SOUND OFF Special Interview: David Campbell

Today we are talking to one of the brightest stars in all of Oz - Australia, that is - the dashing leading man and internationally renowned solo recording artist David Campbell! In this enthusiastic and ingratiating interview, Campbell talks about his life on the stage - having starred in SUNSET BOULEVARD, THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, URINETOWN, SHOUT! and many hit musicals in his homeland - as well his extensive recording and concert tour career, with a special focus on this week's US release of his stellar show tune album ON BROADWAY which features the world premiere recording of one of the best Broadway eleven o'clock numbers of the last twenty years - maybe ever - coming from the forthcoming Marc Shaiman/Scott Wittman score for CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (which opens on Broadway near the end of this season). Plus, he addresses the rumors of taking on the role of The Phantom in the Australian premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's LOVE NEVER DIES and gives us an update on his upcoming US concert appearances. Check out our chat, then be sure to pick up ON BROADWAY which is in stores and on iTunes now! He may sing "Goodbye" like nobody‘s business, but we are just saying hello to the charismatic David Campbell.

Why I Love Singing

PC: First, I love your solo debut TAKING THE WHEEL.

DC: Oh, thank you so much, Pat. I loved making that album.

PC: I especially love the songs by John Bucchino that you sang and premiered there.

DC: Yeah. There are a couple things on there like that - premieres. He's amazing, though, John.

PC: You can say that again!

DC: Yeah, I just got lucky to work with a like-minded person like John. He's really the first of the "new" composers that I met and got to know and we're still really close friends.

PC: Who are some other composers you like that you've worked with or become friends with from the new class of composers?

DC: Oh, I like Lindy Robbins - who's worked with John - and Craig Carnelia.

PC: Of course. Carnelia is a cabaret king!

DC: Yeah, I started getting into that sort of "new" Broadway composers back when I started in New York - the new standard composers of the time. It was basically through people like Michael Feinstein that I met some of these up-and-coming writers. You know, what I would call the "modern writers". It was a hell of a time! It was just incredible.

PC: Right. You were young, too.

DC: Yeah, I think I was twenty-six, too - I guess not too young by today's standards to make albums, but back then it was. I was still learning what was happening and what it was all about.

PC: I saw you in BABES IN ARMS back then when you did the Encores! presentation.

DC: I loved BABES IN ARMS.

PC: What was the rehearsal process like? Was it all kind of thrown together in a short amount of time like they are now?

DC: They are very intense. You do have to sort of put it all together in a couple of weeks.

PC: Very intense.

DC: But, it was so much fun. I remember really, really wanting that gig. I remember going to that audition and thinking, "I would do anything to get this job and this role."

PC: You were dead-set on it!

DC: Yeah, I mean, I had heard so much about what they had done at Encores! and I really wanted to impress them. I was very nervous, but I felt really comfortable with the role and, I thought, "If there's any of these older shows I can do, it would be doing that sort of old school - almost Mickey Rooney - sort of tongue-in-cheek kind of thing."

PC: So, that was your reasoning for owning that role?

DC: I just thought, "I think I can get this role." But, it was just one of those projects that I always look back on thinking, "Oh my God! This was like a dream come true doing this!"

PC: It was such a joyful production of the show.

DC: I remember just standing on stage in New York and it was like, "Let's put a show on in a barn!" And, it was like it was the first time that was ever said for all of us in the cast.

PC: It was a great cast of up-and-comers, too.

DC: Chris Fitzgerald was in it... yeah, it was a great kind of cast of upcoming Broadway performers.

PC: And, after BABES IN ARMS...

DC: Sondheim saw BABES IN ARMS and that's what got me SATURDAY NIGHT.

PC: Had you been a big Sondheim fan before then?

DC: Oh, yeah. I was a big, big fan. I was a member of the Sondheim Review magazine when that came out and, you know, I was really sort of nerding it up with Sondheim by that stage.

PC: As we all do, eventually! Those with taste, at least!

DC: I was pretty intensely into it! So, then, to get cast by him to do one of his original pieces - an early work - was just electric.

PC: I can imagine! What a thrill!

DC: It was really an incredible feeling. I was really walking very high for awhile in New York there.

PC: But, then you went back home to Australia! What happened?

DC: Yeah! I guess what happened was that I had had a lot of breaks, a lot of stuff was going on - with Rainbows & Stars, the great reviews, working with Sondheim, doing Encores!, the workshop of THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE - all these amazing things were happening. But, I never went to America with this ten-year plan. I went there with a three-week plan!

PC: So it worked out spectacularly, then!

