Dale Burridge reflects on his life in AT THE CROSSROADS

After an almost 20 year absence, Dale Burridge is back and better than ever.

Dale Burridge

Dale’s career has seen him perform both nationally and internationally in some of music theatre’s most iconic shows. Past credits include The Sound of Music, Oliver, Anything Goes, Seven Little Australians, Scrooge the Musical, and Les Miserables. Dale is possibly best known for his portrayal of Raoul in the Australian Premiere of The Phantom of the Opera, alongside Anthony Warlow and Marina Prior. Outside of music theatre, he has featured across numerous concert programs, cabarets, and at festivals globally.

While on sabbatical from the stage, he has established an extremely successful and respected production company, focusing on concert and corporate entertainment. But, after all this time, Dale felt the pull back to the spotlight and has returned with his biographical show At The Crossroads.

A deeply personal reflection of his life and career, At The Crossroads transcends cabaret and stands as its own. Part homage to his career, part diary, and part comedy show, Dale takes his audience on a journey through his life, welcoming the world of performance back into his life. The show was originally launched in Melbourne in 2021, and now is making its Sydney premiere at the spectacular Hayes Theatre.

What was the catalyst for writing At The Crossroads?

Dale: In 2020 I was running a successful production company for just on 20 years in Sydney, and had been living in a regional area of New South Wales with my lovely husband on an acreage. And we decided to sell the house. When we had the house on the market, we got hit by the terrible bushfires which surrounded our property, then we were hit by floods, then then COVID hit. And when COVID hit, we put the production company into hibernation because we lost 100% of our work in the space of two weeks. But it also gave me the jolt that I needed. I’d been thinking about leaving my company for some time. I suppose you just get very comfortable, don’t you? So I just sort of kept putting it off and then, you know, 10 years went by, 15 years went by. So I decided to exit my company, what was left of it. We sold the house eventually, my dear dad died, and we shifted into our apartment in central Sydney. And my husband said to me, “Well, what do you think you’re going to do now?” And I said, “The only thing I know for sure is that I need to sing again.”

How did it feel to get back into performing after such an extended absence?

Dale: I went back to some classical lessons to see where my voice was at because I hadn’t sung consistently for 17 years, and it was surprisingly in amazing shape. I just followed my instinct and my gut feeling, and the universe answered me by having the incredible Bev Kennedy ringing me up out of the blue and asking if I’d be interested in doing a cabaret at Claire’s Kitchen, which is a well-known cabaret venue in Sydney. That sold out in a matter of hours. I just totally loved being back on stage again, and I thought to myself, “I really don’t think I’m done.” At the age of 60, that was quite a revelation. And what followed was my incredible and really close mate Martin Crewes saying he would love to collaborate with me on writing shows.

Not only is this your return to the stage, but it’s a chance for you to really open up and share your vulnerabilities and experiences with an audience.

Dale: This is my unexpected return to performing again. People ask me about the show, you know, everyone asks if it’s a cabaret. And I sort of tend to say, “It’s raw, it’s real. It’s more than a cabaret because it’s really a performance piece that’s deeply personal and heartfelt, and at times hysterically funny.” It’s a map of my life, but I suppose it relates to all of us in many ways. When you’re doing a deeply personal piece like this, I really am laying it all on the line. It’s finding my way back to my truth and my passion, which had always been singing and performing. It’s my story of survival and perseverance and against all odds. It’s a showcase of all of my combined talents and my lived experience up until now, put in front of the audience to access and be part of. That’s the thing I’m loving about performing the show, that it’s becoming really obvious each time I do it that the audience really come along for the journey. My show has lots of moments that I think speak to our truth as human beings. We’ve all stood at those crossroads before and we’ve all gone “Which way am I going to go? What path do I take? Do I take the safe path? Do I marry that guy? Or do I take that job? Or do I take that path that I know is going to be fraught with difficult things, but it’s going to feed my passion?”

What can audiences expect from At The Crossroads?

Dale: At the start of the show I say it’s like getting onto a roller coaster [laughs] It’s really a massive undertaking. I’m singing over 20 songs, over 20 pages of script. It’s all underscored. It never stops! I’ve done [the show] in couple of lovely regional theatres as well as Melbourne, and I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and say to me that they wanted their teenage children to see the show because they thought it had such a powerful message of survival and finding your way back to your truth, which is just incredible to hear. The whole premise of the show, and the question I asked myself at the very top of the show, is “Why now?” And that’s what sets the whole show up. I won’t give away much more. It covers some really sensitive subjects like bullying, ageism, even things like COVID. How do we how do we survive through this? How has this changed us, our relationships, the way we look at ourselves? What’s important in our lives, you know, because we’ve all been faced with the reality of this shocking pandemic? So for me, I answer those questions in a deeply personal way, and quite raw that at moments in the show and I do allow myself to go there. It’s always imbued with a great sense of humour, because that’s me [chuckles]. I tend to find the funny side and lots of things.

If you could go back in time and give advice to your younger self, what would you say?

Dale: I would say stand in your difference. Stand and believe in yourself, and that it’s okay to be different. Always follow your truth. Always be honest to yourself.


At The Crossroads runs from April 7th to 10th at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre.

For tickets and more information, visit the Hayes Theatre Co. website.

Gabi Bergman

Gabi Bergman is a Melbourne-based performer and educator, and is the current Deputy Editor-in-Chief of AussieTheatre.com. She holds a Double Arts degree in Theatre Studies and Film/Screen Studies and a Master of Teaching (Secondary Education). Gabi has always been an avid lover of theatre, specifically musicals, and spends way too much money than she’d like to admit on tickets. Her most prized possession is her crate of theatre programs.

Gabi Bergman

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