Darren Clark

The unassuming boy from Johnsonville who first walked through the gates of St Patrick’s College in 1994, earlier this year scooped two prestigious Olivier Awards.  The Oliviers are West End theatre’s equivalent of the Oscars. They are a big deal. As is Darren’s Show, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which has enjoyed a year-long run on the West End. With co-collaborators Jethro Compton and Mark Aspinall, they took out the awards for 2025 Best New Musical and Outstanding Musical Contribution.

Darren has honed his craft over the past two and a half decades to become an exceptional and in demand composer and lyricist.

He reflected on his time at St Patrick’s as being influential to his career and credits Director of Music Roger Powdrell and Head of English Andrew Brennan for providing him with opportunities to grow his skills.

‘I came to St Pat’s with the aim of being in the O’Shea Shield drama team. I knew boys who had competed in O’Shea and wanted to give it a go. But so many more doors were opened for me. I was in the barbershop quartet and Con Anima but very much as a bit part player. I had spent my time at school looking in awe at people like Damien Ekenasio and Jonathan Tupa’i who were so unbelievably talented. The environment was encouraging and supportive so I gained confidence.

‘I could play the guitar, belting out Metallica whenever I could, but that was about it. I taught myself the piano because Mr Powdrell let me use the music room at lunch time. After I hounded him, Mr Brennan gave me a shot to audition when the lead pulled out of Guys and Dolls. I was a half decent actor but needed to prove myself as a singer and the singing lessons Mr Powdrell had arranged for me helped me get this role.’

He added that the sounds around him at St Pat’s have contributed to his composition style and offer a point of difference. ‘I often need to teach artists how to strum in the rhythmic styles I learned at school. It comes from the strong Māori and Pasifika beats that I was exposed to.’

Darren left school thinking he wanted to study music at Victoria University but quickly realised that he had a whole lot more to learn if he were to get a music degree. So, he switched to Classics and made the move South to the University of Otago where he spent all his spare time in amateur dramatics (around 30 shows in total). And he wrote songs for fun.

With an English passport courtesy of his mother, Darren headed to London after he finished his degree. As Kiwis do, he worked many different jobs to get by and in between times played band gigs with his mates and continued to take part in local dramatic productions. A friend asked him to write an amateur show and slowly his career started taking shape. He says by now he felt he knew what he wanted to do but wasn’t quite sure how to get there. He has lived by the adage of doing something you enjoy, and it has a way of working out.

Darren says he has always been inquisitive. ‘If I had an interest but didn’t know how to do something, I would work out a way to learn. For example, recently this has meant learning jazz as it has been a gap in my skill set.’

At any one time Darren has multiple projects on the go. While he still pinches himself seeing his work in lights, it is a tough road to get there. Most West End shows begin with a tiny self-funded show at a local community hall. From there, if you are lucky, investors may take an interest and the show is developed to the next stage with a slightly bigger ensemble. Then, significant investment and several iterations later, you may get the big break.

Darren loves being at home with his three-year-old daughter Frankie, wife Ginny (who he met when he cast her as a tree in his first production) and bonus son Dylan. He tries to return to Aotearoa annually to see his mother who lives on the Kāpiti Coast.

While it feels as if Darren’s personal and professional life is bursting at the seams, he finds time to share his craft through being an industry expert presenter at songwriting masterclasses and workshops throughout the United Kingdom. He also founded New UK Musicals, which is a mutually beneficial space for UK song and music writers to expose their compositions and for artists to access new sheet music.

Sectare Fidem Darren. Thank you for your time, we wish you continued success and hope to see one of your shows on our shores before too long (oh, and we know a great choir for your pōwhiri!).