DC: I thought, "Oh, I'll go over and see what happens. I'll go over and give it a shot. I'll see what happens. It might be fun. Maybe I'll get to sing in a couple clubs for a couple of weeks." I never knew that it was going to become this career. I had to play emotional catch-up. I wasn't ready.

PC: You missed home?

DC: I was really suffering without a family; being there by myself. There was a lot of times between jobs where I was just sort of making my way as an actor. And, I wasn't really ready for that. I hadn't planned on that.

PC: You were just seeing what would happen.

DC: Yeah, I mean, a lot of people go, "Oh, I'm gonna go and move there and spend my life there." I kept doing it in fragments. So, after a while, I just thought, "I'm just not ready for this now. I need to go home and clear my head. I need to know if I am doing the right thing." So, I left.

PC: Do you regret it?

DC: Well, a lot of people go, "Why did you leave? It was such a mistake!" But, you know, I really had to get my head together. I would have probably started making some stupid, stupid moves if I stayed there and probably would have done more damage than if I just went home.

PC: And what a dearth of good roles for guys like you in the intervening years on Broadway, anyway.

DC: That's right. The jukebox musical really rose up... and, you're right. I don't know if there would have really been too much for me. I mean, the only one I was working on that I thought would be a bit of fun to keep doing was THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE - I really loved that score and I loved working on it - but, that was it.

PC: It was certainly the right decision, looking back, retrospectively!

DC: Certainly the response we are getting now - eight, nine years down the track since the Carlyle - the response we are getting now with coming back and the albums is just amazing. So, that was really just dipping my toe back in the water.

PC: Right, since you are making your long-awaited return to New York!

DC: I sort of started low-balling it again this year. Now, there's this wave of "Oh, you've got to come back. You've got to do this." Feinstein's is booking me. All that.

PC: Tell me about the original musicals you have done in Australia, as well as the Australian premieres of some American shows.

DC: I created the lead role in a musical called SHOUT! That was the big one.

PC: The Australian sensation!

DC: Yeah, that was big. It was an original jukebox musical based on the guy who was sort of the Elvis Presley of Australia. He was a very wild rock n roll spirit. You know, people here knew me as the son of a famous rock n roller - because my dad is a famous rock n roller - and they knew me from the New York stuff, maybe.

PC: So, they didn't really know you before SHOUT!?

DC: No, they really didn't know me because I was in New York for so long. But, I got this one show... you know, the Isley Brothers song comes from SHOUT! And a few other classic Australian rock songs that are now iconically mine.

PC: What a privilege!

DC: Yeah, I actually just did a show last night. There's this sort of Kentucky Derby-type cup thing here - like a horse-racing - and they flew me in to sing "Shout" last night. That's one of those things that continues on... it's now my song here in Australia. It's sort of weird to have a classic associated with you, but that's what I am. So, SHOUT! was definitely the big one.

PC: Tell me about doing SPELLING BEE. Are you a fan of William Finn?

DC: Yes! I remember seeing FALSETTOS with Chip Zien and Mandy Patinkin. I am a fan of William Finn and I loved SPELLING BEE. It was just so great, and he came out and he was so fun and really enjoyed it. I had heard about a project - a MARCH OF THE FALSETTOS - that he had come to see that he hated!

PC: That's Finn, never one to spare his opinion! Rightfully so, since he wrote the shows!

DC: Yeah, it was great to have him come out and really enjoy it and love what we were doing.

PC: I've heard the SPELLING BEE you did was quite a bit different than James Lapine's original production on Broadway.

DC: The big thing was that the director, Simon Phillips - who directed PRISCILLA [QUEEN OF THE DESERT] - he cast a famous comedienne in the role of the fat kid. So, that was a sort of gender reversal thing.

PC: How interesting! How did that work?

DC: Because she was so funny and she played it in such a way, it worked. It was a big coup here, in so far as casting twists go.

PC: Had you seen the show previously? On Broadway, perhaps?

DC: No, I didn't get to see it before I did it.

PC: What was the rehearsal process and eventual show every night like, then?

DC: We had so much fun! It was really wild, especially all the audience interaction. It was like being on a knife's edge every night to see what would happen! (Laughs.)

PC: I bet!

DC: It was one of those really fun experiences where you just really went with it.

PC: So, you really enjoy working with Simon Phillips? You've done a few shows together, now.

DC: Oh, my God! I did that and URINETOWN with Simon. He is one of Australia's most creative directors. He does, also, give you a sense of fun in the rehearsal room.

PC: How wonderful. Were you a fan of his before?

