OK MAGAZINE
MARCH 2000
Feature by DAVID WIGG
additional reporting by LARA KILNER
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SVEN ARNSTEIN AT STAY STILL
The West End Stage's Hottest Leading Man JOHN BARROWMAN
The handsome star discusses his incredible success while relaxing at home in Florida
John Barrowman is an extremely familar face to avid fans of West End musicals. Having played the romantic leads in some of London's most successful shows, including SUNSET BOULEVARD, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and MISS SAIGON, John is perhaps most famous on this side of the Atlantic for his role as the Beast in Disney's spectacular musical hit BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.
John loved playing this evil and sinister character. 'The audience didn't like me until my character discovered what love was all about as he set eyes on Belle [played by actress Michelle Gayle of EASTENDERS and GRANGE HILL fame]. Then they realized there was a man within the Beast and he did have feelings.'
He finished his run in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST in September last year and flew straight to New York to begin rehearsals for Cameron Mackintosh's production of Stephen Sondheim's PUTTING IT TOGETHER in which he starred up until a few weeks ago, alongside Carol Burnett and Ruthie Henshall.
'It was a great success,' he says. 'But unfortunately it came to an end because Carol Burnett wanted to leave and no one wanted to replace her. She has very big shoes to fill.'
As if starring in top Broadway shows is not enough to keep a man busy John also found the time to record an album, REFLECTIONS FROM BROADWAY, which is a personl selection of his favourite songs from musicals including THE LION KING, WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND and ALADDIN. 'The record has been receiveing critical acclaim in the United States and is expected to do the same on its release here.'I've been working on the record for nine months. I wanted to release it at the start of the new millennium as a chance to reflect back over my career for the past ten years,' he says. 'It came about through fans writing to me telling me what they would like to hear me sing. So there are lots of songs from musicals that I haven't performed before.'
As well as looking over the scripts for various daytime soaps in the US, also in the pipeline for John this spring is a TV film with Spice Girl Emma Bunton - a long-awaited musical version of SLEEPING BEAUTY with John playing the Prince. Sir John Mills and Cybil Shepard are also set to appear in the film which has been postponed several times due, in part, to the cast members' hectic schedules, particularly the Spice Girl amongst them. But John thinks it'll be worth the wait. 'It's a great script, the music is great and, of course, it's a great story.'
He has met Emma, who is cast in the title role, and thinks she's 'fantastic'. 'She is exactly like she comes across on televsion - really down-to-earth and nice,' he says. 'You don't feel you are walking into the room with a huge pop star - although of course she is - you feel like you're with someone you can just get chatting to straightaway.'
It was Elaine Paige and Sir Tim Rice who first discovered John's fine stage voice. They cast him for their show ANYTHING GOES when he was just 20. He starred again with Elaine as the hustling scriptwriter Joe Gillis, in Andrew Lloyd Webber's magnificent SUNSET BOULEVARD, on both the London and Broadway stage,* and received glowing reviews. He still remembers how helpful Elaine was during his early days when he was impatient for success. 'Elaine used to say to me, "Don't want it too soon - enjoy it." I'm still very impatient, but I've learned not to want it. I know it'll happen,' he says. 'For a couple of years my attitude was "want want want" and I didn't enjoy it. I didn't get to know people around me. I accumulated friends, but I didn't make friends. The friends I have now say there was a time when I never really let them feel they were getting to know me.'
A workaholic by nature, John says he is terrible at maintaining relationships and adamant that he doesn't want to commit to one. 'I keep thinking maybe I should scale down my career. It probably sounds terrible but anyone I got involved with now would have to work around my career. 'I'm still having fun, though. Relationships are important but, then again, they're not that important. I'm not in one place long enough but somehow I manage to keep in touch with all my friends. It sounds sad, but I think I find my romance throught my work. 'I've tried to cope with long distance relationships and they don't work. So I do as my mother advises me, "Play the field - the bull can wander into any pastures he wants." 'Anyway, I think I'd be really difficult to live with,' he admits. 'I can be very temperamental. I like to have things my own way and I don't want to be dictated to. If I don't want to do something, I simply don't do it.'
Although America is his base, John was, in fact born in Scotland. His parents emigrated when he was nine years old. He remains extremely close to his father John and mother Marion, who still calls her son 'My wee chookie birdie' - even though he stands well over 6ft tall. 'I consider the UK to be my homeland but my immediate family is in America,' he says. 'Every time I leave the country after working in Britain, I find myself really missing London.'
John decided to build himself a house in Florida, after renting a place there for Christmas for all his family and taking them to Walt Disney World four years ago. His parents now live in the house, which he paid for with his earnings from SUNSET BOULEVARD. John has certainly been astute with the high earnings he receives as a 'leading man'. Apart from the new Florida home, he has invested in a flat in London's Chelsea and an apartment in Bow.
His secret ambition is to, one day, play the role of James Bond. He'd also love to act in a drama or a comedy series in this country. 'I love theatre and it's where I got my start in the industry. But I would very much like to break in to TV. The problem, I think , in Britain, though, is that you tend to get labelled as a theatre person which makes the transition into TV quite difficult.'
He harbours a desire to work with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. 'I want to do a film where I play Tom Cruise's brother because everybody says I look kind of like him,' says John.
Knowing the iron determination and dedication to gaining recognition and success John Barrowman possesses, don't be surprised if he manages to achieve all of these objectives. He believes that he is often somewhat misunderstood, however. 'People think I have a tough veneer, but I'm very easily hurt,' he admits. 'I won't show it at first, but when I'm by myself I have been known to break into tears in the confines of my own home. I really am a big softie inside.'
