EVERY year, when the Canberra Critics Circle meets to deliberate on nominees for its annual arts awards, questions inevitably surface about what musical directors do.

Curious, I dropped in on a Dramatic Productions’ rehearsal of “Dogfight The Musical”, which is about to take the stage at Gungahlin Theatre.

Caleb Campbell is the music director and I found him working alongside co-director Kelly Roberts and choreographer Nathan Rutups in a perfect balance of directorial input. 

“Modern” musicals, such as “Dogfight”, are a far cry from the old Broadway musicals where the role of actor, singer and hoofer were clearly defined and separated. Now there’s an ensemble approach that makes every artistic decision a perfect balance of talents.

“Dogfight The Musical” is derived from the 1991 film starring River Phoenix; it follows a narrative of a dubious sort. The setting is ’60s San Francisco, and a bunch of marines are shipping out to Vietnam. 

They compete to bring the ugliest date to their party that night – yes, that’s sexist, but the plot, focused on one couple, Eddie and Rose, deals with that, asking questions that probe the characters as human beings.

Rutups and Roberts get the ensemble in place. 

Campbell’s fingers fly effortlessly as he introduces scenes with background music, accompanies the numbers and answers questions about the songs from actors who go over to the keyboard to talk to him. It would be impossible to have the rehearsal without any one of the directors.

Campbell is not quite 23, but he is undoubtedly a veteran. He’s been taking piano lessons since he was five and he was quickly drawn into musicals at Lyneham High then Dickson College.

He went on to the ANU School of Music, majoring in jazz and linguistics, winning the university’s Terry Miles Prize in Jazz, the Winifred Burston Memorial Prize and the Erika Haas Prize, while also contributing original compositions on graduation days.

He has survived as a working musician on corporate gigs, which died off when covid came along, and now he’s a busy permanent piano teacher at Burgmann Anglican School in Gungahlin, very useful, he believes.

“Now I know how to deal with kids, how to incorporate them into a group when everyone is at different levels, and how to get people to do things while not talking down to the people who already know,” he says.

His connections with Canberra Philharmonic, for whom he has played on many shows and been musical director on “Beauty and the Beast” and “Jersey Boys”, began when his piano teacher asked him to play at an audition. There he met director Jim McMullen.

“Repetiteuring [accompanying] in rehearsals can be a bit challenging, because piano books in jazz are often written chord symbols, so that you don’t have to play all the notes,” Campbell says,

His personal taste in jazz runs to intellectually difficult jazz pianists Mehldau, Gustavsen and Hamasyan, but their music is a far cry from what he does in musicals.

“Of course I’ve done all my classical grades and then afterwards I moved to jazz,” he says. 

“Later I found musical theatre, which brought in all sorts of hybrid influences, so that I’ve now done jazz, pop, rock and light classical… musical theatre is the only place where you can do all of those.”

It’s been quite a learning curve. His musical direction of “Jersey Boys”, a “stand up and sing” show with numbers in eight-part harmony, was totally different from “Dogfight”, which looks into the lives and emotions of ordinary people.

“Dogfight” may be dealing with tough issues, but the numbers are hauntingly memorable and they’re written by the winning duo of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, best known for their work on “La La Land”, “Dear Evan Hansen” and “The Greatest Showman”.

He’ll be conducting (mostly with one hand) a band of six from the keyboard. He did have some private lessons in conducting from McMullen and recently did a masterclass with CSO director Jessica Cottis, so doesn’t rule out full conducting in the future.

“Dogfight The Musical”, Gungahlin College Theatre, January 27-February 4.