I've been a fan of John Barrowman for some time. He is the openly gay actor who stars in Doctor Who and the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood (currently airing on CBC). I rarely get worked up about a personality, but he is a guilty pleasure for his campy performances, and admirable for living his politics.
I have to speculate that based on youTube, he has never said no to a tv appearance on any show. John's background is in musical theatre, starring in a number of West End shows. Although born in Scotland, he grew up in the United States, but his success has really only been in England.
I love the fact that despite being a relatively big star, he's not afraid to gay it up, even on national TV. Here's two clips from the music trivia show "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" which he appeared on. The first is safe for work, the second is not.
In addition to his TV success, he just released a new album last week. I'm not quite sure what to make of the new album, it's easy listening and influenced by his musical theatre past, but I'm not sure whether I'm loving the arrangements. Given my love of the Police it's no surprise I'm not 100% sold on this cover version. It was performed on the UK (and original) version of "Dancing with the Stars" called "Strictly Come Dancing".
I think one of his best musical performances was this classic from La Cage:
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3 comments:
Ah yes, John Barrowman. Finally, a shared guilty pleasure. Well no, I take that back, I feel no guilt and make no apologies about my love of musical theatre and fine Mr. Barrowman.
And while your selections were fab, personally I think his best performance, on film anyway, is with Kevin Kline singing Night and Day in De Lovely (an otherwise dreadful movie, even for total Porter fans like me). You can practically see the generational torch being passed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if1kUoDWt9w
Actually I had forgotten about that performance but I do have it on my iPod.
My guilt is not so much about liking John (or musical theatre really) it's more about the amount that I like him
Thankfully it's not anywhere near Megan's cult-like worship of all things Hoff, but it's not far off.
BTW I have John's new album, I ordered it from Amazon UK. Email me if you want me to burn you a copy so you can check it out.
That's the level of devotion I like to see. I'd love a copy, thanks. I don't think I have your law school email, I'll have to get it from Megan.
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