David Essex Trivia

1. Under the management of Derek Bowman, David Essex was able to win the role of Jesus Christ in 1971 for which famous musical?

From Quiz Clowning Around

Answer: Godspell

Essex met Bowman, a writer, through his work in the theatre. Bowman saw the potential in David and took him under his wing as manager and, quickly won him the shot at playing Jesus. That role, in "Godspell", would prove to be the door-breaking event for Essex, which would ultimately lead him to greater success. His performance earned him the Variety Club of Great Britain's award for "Most Promising Newcomer" and, at age twenty four, he was set to be a star of the stage.

From Quiz Clowning Around

Answer: That'll Be the Day

This was not David's first film, he'd previously had small roles in "Smashing Time" (1967), "Assault" (1971) and "All Coppers Are..." (1972). It was however, his first starring role. Set in a holiday camp in the 1960s, the film also contained a number of other notable music luminaries in Ringo Starr, Keith Moon and Billy Fury. It would become a massive hit in the United Kingdom and, thanks to a famous Essex penned song, a cult classic in the United States.

From Quiz Clowning Around

Answer: Gonna Make You a Star

The "David Essex" album (1974) was the singer's second and it was released less than a year after the extraordinary success of "Rock On", his first. The cynics would argue that he was rushing this release so that it could ride on the coat-tails of the first album. This is, however, was instantly dismissed as the release showed both maturity and adventure in its writing, which significantly shifted it away from the sounds of "Rock On". The single, and opening track to the album, "Gonna Make You a Star" is immediate evidence of this as Essex produces a buoyant hook to drive the song and then couples this with a set of bitter lyrics that expand on the life of a young singer caught up in the star making machine; "Is he more than a pretty face? I don't think so" One wonders if this was David's way of stating that he intended to be much more than a one hit wonder.

From Quiz Clowning Around

Answer: War of the Worlds

Eighty years after the publication of Wells' famed story, Jeff Wayne had decided to add another dimension to the novel by setting it to music. It was a brave move that produced a best selling album. Despite being a double LP, in 2009, it was ranked as the fortieth best selling album ever, in the UK. It has since gone on to provide Wayne with an avenue to live tours, video games and DVDs. For Essex, who provides the voice for the Artillery Man and sings the song "Brave New World", it was the perfect vehicle with which to combine his talents for acting and singing. It was also good timing as his recording career was starting to slow. That's not to say that his output was poor, on the contrary, he continued to be adventurous and introduce new influences, such as reggae, into his sound. Rather, it was that his once young audience was now aging a little and preferred to stay with his "safer tunes" while the new generation coming through were attracted to the emergence of the punk rock revolution and found it difficult to reconcile the emerging new wave sounds with David's stylings.

From Quiz Clowning Around

Answer: Evita

Despite his recording career slowing down, David Essex was still able to close out the 1970s with style, performing as Guevara in the original production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Evita". "Oh, What a Circus", which shares the same tune as "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" (a contrafactum), sees Guevara (Essex) comparing the life of Evita Peron with the titular circus. Essex released the song as a single in 1978 and it was a commercial success, peaking on the UK Singles charts at number three.

From Quiz Clowning Around

Answer: Mutiny

Based on the novel "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1932) by Charles Nordhoff, the play deals with the cruel command of Captain Bligh on board the ship HMS Bounty. Fletcher Christian is one of eighteen men who have been lured by the idyllic lifestyle they'd witnessed on the island of Tahiti and stage a mutiny. By the 1980s David Essex had decided to concentrate his efforts on his theatre work with the occasional film thrown in. He was now an established star of the stage and he had enough presence and drawing power to hold a show on his own. Though infrequent, it still gave him the opportunity to record music and two singles were released from the body of this play. One of them, "Tahiti", was a surprise hit, peaking at number eight on the UK Singles charts.

From Quiz Clowning Around

Answer: All the Fun of the Fair

And so we complete the circle for David Essex, which started with his fascination for amusement parks and carnivals as a young teen and is embodied within this play. "All the Fun of the Fair", which made it to the West End in London (2010) tells the story of Levi Lee (Essex), recently widowed and with his hands full with a rebellious teenage son. He meets a gypsy fortune teller who, is in love with him and, tells him that there is danger and mysticism in his near future. A jukebox musical is one that features previously released popular songs of an artist. The show (and album) open with David's "A Winter Tale", a number two UK hit for him in 1982 and also includes the infectious "Hold Me Close" and "Gonna Make You a Star".

This is category 23167

= Top 5% Rated Quiz, Top 10% Rated Quiz, Top 20% Rated Quiz, A Well Rated Quiz
= added recently, = Editor's Pick = FunTrivia Editor = Gold Member
Teachers / educators: FunTrivia welcomes the use of our website and quizzes in the classroom as a teaching aid or for preparing and testing students. See our education section. Our quizzes are printable and may be used as question sheets by k-12 teachers, parents, and home schoolers.

 ·  All questions, answers, and quiz content on this website is copyright FunTrivia, Inc and may not be reproduced without permission. Any images from TV shows and movies are copyright their studios, and are being used under "fair use" for commentary and education.