From boy next door to Sun record mogul

By Dionne Christian

He used to be the boy next door. Then he moved to London and discovered sex, drugs and musicals.

Now former star Jason Donovan heads Downunder in June as the star of hit musical

Donovan plays Sam Phillips, the recording studio owner and music producer who brought Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins together for a one-nightonly jam session.

On that famous 1956 day at Phillips’ Sun Record Studios, Perkins was recording new material following the success of

Phillips called in a relatively inexperienced piano player Jerry Lee Lewis to accompany Perkins and, as the duo got to work, Elvis Presley then Johnny Cash arrived.

As conversation turned to musicmaking, sound engineer Jack Clement hit “record”. By the end of the evening, Clement had 46 songs captured for all time. The Tony Award-winning

features many of those hits:

and Hound Written by music historian Colin Escott and film writer and producer Floyd Mutrux, the jukebox musical debuted in 2006. Donovan joined the cast last year. Since rising to fame as

boy-next-door Scott Robinson — and boyfriend of co-star turned pop diva Kylie Minogue — he has starred in and

He’s also been a chart-topping pop singer. But it hasn’t all been top 10 records and success. Being a global superstar barely out of his teens drove him to drug addiction which nearly killed him.

He only managed to kick the addiction when his first child was born in 2000.

Tickets for Auckland season go on sale Tuesday.

It’s the latest stage show to get an Auckland season this year. and were announced in 2016. The stage adaptation of Roald Dahl’s and the comedy

also play here.