At a glance…
- Jason is back in his hometown to perform One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Athenaeum Theatre.
- His father, beloved actor Terence Donovan, passed away in July and Jason is “channelling” him on stage.
- After finding fame on Neighbours and as a 1980s pop star, Jason lost his way until returning to the theatre.
- Content Warning: This article discusses topics such as drug use and overdose which may be upsetting to readers. Help is available.
The theatre world is full of spirits and superstitions. No one calls The Scottish Play by its true name, Macbeth. You’ll hear no one whistling – it could confuse stagehands into loosening a backdrop or counterweight. No one says “good luck” – in Australia it’s “break a leg” or “chookas.” And “the ghost light”, a bare bulb, always burns over the dark stage overnight. Legend says it keeps the theatre ghosts happy… and stops people falling into the orchestra pit.
When Jason Donovan steps onto Melbourne’s famous Athenaeum stage this month in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the spirit of his dear father, Terence Donovan, will be close by. Terence raised Jason solo from the age of five after his 1973 divorce from Jason’s mum. The beloved actor – whose star turns in Breaker Morant, The Man From Snowy River and TV’s Division 4 and Homicide – passed away on July 18 aged 90, with Jason by his side.
“What happened in July was unexpected, but inevitable,” Jason tells The Weekly today. “Dad was 90. He’d been struggling for a while and was very grateful for a long, colourful life. But he’s with me 100% on this one. There are a couple of lines in the play where I sound a lot like Dad because he used humour as a wonderful tool to disarm people. He was strong, a real ‘walk tall, fuck ‘em all’ guy, so I’m channelling that into McMurphy.”
From screen to stage
Randall Patrick McMurphy is the protagonist of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, best known for the 1975 film which swept the Oscars, winning all five major categories (Best Film, Actor, Actress, Director and Adapted Screenplay). In this new production, Jason plays the role Jack Nicholson made famous, a rogue jailbird who feigns mental illness to get himself committed to a psychiatric institution to avoid hard labour on a work farm.
This Athenaeum production is a Dale Jennings play based on Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, so Jason has made the brave decision to ignore the film and ground himself in the play. “It’s intense, I’m not going to lie. I’ve really taken a big leap with this one. Obviously, the film is full of iconic performances, but I haven’t listened to that noise. I’ve just got on with it. I want to bring authenticity to the story and the characters, so I’m doing my homework.”
That work began in February when Terence was ailing. “I locked this in because I wanted to come home to be with Dad,” Jason explains. “But it’s such a big, heavy script I’ve had to spend a lot of time immersing myself in the dialogue, discussing the details. I saw the Old Vic version (starring Aaron Stone Pierre and Olivia Williams) three times over the UK summer. It’s so layered. There’s more to it than even my sinful mind realised was there.”
A not-so-lucky breaker
There’s also the spectre of his father hovering over rehearsals. The Athenaeum was the scene of Terence greatest triumph – and his unluckiest break. In 1978, when Jason was nine years old, Terence landed the lead in Kenneth G Ross’s play Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts. The production – a courtroom saga about a trio of Australian soldiers accused of war crimes in the Boer War – was a triumph and Terence won rave reviews.
Filmmaker Bruce Beresford swooped on the rights to turn it into a film. “Bruce wanted Dad to play Breaker Morant in the movie too,” recalls Jason. “Dad was all set, but the producers felt they needed an international name, and in came [British actor] Edward Woodward. As a kid, I remember Dad being so disappointed. But that’s showbiz. Dad being the guy he was, handed over all his research and literature to Bruce anyway.”
The 1981 film became an Australian classic and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (won by Ordinary People). Terence won a consolation role as Morant’s best friend, Captain Hunt, but despite his charisma and leading man looks, he never got another shot at a major international movie.
“Timing is everything,” says Jason. “But you also need a bit of luck along the way. And I think we create our own luck in life.”
Fame and family feuds
Terence’s ill fortune mirrors the story behind the film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The rights to the book were originally optioned by Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas, who played McMurphy on Broadway, but after 13 years failing to get the film financed, he let actor son Michael take a swing at it, says Jason. “Michael found the money and a studio but then had to tell his Dad he was too old for the part and Jack Nicholson had the role.
“Having had a father as an actor, I can relate to how that news would have gone down!” he laughs. “I can also relate because when I got offered the role on Neighbours in 1984, I had to decide whether I’d leave school to take it. For my teachers, it was a unanimous ‘Yes!’ But my Dad said, “Look, it’s your decision, but if I were you, I’d finish my schooling. This opportunity will come along again.” And I took his advice, and guess what? It did.”
Jason’s “sinful mind” took him to some weird and wonderful places in the next 40 years. His big break as Scott Robinson in Neighbours opposite real-life beau Kylie Minogue led to a successful singing career in which he notched four UK No. 1s and sold three million albums (his 1989 debut, Ten Good Reasons, was the highest-selling album that year). Jason was flying high and, between 1988 and 1992, had 16 Top 40 hit singles in the UK.
