He started out as a bronzed surfer boy pin-up, adored by teenage girls around the world.
Two decades later, Jason Donovan is a married father-of-three and a leading figure in musical theatre, with a series of diverse roles under his belt.
He is currently starring in The Sound Of Music, alongside Rawdon actress Verity Rushworth.
It turns out Jason is quite a fan of the former Emmerdale actress, who went to St Mary’s School in Menston and started treading the boards at the Bradford Alhambra as a pantomime Sunbeam. Verity, who learned performing arts at Scala Theatre School in Horsforth, played Donna Windsor in Emmerdale from the age of 11 before starring in Hairspray in the West End.
“Verity is great, she’s a fantastic Maria,” says Jason, 42. “She’s the show really. Audiences are loving her.” Growing up in Melbourne, Australia, Jason was a child actor who appeared in a show called Skyways before Neighbours catapulted him to international fame. He and old flame Kylie Minogue played teenage sweethearts Scott and Charlene in the late 1980s, when Neighbours was at the peak of its success in the UK.
“I guess there’s part of me that will always be Scott Robinson,” he grins. “I’ve still got the boyish good looks…”
Since pulling on the Technicolor Dreamcoat to play Joseph in the early 1990s, Jason has taken on roles as diverse as Frank n Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the demon barber in Sweeney Todd and a drag queen in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert. Now he’s playing Captain Von Trapp in The Sound Of Music, coming to the Leeds Grand Theatre from June 7 to 25. The lavish show, featuring a spectacular set and choreography by Arlene Phillips, is on the road following Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End revival.
The Rodgers and Hammerstein classic is loved largely for its score, which includes My Favourite Things, Do-Re-Mi and Climb Ev’ry Mountain, but Jason says the story is darker than it’s given credit for. Anyone who has seen the show will know that the sight of Nazi officers pointing guns at the audience during the Salzburg Festival scene is chilling. And Von Trapp’s gentle guitar-strumming delivery of Edelweiss is a moving tribute to his beloved homeland.
“The Sound Of Music is seen as sweet – we think of Julie Andrews singing on top of a hill – but there’s more to it. It’s essentially a Cinderella story, but there’s this overhanging Nazi struggle,” says Jason. “Von Trapp is a pretty complex character. He starts off as a stern disciplinarian and goes on quite a journey. It’s more of an actor’s piece than a full-on singing role, which I feel more comfortable with. With a show like Priscilla it’s all about moving and singing in time to every beat.
“Having said that, Priscilla was a fabulous experience. I’ve been lucky to have had great roles in musical theatre.
“People are embracing musicals more, I think that’s thanks to shows like High School Musical and Glee, and the Joseph and Maria reality shows. Musicals are a little less cheesy than they used to be seen as. The world of entertainment is changing, people are more open-minded. As an artist, it doesn’t matter where you came from anymore,” he adds, a little wistfully.
Jason left Neighbours for pop and sold 13 million records. In 1988, he and Kylie released Especially For You, followed by his debut solo album Ten Good Reasons, and the following year he became the biggest-selling artist in the UK and Europe. In 2006 he was a finalist in ITV’s I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! and has since appeared in TV dramas such as Echo Beach.
He recently released an album of Eighties covers, Soundtrack To The 80s, putting his stamp on songs by such artists as Tears For Fears and Cutting Crew.
“They’re songs that mean something to me – there’s nothing like a song to take you back,” says Jason. “I’ve always been honest and said I’m not a sophisticated singer, or a vocal gymnast, but that doesn’t mean I can’t bring something to good songs.
“My recording voice is now better than ever. I would argue that some of the world’s biggest singers have distinctive voices, rather than great voices.
“Musicals are my bread and butter but I like to do different things. I’m a sucker for hard work, I always have been. I’ve been working all my life. I’ve been thinking lately that may not have been such a good thing.”
Has fatherhood prompted him to look back on his own childhood? “Maybe. Having kids opens your eyes a bit. I want them to enjoy being children,” he says. “The family is on tour with me at the moment. We just had a baby, Molly, and it’s great having them all around.”
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