DC: Of course - I loved PRISCILLA, too - but I just saw THE DROWSY CHAPERONE with Geoffrey Rush that he did and it was just heartbreakingly fun and so wonderful. One of the best things I've ever seen. Anywhere.

PC: I hope he has some input into the upcoming film version with Rush, then!

DC: Yeah, Simon sets up this sense of anarchy [in rehearsal] that is so fun. He'll cast a big personality, too, if they are right for a role. He's not afraid. You never ever feel like it's going off the rails or it is going out of control.

PC: Can you elaborate?

DC: I mean, we were, literally - two weeks into the rehearsal process for SPELLING BEE - acting like school kids! We were sitting there like kids - chatting, gossiping, chucking things at each other - he had bleachers set up for us. We sort of had this LORD OF THE FLIES - a fun LORD OF THE FLIES (Laughs.) - type situation. He was like the school teacher. He took on that role.

PC: How was the process different in URINETOWN?

DC: When we did URINETOWN, he sort of took the cartoonish sort of anarchy to another level. He pushed us further into this other world and made us go darker. He just goes "there".

PC: Right. What do you love about working with him most?

DC: The thing I love most about him is that he always takes his shoes off at rehearsal - he always has different color socks on - and: he just loves to laugh.

PC: I hope he is going to be directing you in the Australian production of LOVE NEVER DIES, then.

DC: I'm not going to do PHANTOM yet! Those are just rumors!

PC: Would you consider doing it? Have you been approached?

DC: No, I haven't! This has all been newspaper rumors and things like that here. This is very unusual for me, where something like this has happened. I've had people from around the world like Facebook me and send me messages saying "Congratulations on the role!" And I'm like, "I don't know what you're all talking about! I mean, I know, but it wasn't happening. They haven't cast anyone for it yet!"

PC: How do you think the rumors started - besides you being perfect for the Phantom role in that show?

DC: What happened was, with the ON BROADWAY album, I just did a concert tour here - at opera houses, with symphonies - and I approached Really Useful to sing "'Til I Hear You Sing" first and get the permission to premiere it in this country. They hadn't even announced it yet here. So, they gave me permission and they came and really enjoyed it. I think it all stemmed from that.

PC: Your version is stupendous.

DC: Thanks. I recorded it for the DVD. I'm the first person to put the song down besides the original. I'm glad to hear the rumor from you in the States, though!

PC: Very few people could sing that role like you could. It's a rock tenor role. What do you think of the score?

DC: I think the score is great. I love what I have heard so far. I haven't seen it yet, but I know they are working on it now and it sounds very exciting.

PC: You've done an Andrew Lloyd Webber lead role before.

DC: Yeah, I got to do an Encores!-like version of SUNSET BLVD here and, sometimes, you can come and go working on a score, but I found that with SUNSET that it just sort of got in your bones and you can't get rid of it. I found that when we started doing "'Til I Hear You Sing", it quickly became my favorite thing to do in the whole ON BROADWAY tour that I did.

PC: Why is that?

DC: It has a sort of uber theatricality to it. People just went nuts for it. Andrew just knows how to write a top-drawer melody.

PC: How do you compare the shows you've done, the new breed - SUNSET BLVD, URINETOWN, SPELLING BEE, SHOUT! - to the more old school shows you've done like BABES IN ARMS, CAROUSEL and SATURDAY NIGHT? The last twenty years vs. last fifty?

DC: Yeah, look, it's difficult. I love some of where musical theatre has progressed. I love a lot of the new writers out there. I love Bucchino. I love, love, love Pasek & Paul - I think JAMES & THE GIANT PEACH has got some brilliant songs - I think they are going to write the great Broadway score of the future. I mean, look, it's very easy to look back with rose colored glasses. You know, "They don't write ‘em like they used to! OKLAHOMA! is the best show ever! We won't ever get another Stephen Sondheim!"

PC: What do you think? Will we?

DC: I don't think they are nurturing the talent as much as they used to in the old days. But, I think there are some people out there - listening to Sondheim, listening to Lloyd Webber, even listening to pop songs like Billy Joel - and they are becoming the next thing. Right now. But, it is going to be hard.

PC: All that's out there is GLEE, really.

DC: As good as things like GLEE have been to raising awareness of that, I hope it does inspire the next voice... but, I don't know. I mean, I've never done a score that I felt didn't really work. But, then again, I've done stuff like SUNSET BLVD., CAROUSEL, SPELLING BEE, SATURDAY NIGHT and BABES IN ARMS so I've been lucky enough to do great scores.

PC: Speaking of great scores, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN is one of the strongest scores I've ever heard. Ever. And, of course, you premiere "Goodbye", the eleven o'clock number.

