He has sold more than 70 million solo albums and is best known as a drummer, songwriter and performer. Oscar-winning songwriter and seven-time Grammy Award winner Phil Collins can now add Broadway composer to his credits. He has written the music and lyrics, and has even expanded his songs for Disney's film into a complete theatre score. The score for Tarzan, the Broadway Musical, includes five songs he wrote for the 1999 animated Walt Disney Pictures film, "Tarzan," with an additional nine new songs which Collins wrote especially for the Broadway musical.
During his teenage years, Collins performed on television and in theatre, debuting on stage at the early age of 14. His big break came in 1970, when he answered an ad in a magazine for a drummer. This turned out to be for the group Genesis. Collins got the gig and joined as a drummer. When fellow band-member Peter Gabriel left the group in 1975, Collins took over as lead vocalist. Years later, he launched his solo career and was eventually approached by Disney to work on the film, "Tarzan."
Right before the show opened on May 10th, I had the honor to sit down with the legendary Phil Collins to speak about his involvement with Tarzan, the Broadway Musical, his career, and Genesis.
Nick Orlando: Phil Collins, congratulations, you are making your Broadway composing debut with Tarzan.
Phil Collins: I know. The more I hear it, the stranger it sounds. Broadway Composer; I am only a drummer, really. It just seems that suddenly, I've gone from being a drummer in the back of a band to a Broadway Composer. It's a very bizarre story.
Nick Orlando: How does writing songs for a musical differ from writing songs for an album?
Phil Collins: Well, for my album, I can do anything I want. If you're writing for a musical or a movie, you are part of a team. You are serving the project you are on.
Nick Orlando: You have attended auditions and many rehearsals, what is your opinion about the cast? Does anybody stand out?
Phil Collins: To be honest, everybody stands out. Everybody is finding their feet at different times. Schuler Hensley, for example, is very, very, very experienced and very powerful. So is Merle [Dandridge]. Chester Gregory has found himself in the last two or three weeks. He owns the stage when he comes on. Josh [Strickland] and Jenn [Gambatese] are just magical together. You cannot get enough of them together. They really care about each other. Vocally, the whole cast is fantastic and that makes me smile because obviously even if it's a great song, when someone else takes it and sings it, it doesn't necessarily mean that it will still sound like a great song. It's a very strong cast and it's very exciting. I go every night to watch the show and I am still seeing things come together.
Nick Orlando: You composed the music for the movie and now you are doing the theatrical version. What is it about this storyline that you decided to get involved?
Phil Collins: Well, originally with the movie, it was just them asking me if I would be interested in doing a Disney project. My sister was an ice skater, my brother was a cartoonist. My house was always full of Disney because my brother was a big fan of the animators and my sister danced to Disney on Ice every year and on tour. We even had Dopey living with us for a little while! Yeah, we had Kenny Baker who was skating as Dopey. He was living with us for a few months. The music was always in my head. So, when I was asked if I would like to write music for one of these films that was going to be part of my musical life, it was like being asked to become a member of a club that you thought you would never become a member of. I jumped at the chance. We discussed the idea of a musical version of it. It just seemed my personality was involved in the whole project. I would have been very surprised if they had thought about asking anyone else and I certainly would have never said no. I think it was always given that I would be doing it.
