IS PETER WOODWARD A MUSICAL TALENT? 

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Long ago in a galaxy far far away or when I was in my early 20s I hung around with a few actors. I was a photographer, the odd man out. One day I had a gig to take a group picture of a several actors in a play, with the director and producer both of whom were missing in action. While waiting the actors amused themselves by playing the piano and started a sing along. I could not believe it, they all had good singing voices. Being ever so slightly inquisitive I questioned that all these people could actually sing.

So here started my instruction on actors, singing, and voice coaches. All the actors had a couple of things in common, they all were formally trained actors, and they had all spent a minimum of 3 years with a voice coach, most had more. They patiently explained that a well trained actor knew how to use his voice, and singing is just a different use of that voice. Interesting, I thought, and stored it away next to the fact that 10 percent of all pig's tails turn in the opposite direction. You had to be there for that one.

A few decades later I was watching Edward Woodward again in "Breaker Morant," and noticed for the first time that he sang the closing song. It was beautifully done so when I found his web site I was prepared to hear that he sang in few musicals, but not that he recorded numerous albums. 

As I explored the site I found an interview he had given on the difference between singing in musicals or light operas, and singing as Edward Woodward on an album. That was even more insightful, especially when he said he made the decision to give up singing on stage in musicals and continue with singing as himself on albums. He talked about the regimen and the considerable time involved in staying able to 'belt' out the songs, and that it was a lot of hard work for what I guess amounted to little gain.

Slipping ahead a little and still on topic, keep your shirts on I will get to Peter in a moment, we end up a couple of years ago when David Hasselhoff was on Broadway playing and singing in "Jekyll & Hyde." I have always liked David's voice, nice sound to it, and was looking forward to hearing him sing the songs. Up to this point I had only heard Anthony Warlow sing the songs from "Jekyll & Hyde" and was impressed with his ability to sing those songs so powerfully. You can imagine my disappointment at David's rendition of the songs. He sang them as David Hasselhoff, not the character Hyde, and certainly not like someone trained to sing on stage. He, in my opinion, was not a trained stage singer, but a singer of songs, two completely different animals.

Now we come to the recent past. It wasn't too long after Crusade ended its run that I discovered a tape available on Edward's site with Peter in a staring role. It was a stage production of "Wodehouse On Broadway" very nicely done, and it starred Peter Woodward as P.G. Wodehouse. Here Peter portrays, in today's terms, a nerdy Englishman who is probably still a virgin, if you believe his partner, who loves his old public school and cricket. He was also part of one of the most celebrated writing teams of his era and possibly any other era on Broadway. Now I am not sure which was more of a stretch for Peter, the 'I love my old school' part or the 'virgin' part, which ever it was, he did a fantastic job at both.

So what was the difference between him and David? Well he was P.G. Wodehouse, and when he sang, he sang as Wodehouse, not as Peter. Everything he brought into the play as his character went into the singing as his character. And that in my book makes Peter a singer of stage.

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Now I don't know Peter and probably will never meet the man unless he turns up at my house. Since he doesn't know my address the odds of this happening are nil. So I have never heard him sing as Peter, but I have heard him sing in four different arenas as four different characters. Probably the one that would sound the most like Peter's normal singing voice would be as Willoughby in "Sense and Sensibility." There he portrays a young man of about his age at the time, and the accent and sound of his voice is similar to his normal voice when he is simply talking.

For those of you who have never seen this made for TV mini series. He, Willoughby, falls in love with a young lady of birth but not fortune, Marianne. He is a young man who is dependent on his aunt for his way in the world, she has the money and he has none, only 'expectations' if he obeys. He spends a part of the summer courting her, and they sing together at the piano for entertainment. What he doesn't tell her is that he is engaged to be married, an engagement that his aunt is not only in favor of but probably arranged. He ends up breaking the young lady's heart when his Aunt reigns him in and he marries to appease her. Of course this is only a small part of the movie, but it is an important role and subplot.

After watching "Wodehouse" and "Sense and Sensibility" it prompted me to find out if Peter had ever recorded with his father, he hadn't as far as I could find.

In the musical "Moll Flanders" you have a different set up for the actors. All the actors except the young lady who portrays the lead, Moll Flanders, play and sing multiple parts plus the ensemble. Peter lists contains: Robert, Fornicator, Jerry, Landlord, Bank Clerk, Angel, Judge and Ensemble. Robert was her first husband and Jerry was another husband who just happened to be her brother.

I have seen most of the filmed versions available to someone in the US and frankly the musical sounds a lot more fun. In one song where Peter is singing as 'the fornicator' is hilarious, well sung, and while you can tell which voice is Peter's, you can also tell he is singing in character. Actually the entire CD is very well done, I can highly recommend it. For those of you who care, Peter gets a share of the purchase price of each CD sold, or so it says on the label. So buy the thing, don't find someone with a copy and copy it. I did have some trouble picking out his voice in other cuts, simply because he and another actor sound similar. However, where you can tell it is Peter, he is still singing as a character, which ever of the multitude he plays.

Now we come to the final one, "Bashville." It was done in an open air theater. Peter played the part of what I would consider first lead, Cashel Byron, a young pugilist, in addition he was also listed as the fight arranger. As Cashel Byron, he is in love with Lydia, a young lady of wealth and station who wants him to give up the 'art' of boxing and become a gentleman. What neither know is that he is already a gentleman by birth. The usual twists and turns, all making an interesting and amusing musical. Just a foot note, yes Byron does gets the girl.

So here I am ready to answer the question, can Peter Woodward sing? The reply is that he is a very good stage singer. I found that he can play a character and sing in that character's voice. Can he belt out a song? Yes again. Is his singing just training or genetics? I would say probably both. As I said before I have no idea what he sounds like when he is singing in the shower or belting out a song in the auto. Probably like he wants to sound is my opinion. So is he Plum Wodehouse, Willoughby, the fornicator, one of Moll's husbands or Cashel Byron? I would imagine he is all of the afore mentioned characters and thousands more if hired to be so. He is a well trained actor who has a very good command of his voice.

Should he give up his day job and starting singing for a living? If musicals or light operas ever became fashionable again, I would think he could make a living at it, but they aren't and as Edward said it takes a lot of work to maintain the voice needed for the stage.

In the end I guess I would prefer him to stay where he is happiest, acting and writing and producing and, despite his musical ability, leave the singing for the shower and those long drives to somewhere. Should you purchase the LP "Bashville" or the CD "Moll Flanders?" If you like musicals, they are humorous and fun to listen to.

Marscon Interview

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Author : Lee Quick

Published on: May 29, 2002
Links Updated : June 25, 2002

swordsman, actor, British, England, English, UK, Babylon 5, JMS

technomage, magic, magician, spell, incantation, hex, Crusade

stage play, musical, broadway, theater, theatre, playwrite

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Bashville

Wodehouse

Sense And Sensibility

Galen