By Luke Voogt
West End veteran Philip Gould will perform the songs which made his career at Musical Mornings next week in Geelong.
Gould holds the Australian record for the longest continuous leading role on the iconic London theatre strip, playing Billy Lawlor in 42nd Street for two years.
“I’ve been told that it still stands today,” he told the Indy Monday. “It was more than 900 performances.”
Gould was born in 1957 in Melbourne and grew up in West Heidelberg.
“It was pretty rough at the time,” he said.
“There were shootings and stabbings going on at the bowling alley just a couple of kilometres away from where I lived.
“I believe it’s calmed down a bit. I hope so because my mother still lives there and she’s 90.”
Both his parents were vaudeville performers and his mother was keen for her children to follow in her footsteps.
“I was the youngest of three,” Gould said. “I was her last try at getting someone to take on the business.”
A truck ran over his leg when he was four, so his mum signed him up for tap dance as “therapy”.
“They set it incorrect so my foot was facing outwards and the knee was straight ahead,” Gould said. “It’s pretty straight now.“
Gould’s career flourished, with the then-teen performing on Johnny Young’s Young Talent Time from 1971 to 1976.
With theatre experiencing a downturn in Australia, Gould went over to England with fellow actor and friend Caroline O’Connor.
“I’d just finished doing a tour of West Side Story in ’84 and it looked really grim on the theatre scene,” he said. “She showed me the ropes there.”
Gould spent the next 14 years performing across the UK.
“I loved it,“ he said. “For a single person moving around there was so much happening there.”
He fondly remembered playing alongside Princess Diana in a Covent Garden show in 1986 and holding her hand during the curtain call. “She was lovely,“ he said.
Gould began moving back to Australia in 1996, where he played in a production of Crazy for You.
It was a dream role for Gould, who was thrilled to “do my own stunts” and “throw myself around the stage“.
Gould will join award-winning singer and actress Michelle Fitzmaurice, and compere Philip Wheeldon for Great Composers of London’s West End next week.
“I really like working with those two people,” he said. “There’s none of that ego business going on – we just get on with it really.”
Together they will perform the classic tunes from plays like Cats, Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables at Geelong Performing Arts Centre next Wednesday and Thursday.
“It’s covering a lot of tastes in music and I get to do a bit of dancing so that will be nice for me and hopefully the audience.”
The father of six has been performing musical concerts for the last decade, rather than travelling “six months at a time” with major productions.
“Big productions are pretty hard on a family when they rely on you to be there,” he said.
“These concerts are a godsend – they sort of keep my hand in performing.”
