Jason Donovan is Doin’ Fine as he revisits hits & musical favourites at York Barbican

Jason Donovan: Doin’ fine in 2025 at York Barbican on Saturday night

AUSTRALIAN singer and actor Jason Donovan takes an “incredible ride” through 35 years in music, theatre, film and television in his Doin’ Fine 25 Tour, playing York Barbican on Saturday.

His long-awaited sequel to Doin’ Fine 90 features Jason’s most beloved songs from his stage shows, Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat, Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, The Rocky Horror Show and Grease, alongside nods to his TV times in Neighbours and Strictly Come Dancing and his biggest pop hits, Especially For You, Too Many Broken Hearts, Any Dream Will Do and Sealed With A Kiss.

Last seen in York in fishnets and face paint as Dr Frank N Further in Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show at the Grand Opera House in October 2024, here he discusses his new tour show.

Is it harder going on tour at 56 than when you were in your twenties, Jason?

“There’s a bit more physio these days and a lot more stretching. There’s even a bit of steam and inhaler just to keep the vocal cords pretty!”

It must be a great feeling to be going on the road again to sing these songs?

“I love creating my own show. I guess the difference with this and what I do in theatre is that I’m sort of the boss. For me, if I was to just rely on my own shows and those pop songs as my only bread and butter, I probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much.

“But because I get these gaps, and because I do a lot of theatre work, I get the opportunity to exercise those songs every four or five years and not get tired of them.”

Although this is the “Doin’ Fine 25 Tour”, 35 years have passed since your original Doin’ Fine shows. Are you nostalgic?

“When I listen to my own records, I get a little bit scientific about them, like was that vocal good or not good? But doing that 1990 world tour was important to me, because it was a matter of proving to myself and my audience that I was in this for the long term.”

Jason Donovan as Dr Frank N Furter, the “sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania”, in The Rocky Horror Show, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, last October

What can fans expect from the tour? Aside from the hits, will there be deeper album cuts too?

“That’s always a tug of war, because you’ve got to try and deliver what people want, but educate as well. It’s about trying to find that balance between what the crowd wants and what you want creatively. You want a show that engages with an audience and doesn’t put them to sleep as well.”

Apart from your own hits, will you be performing songs from musicals you have appeared in?

“I do Rocky Horror songs, because they work really well in my shows. There are a couple ofsongs from Priscilla Queen Of The Desert that my audience loves and some covers too. Idid Don’t Leave Me This Way years ago – that’s always gone down well. My act is anunusual one, but there’s an audience out there that seems to want to listen to what I’ve gotto say and what I’ve got to sing.”

Will you have a guest vocalist for the Especially For You duet or will you pipe in Kylie Minogue’s original vocal?

“I normally have a backing singer that I do it with, but that’s an interesting idea. But I’m a little bit conscious that records like that, whilst they’re defining moments, you also don’t want to be defined as just Kylie and Jason. There are a lot of other moments to what I do and what I’ve done. You’ve got to pay reasonable respect to that, but not saturate.”

Will you be performing the Neighbours theme?

“When I used to do these personal appearances in the early 2000s I’d sing the Home And Away theme, but I’m a bit like that. People would say, ‘That’s Home And Away, that’s not Neighbours!’, and I’d go, ‘Exactly’! But more recently, when Neighbours was rebooted on Amazon, the producers asked if I wanted to re-record the song and I turned it down.

“I did have a think about it, but I thought going back to appear in what we thought was the last episode [in 2022] was enough done. It’s a great song, but does it work in a show? It’s a bit twee.”

You last released a studio album, Sign Of Your Love, in 2012. Do you have plans to record again?

“I do. The problem is, it takes a lot of energy and the market is very different now. You’ve got to dream big, I get that. I’m definitely not lazy, but I just feel that maybe my time is better spent on stuff that engages a little bit more. Like playing to full houses with Rocky Horror – what more could I want?”

Jason Donovan, Doin’ Fine 25, York Barbican, March 8, 7.30pm. Tickets update: Still available at yorkbarbican.co.uk.

‘Rocky is panto for adults,’ says Jason Donovan on return to sweet transvestite role of Frank N Furter after 25 years

“The Rocky Horror Show now plays to my strengths, less musical theatre, more edgy, a little bit rock’n’roll. More me really!” says Jason Donovan, pictured centre

JASON Donovan is returning to one of his most famous roles: Frank-N-Furter in Richard O’Brien’s anarchic musical, The Rocky Horror Show.  Next stop, Grand Opera House, York, from October 21 to 26.

Why? “In a nutshell, I’m a fan,” says the Australian singer, actor and erstwhile soap star, now 56. “I love the show; I love the music; I love the character. I was touring my own show about five years ago and included Sweet Transvestite from Rocky as a key moment in my musical career. It went down a storm.”

