Instead, he was one of the producers, along with his wife Lisa, through their company Luckiest Productions."My wife chose it," he says when asked why the company revived the 1966 Broadway musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and book by Neil Simon based on the Federico Fellini movie Nights of Cabiria.

It turned out to be a shrewd choice. Sweet Charity, which opened the Hayes Theatre in Sydney, was a huge success last year. The small size of the theatre, while enabling the show to be intimate, also meant not many people could see it. But the modest scale of the production - 12 cast members, four musicians and a few crew members - made it suitable for touring. It was revived this year and after a season at the Sydney Opera House will go on tour to Melbourne, Wollongong, and Canberra.

Campbell says: "It's us dipping our toes into the water."

Most of the original production team was reassembled including its three Helpmann Award winners - Verity Hunt-Ballard, who won best female actor in a musical, Dean Bryant, who won for best direction of a musical and Andrew Hallsworth, who won for best choreography in a musical.

Sweet Charity tells the story of Charity Hope Valentine (Hunt-Ballard), a dancer in a sleazy dance hall who dreams of finding love - and has dealings with three men during the course of the show, all of them played by Martin Crewes. The score includes Big Spender, The Rhythm of Life and If They Could See Me Now.

While the original US production was directed and choreographed by the highly influential Bob Fosse, there are ways to go. Campbell says that rather than opting for Broadway-style glitz and glamour, this production turned to the original Fellini movie for inspiration to create an earthier, pared-down and more realistic interpretation.

Much, of course, depends on the lead and Campbell is full of praise for Hunt-Ballard.

"You do love her very much and know why she falls in love."

Hunt-Ballard says she's never revisited a show before. With four new cast members for the tour adding some freshness she was glad to have the opportunity to explore the story and the characters further with less of the pressure to simply learn lines and moves. But although the move to larger venues and audiences will necessitate some rethinking of the production, she says the essential approach is the same, aiming for realism and intimacy.

"The show is an emotional roller coaster and playing Neil Simon's work can be quite large, but we're playing it on a more filmic level."

She says Sweet Charity is "a story about the human spirit" with Charity being the eternal optimist and battler, struggling against the odds.

"That's why Australian audiences respond to it ... it's about wanting to better one's life."

And Charity keeps striving to move forward when she might have succumbed to despair. With no qualifications she's stuck using her body to make money and reliant on the slim chance of marriage to escape. Although the show is four decades old, Hunt-Ballard says some ways things haven't changed much.

"There are a lot more options for women now but the sexualisation of women is still very much there ... it made me think about what it is to be a woman."

And men do not come out of Sweet Charity particularly well. With Crewes playing the three male leads - a sleazy opportunist, a self-obsessed actor and a neurotic, damaged man - it emphasises the point that Charity is repeating patterns in her life she seems unable to escape.

Hunt-Ballard says: "It's very challenging for us as actors and very rewarding - there isn't the usual ending to a musical."

And it's a very different role to the one that made her famous, the prim and magical nanny in Mary Poppins. Hunt-Ballard says she learned a lot from that role including how to deal with the touring life. Now that she and her partner, actor Scott Johnson, have a two-year-old daughter, juggling schedules is even more important.

She's looking forward to making her ACT stage debut - "not a lot of professional musicals come to Canberra" - but while she may not have worked here, she does have a Canberra connection.

"My mother's godmother, Gwen Woodroofe, lived in Canberra for many years. She was a professor at the ANU and one of the first female scientists ... an incredible woman for her time."

Hunt-Ballard remembers visiting Woodroofe - who worked on developing myxomatosis - before she died in 2012 at the age of 96. And the actress is no slouch in her own field, with at least two projects coming up - in both theatre and television - after Sweet Charity ends its tour.

Sweet Charity is on at the Playhouse. Canberra Theatre Centre from February 11 to 22. More information and bookings: canberratheatrecentre.com.au.