Marvin Gaye’s life comes to life in a new stage production set to tour Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.
Marvin Gaye’s music may be universally known, but the singer’s personal life is a tragic contrast that not many are privy to. In an attempt to rectify this gap in knowledge, Simon Myer’s latest production, ‘Let’s Get It On: The Life And Music Of Marvin Gaye’, is a celebration and narration of Gaye’s biggest hits and greatest pitfalls over the course of his tumultuous life.
Singer Andrew de Silva, alongside fellow Australian artist Vika Bull, will bring the show to life, and is more than excited for the material he has been provided with. “The show, it really sets the tone for Marvin's life,” de Silva says.
“His life is really interesting but it’s also tragic as well – it goes up, it goes down, it goes up again – and then he has his comeback in the early '80s and then his father shoots him. So it’s really sad in that regard, but out of all of that the songs that he wrote are absolutely amazing and just a sign of the times as well.
“My role is to basically narrate the show and sing all his songs. It's between Vika Bull and myself and we have a conversation and we take the audience along with us on this journey right from the very beginning – through his childhood, marriages, addictions – and we delve into his fragile psyche and while we're doing all of that we're singing all his songs as well. It really keeps the audience captivated, but with all that it’s like a party on stage as well, so there's a roller coaster of emotions that we'll take you guys on.”
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Gaye’s most well-known songs often seem to bubble over with mirth, but what he was writing didn't always reflect the personal situation he found himself in.
Plagued with drug addictions and a controlling family and record label, the Motown legend had more than his fair share of problems, something which de Silva is now the communicator of. “The troubles really started with his own father, you know he had this childhood where his father was really jealous of him and he just didn't quite get that love from his father.
“And the audience gets a taste of that, and his whole life was kind of tortured as well. But then, with songs like ‘Mercy, Mercy Me’, Marvin really writes songs about the war and what was going on in America and what was going on around him; so he really had an impact on the generation that was growing up around him.”
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Used to recording and performing his own music, the 'Australia’s Got Talent' winner is also excited to take a step in a slightly more theatrical direction. “This is something very different for me,” de Silva says.
“It’s always been just singing, but this is storytelling as well, so it’s a bit of a challenge but it’s good as well, there’s a level of a performance to it that requires acting and emotion. I'm looking forward to it. This rise in narrative tributes to well-loved songwriters, it's like those documentaries we watch, if you love a band or love a song you want to know about their personal life, you want to know why they wrote that song, what was going on around them at that time.
“People, like myself, who love soul and R&B and have a love for that kind of music, it takes you back to a time and place where it was really getting started. Anybody who loves good music will get into this, even if you don't know all the songs you'll still get into it.”
Let's Get It On Tour Dates
23-25 Jul - The Palms at Crown (Melbourne)5-8 Aug - Powerhouse (Brisbane)
1-6 Sep - Regal Theatre (Perth)
