associates
and friends say he has a fearless streak and believe his range as a
performer is yet to be fully tested. "He was a ball of energy and
curious
about every facet of showbusiness when I met him," says producer Les
Solomon, who directed him in Terrence McNally's 1996 play Love!
Valour! Compassion! and a string of early cabaret shows.
Campbell is keen to tap the all-rounder spirit of such entertainers
as Davis and Darin, who was similarly kept in the dark about the
identity of his real parents when young. And, looking ahead, he will
appear with Lisa McCune in the Tony Award-winning musical Urinetown
for the Sydney Theatre Company in June.
"I'm willing to give most things a go these days," he enthuses. "I
got my mojo back when I went on TV to do Dancing with the Stars. It
made me nervous and allowed me to let go and just have fun. At the
end of the day it's all about building a relationship with the
audience and not being afraid to take risks."
David Campbell - Wild with Style opens at the Opera House Drama
Theatre on April 21.
Wild about cabaret, part II
By Bryce Hallett
April 14, 2006
After heading down a few musical dead ends, David Campbell returns to
what he does best.
ABOUT FIVE YEARS, ago David Campbell decided he didn't want to be
typecast as a cabaret crooner destined to play the red velvet lounges
or late-night cabaret spots. By then he had made an impression with
cabaret audiences in New York and was signed to perform in some of
Manhattan's sophisticated haunts, including the prestige Rainbow and
Stars room.
The Broadway singer Barbara Cook and crooner Michael Feinstein were
ardent fans. A reviewer in New York's Time Out magazine declared that
Campbell was "the hottest thing to hit the Village circuit since
Streisand".
But the Adelaide-born singer-actor was having none of it. He wasn't
even sure if he wanted to don a black jacket and tie again.
Most surprising of all, he turned down a leading role in the Broadway
production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, admittedly a boy-next- door
character that didn't challenge him as an actor, but how many
opportunities like that come along?
Living in New York was costly and money was scarce. The performer had
also broken up with his fiancee, Natalie Mendoza, whom he had met in
1998 when performing the role of Marius in Les Miserables. It was
time to return home and reconsider his future, he recalls.
It is the morning after Campbell has been showing Melbourne audiences
his erection - in a very coy, cute way - in William Finn's musical
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, co-starring Magda
Szubanski, Marina Prior, Tyler Coppin and Mendoza.
The Melbourne Theatre Company production, directed by Simon Phillips,
opened in January and was a big hit and is expected in Sydney later
this year. For Campbell, 32, it has helped rescue him from a career
cul-de-sac.
For a time he tried, with some success, to make a name as a pop
singer. On the strength of his star turn as Johnny O'Keefe in the
musical Shout!, Sony gave him a recording contract and he released a
number of pop singles, including Hope, When She's Gone and End of the
World. The record company sent him to London and Europe to work with
pop artists and he dabbled in songwriting.
"I went into the wilderness after Shout!," he says. "I try and learn
from my mistakes and open myself up to different experiences but
there are frustrating periods when you think, 'Should I have done
that? . . . Should I do this?' ... There are not enough opportunities
in Australia and it's hard to develop because of that. There are so
many great performers out there but too few shows . . . Unless you
can do puppet work and belt out Elton John songs, you're out of work."
Campbell, who lives in Milsons Point, is rarely seen on stage in
Sydney these days. Most of his theatre work has been in Melbourne,
notably for Jeanne Pratt's Production Company presentations of
Guys ... Dolls, Carousel - for which he won rave reviews as Billy
Bigelow - and, most recently, Sunset Boulevard, playing the
screenwriter Joe Gillis opposite Judi Connelli's shunned goddess
Norma Desmond.