DC: Isn't it just incredible? How good is that score?

PC: The best! Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman are the top!

DC: Let me tell you a story: there is a guy who had seen every show I had done in Los Angeles and he came out with his partner to see me in Sydney. And, he said, "Are you recording a new Broadway album?" And, I said, "Yeah, yeah. I am." So, he said, "We need to talk. I just saw CATCH ME IF YOU CAN in Seattle and you have got to sing these songs!"

PC: Smart guy!

DC: Scott Wittman and I had been sort of toying around with the idea of working together toward the end of my time in New York when I was living there. We were playing around with a concert cabaret show on Bob Dylan and other things. I had met Marc a couple of times in passing, but I didn't really know him. So, I got their e-mail address from John Bucchino, actually.

PC: Bringing it all full-circle!

DC: Right! Long-lasting friendship always comes around in one way or another! So, I wrote [to Marc and Scott] "You probably don't remember me, but this is what I am doing and I've heard about the score for CATCH ME IF YOU CAN and would you be interested in me previewing one of the songs on my album?" And, they wrote back, in a few days, like, "Absolutely!"

PC: How serendipitous! They know talent when they hear it!

DC: I proceeded to then get like half a dozen songs from the score. Marc just said, "Oh, take a look and take your pick and let us know." I remember going, "Oh, my God! This score is just unbelievable!"

PC: What songs did he give you? "Live In Living Color"?

DC: Yeah, that, and the swing song the dad sings...

PC: "Fifty Checks".

DC: Yeah! I remember when Rob and I got to "Goodbye" and going "Yeah, that's the one. That's perfect." Because, you know, we were looking for a way to finish the album, too.

PC: That last note on "Goodbye"! Wow.

DC: Oh, my God! Yeah, right?! (Laughs.) I foolishly offered to do it in the original key, like, "Oh, yeah, whatever you want," and the musical director is like "Uhh... OK." (Laughs.) It's only a high B.

PC: Only!

DC: (Laughs.) We also considered "Live In Living Color". We looked at "Jet Set", too. But, "Live in Living Color" was a toss-up with "Goodbye" for a while.

PC: What a great opening number that is.

DC: Oh, my God. Can you believe that song?

PC: What else did you consider singing from that score?

DC: "Seven Wonders".

PC: Great lyrics.

DC: That is a beautiful song.

PC: You should just sing all the songs. A David Campbell SINGS SHAIMAN/WITTMAN album sounds great to me.

DC: (Laughs.) I should just do a medley of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN before it opens and everyone else starts singing it! (Laughs.)

PC: Tell me about working with John Kander on the new album. I just interviewed him for this column, he's so kind and passionate.

DC: I really, really loved doing a song of his on there. I am such a fan. CABARET? CHICAGO? Come on.

PC: Classics.

DC: Totally.

PC: What kind of music do you like to listen to when you are off the clock?

DC: It's so schizophrenic! I like everything. And, I also love to have my concerts just be like a live iPod Shuffle!

PC: What's on your iPod play list right now?

DC: Right now? Right now, I am listening to the Mark Ronson album. It's really fabulous. Boz Scaggs, too. Lots of stuff! I've been doing a lot of podcasts, too, because I'm on the road show much. There's this podcast on NPR called ALL SONGS CONSIDERED that I really love.

PC: Me too. Great songs.

DC: That's where I find a lot of great stuff. Great jazz singers, great movie music. I also listen to STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW which just talks about how stuff works and interesting facts and figures from howstuffworks.com, which is a Discovery Channel thing. I've been getting into a lot of Broadway, too. And, James Bond songs!

PC: What are your favorite Bond themes?

DC: There was a great Louis Armstrong one - "We Have All The Time In The World" - which is a really incredible song. Such a great vocal from Satchmo. Really beautiful. Those themes have really been getting a hammering from me lately.

PC: Would you ever do an album with a big producer like Mark Ronson?

DC: I think it would be pretty exciting to do a take on classic songs. I'd love to get my guys doing those songs. But, I recently got a hankering to do an album with a big 70s sort of sound - like Jeff Lynn or ELO. Big, epic. Big vocals with whirling production. I've never worked with any of those old-school producers. Ever since I did TAKING THE WHEEL, I have just sort of taken over the albums and do them myself with a producer. I'd love to just step back with somebody and be a vessel for their talent. I've never really done that.

PC: Jim Steinman is my favorite pop songwriter and the best producer maybe ever. Would you work with him?

DC: Oh. My. God. (Pause.) I love Jim Steinman! He is amazing!

