United Kingdom John Barrowman – My Life in Musicals: John Barrowman and Ben Papworth (musical director). Palace Theatre, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, 13.5.2026. (JPr) *****
After the tremendously enjoyable Laid Bare (review here) and Camp As Christmas (review here), John Barrowman has set off on a Spring and Autumn tour and he brought his new My Life in Musicals show to Westcliff’s Palace Theatre and it was the best yet! My only proviso is that John has apparently taken on the laughter and song mantle of the fondly remembered Sir Ken Dodd in keeping his audience captive in the theatre, though I would not have missed a minute of either of them. From the moment John took to the stage recalling his first audition song in 1989 (‘Corner of the Sky’ from Pippin) to the exuberant and eagerly anticipated encore of ‘I Am What I Am’ (from La Cage aux Folles) which brought the everyone to their feet – it was 3¼ hours of pure musical theatre and John Barrowman joy.
In what John described as his ‘little journey’ he admitted how ‘A lot of this stuff has meaning to me, it might not have been a show that I was in, but it’s a show that meant a lot to me, that influenced my life, influenced my career.’ I tread a well-worn path by mentioning again how I have seen and heard John several times from when he first stepped on a West End stage in the 1989 Anything Goes; then there was Miss Saigon (1990), Matador (1991) and Sunset Boulevard (1994). That was just the musicals and there were also the many concerts, such as the Henley Festival in 2009, personal appearances at conventions and watching him on TV.
So John first caught the eye and ear in that Anything Goes with Elaine Paige and at the time theatre critic of the Daily Mail, Jack Tinker (who was never easily pleased), wrote how John was ‘undoubtedly one of the most exciting musical talents to hit the London stage since Michael Crawford burst onto the scene.’ John recalled some of the backstage fun and games during this show involving a dancer’s jockstrap, shaving foam and knocking on (now Dame) Elaine’s dressing room door to be greeted by Tim Rice. I won’t spoilt this for you, nor any other of the hilarious, often risqué, anecdotes John told about himself or were recounted on film – with much affection for him – by his ‘leading ladies’ Sally Ann Triplett, Ruthie Henshall, Jennifer Ellison, Betty Buckley, Shona Lindsay and 93-years-young Carol Burnett.
All of this put the songs John sang into context, and they were often illustrated by photos (often very funny in themselves) of those times from John’s personal archive. I am happy to repeat what I have written before which is how all-round entertainers like John Barrowman are a dying breed: someone who firstly, can tell a story in song and convey a range of emotions through music, and secondly, is a great comic too. And what a voice he has, as good now as it was when he began 37 years ago. We heard ‘Anything Goes’ and ‘I’ll Get a Kick Out of You’ from his first success, then there was ‘Why God Why?’ from Miss Saigon that he sang two performances a week in concurrently with Anything Goes. John believes he might be the only performer to have his ‘name on two posters in the West End for two different shows … at the same time.’ We were treated to a medley from A Chorus Line, ‘Empty Chairs at Empty Tables’ from Les Misérables (one of ‘The Big 5’ musicals he has never sung in), ‘A Boy From Nowhere’ (Matador), Che Guevara’s ‘High Flying, Adored’ from Evita, ‘One, Two, Three’ from The Fix which was written for John and the first half ended with ‘If I Can’t Love Her’ from Beauty and the Beast. Aided by some judicious use of backing tracks (bringing a dramatic sweep to the music at times) John was accompanied throughout by musical director Ben Papworth, a prodigiously talented pianist. In fact, Ben’s fiancé Adam was John’s original Chip Potts in Beauty and the Beast.
The second half featured ‘All That Jazz’, ‘Razzle Dazzle’ and ‘All I Care About’ from when he was Billy Flynn in Chicago; then we heard ‘With One Look’ and the title song ‘Sunset Boulevard’ from his role as Joe Gillis which saw John make a Broadway debut opposite Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond. John sang ‘Heart of Stone’ from Six (a musical he was reluctant to initially see) just before another laugh-out-loud Q&A segment. Who would have guessed John’s song when he did his final exam was Schubert’s ‘Die Forelle’ (‘The Trout’) which he forgot most of and despite some improvised German, his professor still passed him because of ‘the best bullshit’. One of the highlights (amongst highlights) was the Phantom’s ‘The Music of Night’ when John was at his storytelling best. He has never been the Phantom though was Raoul in the long-running Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. As ‘My Life in Musicals’ was drawing to a close there was time for one off-the-wall song, The Scarecrow’s ‘If I Only Had a Brain’ from The Wizard of Oz.
In 2002 John sang in Company in Washington DC from which we heard ‘Marry Me a Little’ and ‘Being Alive’ (announced as John’s husband Scott’s favourite songs). We also heard on film from its much-missed composer Stephen Sondheim acclaiming John as someone ‘who sings and dances with equal skill and is laughably handsome. Everything you’d want a leading man in musical comedy to be, except for one thing, there’s something not grown up about him’ and this made Sondheim realise that his Company was actually about ‘not growing up’.
We had earlier heard the very poignant Jimmy Webb song ‘Grow Young’ – originally sung by Olivia Newton-John and later by Elaine Paige – which John said was ‘a lot to do with me’ and that when we heard it, we should think about ourselves and think about him. Undoubtedly the child inside John in previous years has got him into some trouble that now seemingly keeps him off our TV screens; however his closing remarks reflected my own personal philosophy when he insisted, ‘I’m not going to change for anybody, we all learn … but I am what I am!’
I cannot recommend the wonderful John Barrowman – My Life in Musicals highly enough.
Jim Pritchard
For more about John Barrowman – My Life in Musicals on tour click here.