The Pirates Of Penzance
Festival Centre
Wed 10 Jan

In the annals of Australian showbiz history, I've no doubt the name David Campbell will loom large. Of course, his career as singer, cabaret artist, actor, MC and stage performer has already provided him with a resume of some four pages, and due to his young age - he's only 33 - there'll be many, many more entries to come.

Where is this leading? Campbell is about to don the greasepaint, eye patch, and absurdly swashbuckling costume of the pirate King in Gilbert & Sullivan's 'The Pirates Of Penzance', that evergreen stage musical which has been given a facelift - and a new promotional tool - via the massive success of Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow character from the filmed lunacy of 'Pirates Of The Caribbean'.

Campbell, as the Pirate King, now is to be made up to resemble Depp as Sparrow. Not confusing, just a twisted path to follow...

We have a brief disagreement on which of the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas is the best known: '...Pirates' or 'The Mikado' which he effectively scotches by admitting, "I've never been a big Gilbert & Sullivan fan, so to come into it from that angle and really be an audience member makes it all fresh to me. For me, I'll be taking a modernish approach to it. My whole character is based on Jack Sparrow, almost being dropped into the middle of it, but I feel it's almost in keeping with what Gilbert & Sullivan intended."

At the time we spoke, Campbell had only read the libretto for the show a fortnight beforehand, so he was very much feeling his way into the role. A day's media and promotion was part of the deal.

'What's that?' I query, pointing at the thin white wires snaking their way across his collar.

"My iPod," he says, and chuckles, clearly delighted he can say such media-savvy and technological words without sounding like a 'phobe... "my iPod has about twenty seven hours of Gilbert & Sullivan downloads on it at the moment.

"You know, though 'Pirates' is a hundred years old, it's got a freshness which makes it so appealing. I can see this still being performed in another hundred years, and you can't say that about 'Phantom Of The Opera'. Can you?"

He shivers, as though the mere thought was offensive... "I hate 'Cats'. 'Cats'; and 'Starlight Express'!"

We'd touched upon the music career of Mr Campbell earlier, and it's an area he's happy to discuss, not least of which because he's also released an album of songs on SonyBMG. 'The Swing Sessions' might well be out now, with all sorts of special songs... Mr Bojangles, My Funny Valentine and a handful of other standards.

"Previously I'd been allowed to record a lot of pop stuff, and allowed to experiment for myself, and that's so rare. By doing that I think it's made me a better singer, you always fall down and scuff your knees; it's good for you," he avers when we discuss a few of the knocks he's taken in his career.

"Now this time out I'm in 'Penzance' singing opera, so that gives me something else to try. I've been around for over ten years now, and I've been pretty bloody lucky in this career."

He is a bit of an 'everyman', as is made abundantly clear from his biographical notes, a point not lost on him when I broach it.

He chuckles at the thought. "Ha ha. Renaissance Man... painter, sculptor...? No, no. The thing I worked out really early on is that with this industry shrinking you can either be one thing, or you can keep fresh. I need to try things, it keeps my gears churning, you know?

"I really want to hone - to master - my singing, and take back the mantle of being an entertainer. Rather than being a jack of all trades I want to be a master of singing. I've done my apprenticeship. I want to focus now on doing something that I'm really good at, and that's performing live."

The last great Pirate King for this production, I point out, was John English, a swashbuckling character who came to town, dropped bawdy (and contemporaneous) jokes for the locals, to show he was onside, and then dropped from sight. Or, as I describe him to Campbell, momentarily forgetting English' name, "Old Smudger".

"Old Smudger!!!" he chokes. "Well, I'm after his crown. I reckon I can beat him!"

Alex Wheaton



'The Pirates Of Penzance' opens in the Festival Centre on Wed 10 Jan