From Kylie to Joseph
When The Weekly catches up with him, he’s not long off a gig in Budapest, Hungary. “I was doing a big retro pop 1980s gig in front of 8000 people, and it was a huge buzz,” he grins. “There’s a huge appetite for nostalgia right now, and my era with [music producers] Stock, Aitken & Waterman was the soundtrack to so many people’s lives across Europe. Living with me is weird. A lot of actors don’t have currency to freelance as pop singers.”
Yet for all his pin-up status in the ‘80s, Jason often took a low road to find a higher place. He defied typecasting as a soap prince/ pop confection by winning over Andrew Lloyd Webber, who cast him as the lead in 1991’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the London Palladium. The show was a smash and the cast album and the single, Any Dream Will Do, gave Jason his fifth and sixth No. 1s on the UK charts.
“Acting is where I began and has always been my spiritual home,” he says. “Becoming that music guy in the UK gave me the ability to go on stage and feel confident. God, my first theatrical experience was Joseph, so I went in at the top. But by then I’d learned that a singer who is relaxed sings better. Same goes for acting. I still get tense and anxious, but I remind myself that the stage has been my bread and butter for nearly 30 years.”
When the pop bubble bursts
Unfortunately, when he left the musical in 1992, the bubble burst on his singing career. Struggling for direction, he developed a serious drug problem, later admitting to taking up to three grams of cocaine a day. In early 1995, Jason attended model Kate Moss 21st birthday party at The Viper Room, the Los Angeles nightclub owned by Johnny Depp. Like actor River Phoenix, who died there in 1993, Jason suffered a drug-induced seizure.
He survived and sought treatment for his drug addictions and a few mental demons. “These days I keep very fit and avoid too many glasses of rosé!” he laughs. “I swim a lot and immerse myself in things that make me feel good. If I’m struggling internally, exercise helps me work things out in my mind. None of us is immune to good and bad days. But physical fitness and mental health play a really big role. They dance together.”
Jason returned to the stage in a 1998 UK redux of The Rocky Horror Show. Rocking fishnet stockings and lipstick as Dr Frank N Furter, he rediscovered his mojo as a performer and, better yet, found love with stage manager Angela Malloch. Still going strong, they live today in London and share daughters Jemma, 26, and Molly, 16 (both actors like their father) and son Zac, 25, a podcaster and television producer.
“Melbourne will always be special,” he says, “but London is home. It’s where my kids and wife and house are. But I’m often away from family, travelling. I’m constantly moving – my kids think I’m OCD – and the older I get, the more I want to relax and be content, not work as hard and try and find balance between my inner and outer worlds. But I’ve been very lucky in life. My work keeps me busy and still stimulates and challenges me.”
Fear, freedom, and fragility
But Cuckoo’s Nest might be his greatest challenge yet. “My biggest fear is fear itself,” says Jason, his blue eyes darting. “And I also firmly believe in ‘no risk, no magic’. I don’t think I would have been as confident to play this part in my 30s as I am now in my 50s, and funnily enough, what’s happened this year with Dad has given me more spark up my butt to get out there and say: Go for it, who cares? That’s the energy I’m trying to bring.”
Statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) show 21.5% of Australians aged 16 to 85 have experienced a mental disorder in the last 12 months and 42.9% (about 8.5 million) have experienced a mental health issue in their lifetime. For Jason, who knows those struggles all too well, it gives this play extra resonance in 2026.
“I haven’t been in an institution, but I am using the weight of my own experiences,” he admits. “This is a story about freedom. It’s about shaking up the system and defying the world’s institutions. It’s got humour and heart. McMurphy awakens the dead souls in people and jolts the complacency and conformity out of them. It’s a play of wonderful characters, and we have an ensemble cast who all contribute to its epic journey.”
Father, son, and Holy Spirit
McMurphy’s antagonist, the icy Nurse Ratched, is played by another 80s wunderkind, Nadine Garner (The Henderson Kids), a child star like Jason who has risen above her sitcom origins to become a force on the Australian stage. Other cast members include Gyton Grantley (Underbelly) and George Kapiniaris (Fat Pizza). But Jason, at 58, knows the weight of expectation is on him to lead from the front and deliver the star quality.
“By default, I have become a leader, not just in this show but most shows,” he admits. “Sometimes I wish I could blend into the background, but the nature of my past always brings attention back to me. Joseph made me a leader at 21. Acting is a long-distance run, and at 58, I’m no sprinter. But leadership, like responsibility, starts at the top. My actions, my professionalism, the way I treat people, that flows down the line to others.”
It’s a lesson Jason’s father taught him. “He said: when opportunities come, be prepared. I inherited Dad’s dream: a passion for acting, the quest for authenticity. He gave me that baton; I ran with it. So, when luck and timing have collided, I’ve been ready. Neighbours didn’t just happen. All my experiences beforehand enabled me to seize the moment. It starts with discipline. I say to my kids: keep your eyes on the craft. The rest will happen.”
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is at the Athenaeum Theatre from Nov 13-Dec 20. Get tickets here.
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