PC: You know his stuff?

DC: Are you kidding me? BAT OUT OF HELL was the longest-running album ever here! It was on the album charts from the time I was kid to the time I was in high school!

PC: You should record "Making Love Out of Nothing At All".

DC: "Two Out of Three"... I should do a whole Steinman album. I just love his stuff.

PC: "Total Eclipse of the Heart".

DC: Oh, my God. That song... Bonnie Tyler ripping the shreds out of her voice is... there is just nothing like it! Nothing!

PC: How did you take on the epic responsibility of running the Adelaide Cabaret Festival?

DC: Well, I am from Adelaide originally. The festival had been going on for eighteen years and they were wondering whether it would keep going. So, they asked my wife and I - we own a Production Company together - if we were interesting in coming over and running the festival. I didn't know much about it, so I turned up. It's this three-week, massive event. I was going, "This is really cool. This is really great," and they asked me, "Would you want to run it?" And, I thought that was so unusual - no one had ever asked me to do something like that before. So, I just said, "Sure, of course I want to do it." Right or wrong. So, my wife and I make all the decisions. She's the realist in the relationship. I say, "Let's try this," and she says, "Let's try to make that work." (Laughs.)

PC: How did you arrange the all-star line-up this year? It was an incredible list: Donna McKechnie, Bernadette Peters, Natalie Cole, Stephen Schwartz...

DC: We just starting shooting off e-mails to people like Richard Jay-Alexander. You know, "What if we could get Bernadette Peters?" and, a week later, "This is Bernadette's agent! We'd love to come!" So, it went from being a little, sort of locally renowned things to a massive, national festival with international stars like Bernadette and Donna and Stephen Schwartz. Really, getting these international people involved has made it an international festival. But, it's my last year next year so I want to go out with a bang!

PC: Well, this album is bang after bang! Congratulations, it's a resounding, spectacular success. I absolutely adore it.

DC: Thank you. I'm really glad you like it so much. It was a labor of love, but also a lot of fun.

PC: And, it's live, so that makes an even bigger accomplishment from a technical perspective.

DC: It was all shot - the DVD and CD - on one night in Australia.

PC: What was your favorite song to do every night besides "'Til I Hear You Sing"?

DC: Look, I really love doing the Jolson medley. When I first started doing cabaret, I really did all the research myself because I didn't go to college or acting school. So, I thought I should go back to where Broadway started - with Al Jolson. That's why I recorded stuff like "Rock-a-bye Your Baby" and "I'm Happy" in the past. There was a lot of Al Jolson influences in what I was doing early on. There still is. I figure, if it's good enough for Judy Garland...

PC: You got that right! What about the Sondheim stuff?

DC: Yeah, "Good Thing Going". Love that. And, the MERRILY overture is just amazing to hear every night.

PC: What a great choice. And, unusual, too. That's the most exciting overture since GYPSY, to me.

DC: Yeah, that's why we used it! They even said, at first, "Well, we should do GYPSY," and I said, "Well, we could do GYPSY... or, we could do this." And, to have people in Australia who have never heard it before - the score for MERRILY - and having everyone go "Oh, My God." And all the musicians going, "We've never had to play anything like this before" and, then, seeing them jusT Loving it.

PC: Is the DVD going to be released in the US, too?

DC: It depends on how the album does. This has been such a big project, we've been working on it for three years. When I was recently approached to do an album they told me I could do whatever I want to do creatively. So, I said, "I want to do a Broadway album. I know who I want to music direct it. I want to do a documentary on the making of the album so Australians know where the songs come from and interview all the composers. And, I want to do a big tour with it." And, they said, "Good luck with that!" So, we did a lot of it ourselves. We are editing the documentary right now, actually.

PC: What concerts are coming up in the US to promote the new album and your stateside return?

DC: We're doing LA first... Catalina's is the 22nd and 23rd of November. The Razz Room on December 5th. Then, New York. Feinstein's is November 28th through December 2nd.

PC: Sounds great! Last question: Define collaboration.

DC: It's like when the waves come in and go out to shore - you just have to ride on top of it and feel the ebb and flow. When it's good, it's like nature - when it's bad, you're thrown against the rock. (Laughs.)

PC: You're a busy man! I am so glad to see you back. This has been great. Thank you so much.

DC: Thank you! This has been fabulous! I hope I didn't say anything too stupid. (Laughs.)

PC: The exact opposite, David!

DC: OK, good. I hope so! Thanks so much, Pat. I really appreciate all your time. Talk soon!

Click Here to Check Out the New Album on Amazon.com and Click Here for More Information on David Campbell.