He then went on to play the role of The Phantom in Andrew Llyod Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Hal Prince, at Her Majesty’s Theatre, thus becoming the first person in the world to play the leading roles in both these coveted musicals. He also played The Phantom at the Opera House, Manchester, for which he won the Evening News award for best performance.
Dave created the roles of Major Lee, opposite Petula Clark in Someone Like You at the Strand Theatre. He also created the role of Zero Janvier in the British premier of Tim Rice’s Tycoon, at the Sydmonton Festival, and the role of Tom in Trish Ward’s Lonely Hearts, drirected by Steven Rayne.
He recieved great critical acclaim whenhe sang the role of Jesus in Andrew Llyod Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ, Superstar at the Barbican Centre, and then went on to perform the same role in the 1993 European tour.
Dave has many international concert appearances to his name, including such venues as the Ahoy Stadium, Rotterdam, the concert halls of Monterey and Mexico City and the Royal Albert Hall, as well as numerous sell out concert tours of the UK. In 1992 he was invited to be the only British performer for a concert in Los Angeles on behalf of the American Cinema Awards Foundation, to honour James Stewart and Lauran Bacall.
In 1995 he starred in a Gala concert in Munich, to honour the achievements of the director Hal Prince. As well as his own concerts, Dave has starred in numerous highly successful staged concert tours. These include The Magical World of the Musicals (1995), Something Wonderful, a celebration of the music of Rogers and Hammerstein (1996), A Lot of Living, celebrating the work of American composer Charles Strouse (1997), and more recently, a national tour of The Magic of the Musicals (1999).
Dave worked closely with the great American composer, John Kander, for a special concert broadcast by the BBC, and subsequently released on CD.
He is also closely connected with the work of Stephen Sondheim, having played the role of Ben in the Irish premier of Follies in Dublin (1996). His portrayal of Sweeney Todd, in another Sondheim classic, Sweeny Todd (1996), was described by critics as “...the definative performance...”, and more recently, he played George in the regional premier of Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George (1999).
In 1996 Dave created the role of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the world premier of Jeykll at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley.
His varied musical abilities were shown to great effect when he appeared at London’s famous Pizza on the park, recieving great critical acclaim for his Jazz’n’Chat style of dinner shows.
He has presented his own radio shows on national BBC radio, and has guested on most television shows and was delighted when he was surprised by Michael Aspel to be the subject of This is Your Life.
Dave has a very successful recording career, with three solo albums and numerous show albums to his name. In 1997, Dave re-created his portrayal of Jean Valjean for the 10th Anniversary production of Les Misérables at the Theatre Royal in Sydney, Australia.
In 1999/2000 he took on the role of Captain Hook in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan at the Marlowe Theatre.
2000 also saw another national tour of Something Wonderful and the highly successful Magic of the Musicals.
Dave is currently preparing for a national tour of Hollywood and Broadway, Schedueled for the end of 2001.
