It seems like only a year or two ago that David Campbell, the shape-shifting Australian pop singer, was hailed as the next big thing when he became the youngest performer ever to open at the Rainbow and Stars cabaret, now defunct, in Rockefeller Center. But the year was actually 1997, and Mr. Campbell was a 24-year-old eager beaver of seemingly boundless confidence and ambition. Although American stardom eluded him, he went on to establish himself as a top-of-the-line musical theater performer in his homeland while continuing to pay visits to the United States.
Now Mr. Campbell is back, at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, where he opened a five-night engagement on Sunday evening. At 37, he is a garrulous, sock-it-to-’em entertainer: a kind of music-hall cowboy executing the vocal equivalent of flashy rodeo feats as he dashes from one style to another. An unusually physical performer, Mr. Campbell, who is backed by a pop quartet, illustrates songs with broad, decisive gestures that suggest an entertainer still bent on world conquest.
The show celebrates his recent Sony Masterworks CD, “On Broadway,” whose songs include barnburners like “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “Being Alive” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Mr. Campbell’s voice has strengthened and coarsened. He sounds more than ever like Peter Allen, one of his original idols, whose song “When I Get My Name in Lights” opened Sunday’s show.
The more forcefully Mr. Campbell belts, the more astringent his tone becomes. As he pounded out the Young Rascals’ hit “How Can I Be Sure?,” shading his voice from a high tenor into a hard falsetto, he recalled Freddie Mercury of Queen. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” became a crude showpiece for delivering sustained high notes. One of the most successful numbers was a punchy, swinging “Luck Be a Lady” from “Guys and Dolls.”
Mr. Campbell rarely showed his quieter side. But when he relaxed to croon “My Funny Valentine,” he conjured the faraway sound of Chet Baker lost in a reverie; you could discern hints of an introvert hiding under the razzle-dazzle.
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