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.
