CALL FOR A BOBBY

PERFORMING kept his heart beating. But after 20 crowded years where he blitzed the charts, conquered Las Vegas and rivaled Frank Sinatra, it was all over for Bobby Darin. Or so his fans thought . . .

Since his death in 1973, at the age of 37, Darin's star has been on the rise again. Kevin Spacey paid him tribute in his 2004 biopic, "Beyond the Sea." Now, boxed sets of Darin's music are reminding us of his distinctive vocal style.

"Who else would have dared sing "Mack the Knife?" John-Michael Howson asks.

"People at the time thought he was mad, but Darin made it his own. You can't imagine anyone else doing that song now."

    Well . . . almost anyone. Howson, one of the talented scribes behind the jukebox musicals "Shout and Dusty," is busy crafting a new show about the indomitable Mr. Darin. And if things go well, local singers will be test-driving this musical in June.

I've been a Bobby Darin nut for decades. To me, he was one of the
greatest entertainers ever ... a breathtakingly good singer, a fine songwriter, a wonderful actor. He could dance, play all sorts of musical instruments. An all-rounder, really. Yet all his life he battled ill-health." Howson says.

Darin, aka Walden Robert Cassotto, was a man on a mission. Recurring bouts of rheumatic fever left him with a weakened heart so this versatile musician wasted no time in getting out of the Bronx and onto the pop charts. "Splish Splash," "Queen of the Hop," "Dream Lover" . . . in the 1950s, one Bobby-socks hit followed the next.

"Then, at the peak of his rock-pop stardom, he just walked away from all that," Howson says. "People asked him why and he'd say, 'I wanna keep going, I wanna be as big as Sinatra.'"

Darin's Grammy-winning version of "Mack the Knife" in 1959 marked his arrival as an adult entertainer. After that, Vegas beckoned. So did Hollywood (Come September, State Fair) and marriage to screen star Sandra Dee.

By the time Howson caught Darin at a Vegas showroom in 1970 the singer had split with Dee, come through a folk phase ("If I Were a Carpenter") and returned to club land. "Bobby had lots of different incarnations. That put a strain on people around him, of course, because the vision he had was not always their vision."

Was he exciting to watch? --- "Amazing. You knew he had these health worries, but it was as if another person came to life when he was up there."

Spacey channeled some of Darin's chameleon quality in Beyond the Sea and imagined the singer having conversations with his boyhood self.

"We're not wanting to emulate the film in any way." Howson stresses. Instead, he and cousin Frank Howson are developing a small-scale musical that gets up close to the man and his music.

As John-Michael explains: "The ingredients are all there. Great emotional situations, fantastic music, and just the energy of the man.

"Johnny O'Keefe and Dusty Springfield had their troubles, but Bobby didn't really have a dark side. It's his sheer determination to survive that comes through."

Dennis Smith and John Gilbert, who co-produced "Shout and Dusty," are getting
behind the project.