Spotlight on David Shannon – Curtain Up On Musicals

Curtain Up On Musicals – newsletter of the Stage Musical Appreciation Society (”Smash”)

Number 32, June 2000.

We are grateful to John Scovell for this interesting Spotlight. Other readers are invited to contribute information about their favourite stars of the musical theatre.

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Up and coming West End performer David Shannon is rapidly becoming established as one of musical theatre’s busiest actors. Now in “Whistle Down The Wind” at the Aldwych, he has played leading roles in four other London musicals and is rumoured to be in line for a part in “The Beautiful Game” the new Andrew Lloyd Webber/Ben Elton show.

David had an unusual entry into the world of theatre. Instead of going to stage school he started work as a furniture restorer in Dublin and became involved in amateur dramatics.

In Dublin amateur performers playing lead roles can be paid and, although each production lasted only a short time, over a period of three years David was able to tackle a variety of roles and was able to gain real experience. He says that if he had the choice between someone with experience and someone with experience and someone from stage school, he would pick the experienced performer every time.

After three years performing in Dublin, David auditioned for “Les Miserables” at the Palace Theatre in London. He was completely intimidated and so nervous that he was asked to stop singing! He decided that he had to deal with his ‘demons’. A year later he went back to the same theatre, sang the same song, got the part and went on to play Marius.

David was in “Les Mis” for two years, which he felt was too long. “I think it is a great show but I grew to hate being in it. It was like being on a treadmill that I wanted to get off. When that happens it starts to affect everyone else.”

He decided to leave the show to face an uncertain future. He says – “in this business if you want to get ahead you have to take risks, and ones that benefit your career and not always your bank balance”. For the next two years David had a variety of jobs. He worked in a bar, a video shop and at a golf course: he cleaned cars and worked in telesales. But he also wrote some original music for a band he was involved with and appeared in the 10th anniversary concert of “Les Mis” at the Albert Hall.

After appearing in “Tommy” in Germany, David auditioned for “Martin Guerre”. He had to go through seven auditions before he was offered the part of Guillaume. He regards this as one of the most rewarding periods of his life (but found the part both physically and emotionally exhausting). His next role, as Chris in “Miss Saigon” he describes “as a blessed relief”. David stayed with “Miss Saigon” until it closed in October 1999 and then went into “Cats” playing Rum Tum Tugger. He started playing The Man in “Whistle Down The Wind” on May 8th this year.

Although now a successful musical artist, David’s eventual aim is to be a recording artist. He is now planning to release an album which will consist of songs from shows together with some original work of his own. He has already appeared on TV’s Hale and Pace show as part of their entry for Eurovision in which he sang a song called More Than Enough for One Life. He had hoped to release it as a single, but due to copyright problems he has so far been unable to do so.

Such a setback is unlikely to deter this very determined performer from fulfilling his ambitions!

The future is certainly looking bright for David Shannon.

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