★★★☆☆ Great band and nifty moves can’t rescue so-so dreams of low-wattage lovers.

Lyric Theatre, Sydney
October 8, 2016

Bobby Darin. Nice man. Handful of hits. Didn’t drink, do drugs or entertain a string of lovers. Never killed, beat his wife, sublimated his secret sexuality. Amicable divorce. And therein lies the problem with this well-performed, slickly directed ‘new’ Australian musical that rocks and rolls its way into the Lyric Theatre for a ten week Sydney run. There are some remarkably good things on display – a neat design (Brian Thomson), a wonderfully finessed lighting plot (Paul Jackson), excellent sound (Michael Waters), some original and inventive choreography (Andrew Hallsworth), and last but not least the best swing band you’ll hear this side of Vegas – but a drab book tied to a tale of good guy gets famous and dies young (something we know will happen from the opening number onwards) pretty much sinks this story from the get go.

David Campbell as Bobby Darin and Showgirls

Walden Robert Cassotto was born in East Harlem and grew up thinking his grandmother was his mother. The two big reveals in the show are...