His last big role in Sydney was in Shout! in 2002, the last show
Richard Wherrett would direct before he died. "I had to gather myself
after that show," Campbell says. "It was exhausting playing O'Keefe
for a year. I tore a ligament and regret that I wasn't more able-
bodied at the end. I'm a natural ham and can get evangelical on
stage . . . I probably don't give myself the time to be
introspective. After Shout! I didn't want to take control and do jobs
that would help
make me a more accomplished entertainer.
"Hosting a radio show helped enormously but the pop thing didn't work
out and the album clearly wasn't working. I've learnt that you can't
shut the door [to different things] if you're passionate about live
performing."
Last year, Campbell went to see his friend Tim Draxl perform his
cabaret show at the El Rocco Room @ Bar Me, a small, unpretentious
basement room in Kings Cross. Several years earlier he had introduced
Draxl to audiences during one of his cabaret shows and soon Draxl
would carve an impressive career on the same turf. And just like
Campbell, he too would be anxious about being pigeon-holed as the
handsome young crooner.
"When I saw Tim's show I saw how much fun he was having," Campbell
says. "I realised it was time for me to give it a go again." And so
he did, for a sold-out season in the same modest venue. He mixed
Springsteen and Sondheim, threw in O'Keefe and Sammy Davis jnr, and
brought the room to a hush singing Mr Bojangles. On the opening night
of Doin' Cabaret 'n' Stuff, his old man, the rock'n'roller Jimmy
Barnes, joined him on stage for a duet. The crowd went wild.
So successful was Campbell's intentionally brief return to cabaret
that it has paved the way for the performer's most ambitious, self-
styled show to date, called Wild with Style, directed by Dein (Tap
Dogs) Perry. Opening at the Opera House Drama Theatre next Friday, it
features a band led by musical director Michael Tyack.
"It's Buble with balls," says Campbell half-jokingly in reference to
singer Michael Buble, who has been hailed by some as the new
Sinatra. "It's a big show and in some ways it will feel as though I'm
making my debut."
Campbell's production aims to reflect his eclectic musical tastes;
his heroes include Davis, Bobby Darin,
Bette Midler and, of course, "Barnesy".
"I went to see Dad's last show at Crown Casino [in Melbourne] and he
began with an acoustic number and he didn't shout," Campbell
recalls. "I said to him, 'You're ripping off my act!' I think Jimmy
is a better singer now than 10 years ago and he's continually pushing
himself.
"I am very combative with myself and it's great to have such an
inspiration around to draw from. We are singing a
lot together and we've become close."
It wasn't always the case. When he was 12, Campbell was told that
his "mother" Joan was actually his grandmother and that he was the
product of a one-night stand between Barnes and a woman he had known
until then as his sister, Kim.
Understandably the news came as a shock but, outwardly at least,
Campbell remained the happy-go-lucky extrovert. He stayed in Adelaide
with Joan, who remains a parental figure, until he left school and
went to live briefly in Bowral with Jimmy Barnes and his wife, Jane,
and their four children.
Campbell is an assured, often spontaneous performer whose acting
instincts make him a fine interpreter of other people's songs, while
his charm and sense of mischief win over audiences. Close associates
and friends say he has a fearless streak and believe his range as a
performer is yet to be fully tested. "He was a ball of energy and
curious
about every facet of showbusiness when I met him," says producer Les
Solomon, who directed him in Terrence McNally's 1996 play Love!
Valour! Compassion! and a string of early cabaret shows.
Campbell is keen to tap the all-rounder spirit of such entertainers
as Davis and Darin, who was similarly kept in the dark about the
identity of his real parents when young. And, looking ahead, he will
appear with Lisa McCune in the Tony Award-winning musical Urinetown
for the Sydney Theatre Company in June.
"I'm willing to give most things a go these days," he enthuses. "I
got my mojo back when I went on TV to do Dancing with the Stars. It
made me nervous and allowed me to let go and just have fun. At the
end of the day it's all about building a relationship with the
audience and not being afraid to take risks."
David Campbell - Wild with Style opens at the Opera House Drama
Theatre on April 21.