Kevin Colson was an Australian stage, film and television actor. He is known for playing Sir George Dillingham in the musical Aspects of Love, for which he received a Tony nomination, and Cliff in the original London production of Cabaret opposite Judi Dench. Colson was a television presenter and stage actor in Sydney before moving to London. He left acting for 16 years from 1969, but returned to the stage in 1985.
Career
Early career
Colson began his career as a television announcer on a religious programme on Sundays, and then became the Seven Network station compère and hosted Room for Two in 1959. His first theatre role was as a rancher in The Pleasure of His Company at the Theatre Royal in 1960, and he had a part in the Glass Menagerie for the Elizabethan Theatre Trust in Sydney in 1961. He starred in French musical Irma La Douce with Judy Bruce from May 1961 as her young boyfriend. It was his first professional musical role, having previously played straight theatre roles. In October 1962, he starred as the hero in Carnival at Her Majesty's Theatre, and in 1963 he played the juvenile lead in Noël Coward's Sail Away at Her Majesty's Theatre; Coward oversaw the rehearsals. In 1964, appearances with the Union Theatre Repertory Company – later the Melbourne Theatre Company – were his Hamlet, Nick in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in the Australian premiere of the Arthur Miller play After the Fall and a role in And The Big Men Fly as the hero's neighbour.
West End and Broadway
In 1965, Colson moved to London to train, but was immediately offered the part of Robert Browning in Robert and Elizabeth, which he performed for a year and a half at the Lyric Theatre. He then played Cliff Bradshaw to Judi Dench's Sally Bowles in the original London production of Cabaret at the Palace Theatre. He retired from acting in 1969.
Later career
From 1970 and 1985, he ran an oil business and a TV production company, both ultimately unsuccessful. After the oil business ended in 1985 he appeared in Stephen Sondheim's Follies, and then as CIA agent Walter DeCourcey in the original London production of Tim Rice's musical Chess. In 1989, Colson starred in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Aspects of Love with Ann Crumb. Colson was originally the understudy for actor Roger Moore in the part of George Dillingham, but Moore had reservations over his own singing voice and pulled out a month before the opening. He was nominated for a Tony Award in June 1990 when the play reached Broadway. In 1991 he played Noah in Children of Eden at the Prince Edward Theatre in London, and in 1998 he was a supporting lead in Maddie and he played Daddy Warbucks in Annie. He played Joey Bishop in Rat Pack Confidential at the Whitehall Theatre in 2003, followed by The Woman in White with Roger Allam in 2003 and Murderous Instincts as the butler Adolfo at the Savoy Theatre in 2004. In 2006 he played the leads in Dominic Mitchell's Acquaintances. He has appeared in many productions at the Finborough Theatre, London, including The Destiny of Me, Allport’s Revenge, Van Badham's The Gabriels., Blackwater Angel, Mass Appeal, The Beautiful People and His Greatness. He was Rodion in 2007's Old World.. He appeared in 2014 in The Last Confession in Sydney Australia.
Personal life
Colson comes from Sydney, and his father and brother were taxi drivers. He was previously married, shortly after he took a break from acting in 1969. The Australian singer-songwriter Sia is his niece, the daughter of his brother, Phil B. Colson, who is a singer, guitarist & composer.