When he read there would be a 50th anniversary production, he emailed producer Howard Panter, saying he would love to be involved. Cue Jason’s Frank-N-Furter, first back home in Australia, in Sydney and Melbourne, and now on a UK tour since mid-August.

Richard O’Brien’s cult musical tribute to horror and science fiction B-movies from the 1930s to the early 1960s tells the story of a newly engaged, clean-cut American college couple Brad and Janet. Caught in a storm, they end up at the gothic Transylvanian lair of  mad transvestite scientist, Dr Frank-N-Furter, just in time for the unveiling of his new creation, Rocky, a Frankenstein-style monster complete with blond hair and a tan.

Since 1973, the show has played to 30 million people globally in 20 languages. Now, Jason returns to a role he first played more than 25 years ago. “To be honest, I can’t really remember much about 1998 but that’s another story,” he says. “I don’t feel uncomfortable, though, playing him at 56 – and, of course, I have personal reasons for being grateful to the show.”

“The character of Frank N Furter embraces both sides of me: a strength and a vulnerability, as well as danger and denial,” says Jason Donovan

The stage manager on that late-1990s’ touring production was a young woman called Angela Malloch. “I’d be backstage waiting to go on, and  I’d get chatting to Ange, ” recalls Jason. Friendship turned into romance but the relationship hit the buffers.

Shortly afterwards, however, Angela found out she was pregnant. Ultimatum time. “If the relationship had any chance of working, she told me, and if I was going to have any involvement in the life of our child, I would have to give up the self-indulgent hedonistic lifestyle of the ’90s and take greater control of my life. And I did.”

The couple, who finally married in 2008, have three children: actress Jemma, 24; TV producer Zac, 23, and  Molly, still at school, aged 13.

Jason, meanwhile, has gone from small-screen fame as Scott Robinson in the Australian soap Neighbours to chart-topping pop stardom and onwards to musical and theatre roles: Joseph and Pharaoh in Joseph And His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat;  eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; two stints as drag artist Mitzi in Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert The Musical; music mogul Sam Phillips in Million Dollar Quartet, the demon barber himself in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street  and Lionel Logue in The King’s Speech.

Jason Donovan: Heading to York Barbican on his Doin’ Fine 25 tour in 2025. Picture: Eugene Hyland

Dr Frank-N-Furter, above all, occupies a special place in his heart. “One of the reasons I love Rocky is because it’s a short show.” Explain, Jason! “It says everything it needs to say and nothing more. There’s no unnecessary padding. It means nobody gets bored and you leave them wanting more.”

What about climbing into fishnet stockings and high heels seven times a week? “In many ways, very easy, I put on the costume and there’s Frank all over again,” he says. “I’m in touch with my feminine side but I come from a masculine sensibility. The character embraces both sides of me: a strength and a vulnerability, as well as danger and denial.

“Look, I come to the role as an actor. I always dreamed of fronting a rock band and this is about as close as I’ve got. When I put on those high heels, I become that rock’n’roll star. It makes me feel powerful, tall, in charge.

“And audiences love it. As I look out from the stage, I see a beautiful landscape of people wearing outrageous costumes. It’s not hard to see why: in many ways, Rocky is panto for adults. The costumes are just as much a part of the show as the characters and the music.”

Touring surely means wear and tear to his back? “I spend a lot more time in physio these days, something I’ve put in as an appendix in my contract! I’m in my mid-50s. I’m aware of having to look after myself,” he says.

Jason Donovan’s Mitzi Del Bra in his last appearance at the Grand Opera House in Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert The Musical in November 2015

Does that require regular exercise? “Yes, but not obsessively so. Mental health and physical fitness go hand-in-hand for me. This life is a long journey, you hope. My dad gave me the tool of a good work ethic linked to physical activity,” he says.

“I don’t go to the gym: I’m not interested in lifting weights. But I swim. I ride my bike. I stretch. I steam. I do those things more or less on a daily basis. In fact, they’ve become a borderline addiction. And, of course, doing the show is a work-out in itself: I put a lot of energy into my performance.”

Jason says vocals were “never my strongest point back in the day”. “But since Joseph, I’ve worked really hard and through 30 years of strengthening my vocal cords – they’re a muscle like anything else – I’ve become a better singer. Rocky now plays to my strengths, less musical theatre, more edgy, a little bit rock’n’roll. More me really!”

What’s next for Jason post-Rocky?  “I’ve got my Doin’ Fine 25 tour. That’s 35 concerts across the UK and Ireland,” he says. “It’s a greatest hits show, a celebration of 35 years of work.” York Barbican awaits next March.

The Rocky Horror Show, Grand Opera House, York, October 21 to 26, Monday to Thursday, 8pm; Friday and Saturday, 5.30pm and 8.30pm. Box office:  atgtickets.york.com. Jason Donovan: Doin’ Fine 25, York Barbican, March 8 2025, 8pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk