LIKE ABBA, who hit the headlines recently with their announcement that they planned to release their first album in 40 years, complete with Christmas song, Jason Donovan seems to be of the view that the show must go on. Nostalgia is just about the only way we can get through this. “You give me one good reason to leave me. I’ll give you 10 good reasons to stay,” he sang in his 1989 hit, Too Many Broken Hearts. This autumn he goes on tour, with a show titled Even More Good Reasons.
But good reasons, you have to wonder, to do what?
Stay at home? After all, Covid infection levels are still rising Nah, seems unlikely. Donovan has been trying to get this show on the road and out to theatres, and has had to reschedule several times, since it was delayed last autumn. He’s also brought us a new production of Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat. There’s no doubt he’s trying to get us out there watching live shows. He has raved about getting back to live performance, saying: “It has been overwhelming and emotional to see people celebrating life. I’d like to think that live shows are a bit of therapy out of the last 18 months. And it’s always great to revisit times when life was much simpler, so I hope people will come along and do just that.”
Keep working?
Possibly. Though Donovan never seems to have had any trouble with that. In his fifties now, his career history seems to have been one long string of endless performance activity, frog-hopping from Neighbours to duetting with Kylie and then on to his number one album, followed by getting into musicals, including Joseph, The Rocky Horror Show, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and more, a fair few stints on reality television, all of this while pulling himself out of a drug problem and then having a family. He also appears to be going all out in the race for who can be the most active live performer of 2021, not only taking his show on tour but playing the Pharaoh in the latest production of Joseph.
READ MORE: Jason Donovan UK Tour - the rescheduled dates and how to get tickets
Any dream, or any show will do?
No, not just any dream. Just remember that for Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat he has cast himself as the most powerful man in Egypt, God on Earth.
Does he think we need some cheering up?
It certainly looks like it. And we may well need even more by the time he comes to play Glasgow on November 11, towards the end of the COP26 conference, and Edinburgh the night after.
Is 10 not enough good reasons?
Back in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell, it was. But these days, with Brexit, gas and CO2 shortages, Covid and the climate crisis, 10 just isn’t enough to cut it.
And what can cheer us up if, Jason can’t?
Kylie? Avatar ABBA? Getting a really good eighties-style mullet?
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here