At The Crossroads: Dale Burridge

Coral Drouyn talks to musical theatre star Dale Burridge about his long overdue return to the stage in his new cabaret experience.

It was 1990 when Dale Burridge truly did his Supernova act in Australian Musical Theatre by wowing audiences as Raoul in the original Australian production of Phantom of the Opera. That is no mean feat when you consider he shared the stage with Anthony Warlow and Marina Prior. Dale’s voice was lighter then, a pristine tenor with mellifluous undertones, but it promised more than we could ever have hoped for.

And so we entered the nineties with TWO superb voices – Warlow and Burridge – one trained for opera; the other with no training whatsoever, just a natural gift. We expected them to dominate musical theatre for the following thirty years or so, but within a few short years Warlow was recovering from throat cancer and Dale had his “mini breakdown” and “bitter period” and decided to give theatre  away. I won’t bore you with the details because Dale tells his own story far better than I could ever do, and he tells it all in his breath-taking cabaret project At the Crossroads.

As Dale tells us early on in the show, “I was born into a family of builders, and I wanted to be Shirley Bassey.”

Was it the sequinned gowns, the feather boas, the dynamic, stage-owning glamour of Bassey that appealed to Dale (who didn’t come out to his parents until he was 30, though he had questioned his sexuality since childhood)?

“Mostly it was the voice,” he tells me. “Boy could she belt out a number! I was the typical cliche. Bullied at school, didn’t fit in, trying to find, and define, myself (it’s a work in progress). But when I sang, I knew that was exactly what I was meant to be doing. I just didn’t have a clue how to go about it.”

He was barely 20 when he decided, in his lunch-hour, to go to the open auditions for The Sound of Music, after all, what did he have to lose, other than the day job that was boring him to death? Miraculously he got through the audition and threw in his day job immediately.

“I started out playing a postulant nun, singing How do you solve a problem like Maria?  But at least I was singing it on a West End Stage.” He chuckles at the memory and goes on to recount, “I spent two years in that show, quickly taking over the role of Rolf. Here were all these performers who had paid their dues, gone to classes, knew what they were doing, and here am I, a brash kid from Australia who didn’t have a clue. Honestly, I really was just winging it. I mean, who makes their very first appearance on stage in the West End, with no experience at all.”

Aah! But he had the voice.

“I know now that it’s a gift,” he tells me. “But I didn’t know it back then. I just took it for granted and used it, I guess, as something of a prop. I could always get by if I sang.”

But British Immigration were not amused, and when someone dobbed him in for outstaying his two year work permit, he was forced to leave the show, and England, and return home to Australia.

It was 1984 – television drama, especially Soaps, were a big thing and Dale thought perhaps he might score a role in Neighbours

“Never mind that I couldn’t act and didn’t have a clue about cameras,” he laughs. He was young, and pretty, and the odds were in his favour.

And this where Dale and my stars collided, even though we have never met (though we plan to). I tell this story because Dale insisted I do. Instead of Neighbours, Dale found himself auditioning for the iconic cult drama Prisoner. He got the role of Tim Davies - created by Yours Truly – I was the head writer and story creator at the time. Dale thinks that explains the instant empathy between us.

“After all,” he tells me. “In a sense you’re my mother! You created part of me.” I didn’t have the heart to explain the “Birds and the Bees” to him. After all, the man is now 60…and looking sensational in maturity.

Dale didn’t become the next Guy Pearce or Russell Crowe - or even Kylie. It’s a shame he didn’t get the Neighbours gig instead of Prisoner. But the voice did take him through a spate of great musicals, including Seven Little Australians, Scrooge and Les Misérables.

But when he walked away he started his own events company, believing he would be in control of his own destiny, never realising that his voice IS his destiny. He shoved it to one side, buried himself in corporate work, married a lovely Swedish bloke, bought a house in the country, and pretended he was blissfully happy. Except…

When you are given a gift, you don’t (or shouldn’t) lock it away in a cupboard or shove it in a drawer. A gift must be used to be honoured. Two years ago Dale realised he was unhappy, and the reason was, he wasn’t singing. He had to get back to doing what he does best.

“It took a while for me to understand it wasn’t my choice. I had to sing, it’s what I was born to do,” Dale says with earnest sincerity.

And so, with his friend Martin Crewes (a fine Musical Theatre performer in his own right) as Director and co-writer, and with the amazing Bev Kennedy as Musical Director, Dale decided to tell his stories, funny, poignant, shocking, but always his own Truth…and to let his voice sing for itself. It’s a deeper voice than we may remember, but strong, powerful and, at times, heart-breaking. It’s a voice that can whisper a lyric and make you cry … or belt it out and make you cheer … and it’s the part of Dale Burridge that he tried to sideline for far too many years.

At the Crossroads ­premiered at Chapel off Chapel (still one of my favourite venues in Australia) last year and it is back for two more nights on Dec 8^th and 9^th, 2022. https://chapeloffchapel.com.au/show/at-the-crossroads-dale-burridge-in-concert-2/

It will also be returning to Sydney’s Hayes Theatre in 2023. After that, who knows which road Dale will take…but you can bet your life his voice will lead him. And that’s as it should be. It’s a gift to all of us.