Biography
John Michael Heffernan was born and raised in New South Wales, Australia. He started his career as a singer and dancer, and in 1963, the Australian Opera chose him to play Alfred in "Die Fledermaus", an opera by Johann Strauss. From 1963 to 1968, Heffernan, going professionally by John Aron, remained with the Australian Opera as a tenor, playing the roles of Erik in "The Flying Dutchman", Goro in "Madame Butterfly", Ernesto in "Don Pasquale", and Conte d'Almaviva in "Il barbiere di Siviglia". In 1968, while in Adelaide, South Australia, Aron played Spoletta in "Tosca", playing alongside Tito Gobbi, who played Scarpia. That same year, Aron moved to the United Kingdom and sang with the Scottish Opera.
In 1970, Aron joined the Royal Shakespeare Company on their tours throughout Great Britain of Ivor Novello's operas "Glamorous Night", "Perchance to Dream", and "King's Rhapsody". Aron's West End debut was in 1974, where he sang in the musical "Cole", alongside Julia McKenzie and Angela Richards. That same year, Aron sang in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" as Judah. In 1975, Aron starred as Cardinal Rossini in "Thomas and the King" at Her Majesty's Theater, but the short-lived show only lasted 20 performances. Aron also sang in the musicals "The King and I", "Waltz Dream", "Calamity Jane", and "Pickwick".
In 1980, Aron was chosen by Harold Prince to play Adolfo Pirelli in Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" at the Theater Royal Drury Lane, acting alongside Sheila Hancock and Denis Quilley; this signified Aron's return to the West End theatre. In 1983, he played Senator Gallagher in "Call Me Madame" at the Victoria Palace Theater, and in 1985, he played Pirelli in "Sweeny Todd" a second time, alongside Gillian Hanna in an Off West End production. That same year, he played a ballroom dancer in the ballroom dance sequence of Jim Henson's fantasy film Labyrinth (1986), and returned to the West End, starring as Manuel, Maitre Du Fresne, and a telephone installer in the musical "Gigi", alongside Beryl Reid and Siân Phillips.
In early 1986, Aron returned to Australia briefly and joined the Queensland Lyric Opera, singing in "Carmen" and "La bella Elena". In October that year, having returned to England, Andrew Lloyd Webber, who wrote "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", chose Aron to play Ubaldo Piangi in his musical "The Phantom of the Opera", which would be directed by Harold Prince, and played at Her Majesty's theatre. Aron played the role for 5 years, from 1986 to 1991, with the exception of a few weeks hiatus in 1989.
Aron died of cancer in London in 1994, at the age of 59.
