Cambridge News | cambridge-news.co.uk | March 5, 2015 | 31
Get the latest breaking entertainment news at cambridge-news.co.uk/whatson
THEATRE IT’S GOOD TO TALK: Jason Donovan with Raymond Coulthard in The King’s Speech; below singing on stage, and the early days of his career, with Kylie
The King’s Speech T
HE office is all a-flutter when I get in. It turns out Jason Donovan called early for our interview and everyone on the features desk is half giddy, half annoyed that someone else answered the phone. However, when we do finally sync schedules, the voice at the end of the line isn’t the excited, puppyish one you hear on Donovan’s All 80s radio show on Heart FM, or the charming chat you’d expect from a pin-up turned jowly silver fox. In fact, he sounds absolutely shattered. And that’s despite having had a week off “to get our breath a bit” before the former pop star steps into Geoffrey Rush’s considerable shoes as Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue in The King’s Speech at the Arts Theatre. Courtesy of Chichester Festival and Birmingham Repertory theatres, he’s playing the rambunctious Logue to Raymond Coulthard’s (Mr Selfridge, Hotel Babylon), stuttering stammering Bertie, aka King George VI, in a role that won the dashing Colin Firth a Best Actor Oscar in 2011. In Donovan’s heyday, the cocaine-hazy 90s when he was collected from Kate Moss’s 21st birthday party by ambulance after a druginduced seizure, it would have been easy to put any apparent exhaustion down to, er, dancing all night. Since having three children with wife Angela, today I assume (wrongly) that his tiredness is the fault of Rush’s looming shadow. “I haven’t really thought about that to be honest,” he laughs quietly. “It’s in the back of my mind but it doesn’t drive me every day, you know what I mean? It’s not something that keeps me awake at night.” He does admit that the prestige of the show and the expectation on him is having an impact though, just not the sweating terror you might expect. “It’s a very iconic film and a wonderful piece,” he says. “My anxiety is more towards getting it right though, you know? The bar is very high on this one and it’s a wonderful opportunity for me to roll up in, so that really comes from a place of wanting to do the best, more than the piece itself.” You see, the only thing making Donovan an ideal candidate for a 999 call aged 46 (yes, he really is 46, ladies), is his punishing work ethic. “Having had a taste of great levels of success with it, it’s hard to . . .,” he pauses, rerouting. “Having ridden the crest of a wave, to know what that feels like, you’re always looking out for that opportunity, that feeling again. “What I think the important thing to
Jason Donovan has come a long way since being Kylie Minogue’s floppy-haired right-hand man. But he still has the power to create a stir. Ella Walker spoke to him (gasp). underline though is, that for me, a bit like The King’s Speech, it’s about the craft and getting the buzz from the craft as opposed to the by-product which is the fame and people recognising you and earning good money. “I didn’t get into this business to get famous. I got into it because I got a real buzz out of being an actor and that’s what drives me every day. “But it’s hard to not be seduced by the other things that go with it – they’re very nice.” TV was where his first dip in the ocean of fame came from, when he landed the role of Scott Robinson on Neighbours in 1986. His life exploded exponentially as Donovan’s on – and off – screen relationship with Kylie Minogue, who played Charlene Mitchell came under scrutiny, and set Jason (and Kylie) up as a worldwide heartthrob: those boy-next-door smiles, that floppy blond hair. “You know, that’s a title people put on me. It’s very flattering to know that you’re iconic in some sort of way,” he says, sounding uncomfortable. “I’m trying to focus, for longevity’s
sake, more on my talent than my looks.” He doesn’t mind being quizzed on Neighbours and his non-existent plans to return to the show too much (“I don’t get sick of it. I can think of better questions to ask me. Haha.”), but longevity wise, he’s got things nailed. Despite his increasingly craggy looks, The King’s Speech is yet another notch on a CV that creaks with number 1 records, triumphant appearances on reality TV (highlights include Strictly Come Dancing and I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!), and a legacy of musical theatre roles. The man has starred in everything from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to Sweeney Todd and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. “Musical theatre has been very kind to me, it’s something I will surely go back to,” he says graciously. Does he find himself tumbling into nostalgia occasionally? “It’s hard not to be nostalgic but it’d be a mistake to live
in the past,” Jason muses, recalling hits like Especially For You and Too Many Broken Hearts. “I’m very lucky to have had that moment, some people don’t and I’m very blessed with that. “It’s changed my life to have a group of songs out there that people loved and still love. I can relive those memories as well as what those memories mean to other people through song. It’s a very powerful medium, music; it’s a great language.” While he admits he’d “love to do a bit more television if I’m really honest with you,” he already counts playing Logue as one of his greatest moments to date. “I would hope that this show really is a moment for me that is an example of the work I can do, that I’m not just . . . that I am a good character actor, that I have the ability to be versatile. “But I’ve had lots of great moments in my career, and long may they continue, as long as I can work.” Just don’t go and overdo it Jason. The King’s Speech, Cambridge HOT TICKETS WHAT’S ON Arts Theatre, Monday, March 9, WHAT’S HOT to Saturday,ON March 14, at TICKETS 7.45pm. HOT ON TicketsTICKETS £15-£35 fromWHAT’S (01223) 503333 or cambridgeartstheatre.com. WHAT’S ON HOT TICKETS