One Hander – Tom Campbell

Tom Campbell is a one-handed gay actor, desperate to make it big on Broadway. In this hour-long cabaret, he tells us his stories of growing up and trying to make a living in show business.

The impressively talented Logan Watt plays piano, engaging with the audience and Campbell as he sings and talks his way through his Tasmanian childhood, getting to NIDA in Sydney, and his fractured relationship with his prosthetic hand. He tells us of his unique experiences in hospitality and education – the reaction of people to noticing the absence of a hand. Sometimes that helps him: he won the part of a wounded soldier in the British TV series Downton Abbey over others with two hands.

Campbell isn’t looking for pity – he tells us there’s nothing he can’t do (except rock climb!) – and his piecemeal anecdotes are funny, sarcastic, and sometimes, angry. He turns other people’s awkwardness and embarrassment into jokes, but he’s not afraid to admit using his difference to his advantage – for example, trying to crash a Hollywood party.

Resigned to not being a leading man, Campbell’s voice is strong in the multitude of musical theatre numbers that pepper and illustrate his narratives: Sondheim’s “Losing My Mind”, “Before I Fall” from Miss Saigon and a closing fast-paced medley of Les Misérables, Annie, Into the Woods and The Boy from Oz songs, accompanied by appropriately dressed puppets on his arm.

Campbell’s show is not a slick and polished peak-time production; it’s not a main course at the Cabaret Festival – more a tasty side dish. Campbell’s career has certainly been interesting and his one-man cabaret act offers us a funny and human insight into the challenges of an aspiring musical theatre actor, from a different perspective.

Mark Wickett

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