JOHN BARROWMAN SWINGS COLE PORTER (First Night)
Review by Ken Mendelbaum
for Broadway.com
2004
John Barrowman made his West End debut in 1989 in the London edition of the Lincoln Center Theater version of Cole Porter's Anything Goes. Barrowman has spent the past season as leading man of the Trevor Nunn-National Theatre revival of Anything Goes. And he also appears in this summer's new Porter biopic, De-Lovely. So it's entirely fitting that his latest solo disc is a Porter salute.
The songs are mostly standards, although Barrowman includes the rarely sung "Ca, C'est l'Amour" from Les Girls and an Anything Goes song he doesn't get to do in the show, the title number. He's especially strong on "What Is This Thing Called Love?," "I Happen to Like New York," "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," and the always lovely "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye."
Barrowman's backed by a thirty-five-piece orchestra, arranged and orchestrated by Larry Blank and conducted by Stewart Mackintosh. Barrowman's combination of direct, unfussy phrasing and easy, attractive vocals is very appealing.
Barrowman's only substantial Broadway appearance to date, Putting It Together, only hinted at his talents. He was terrific when he played Joe Gillis for a week in the Broadway Sunset Boulevard, and he was a superb Robert in the Kennedy Center's Company. Perhaps he'll return to these shores when Nunn's Anything Goes makes its American debut next year in Los Angeles, with a Broadway stand possible thereafter.
