I Am What I Am, John Barrowman [smart ebook reader .txt] 📗

the judging gig. My first panel, on How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, included producer David Ian – whose company was co-producing the West End production of The Sound of Music in which the winning Maria would perform – and vocal coach Zoë Tyler.

David and I got along really well. He is one of those producers who’s been in the business himself.7 He therefore knows actors well, and he knows the audition process intimately. He also appreciates what it takes to sustain your voice and your energy for eight shows a week. Plus, David was a lot like me in his views about the responsibilities of being a judge.

In all of the talent-search shows I’ve done, I’ve believed strongly that I had a duty not only to the contestants, but also to my peers working in the theatre and to my fellow musical performers. I didn’t want to put a contestant into a leading role and then have that person not be able to hold up under the pressure. I also didn’t want people I’ve worked with going to see The Sound of Music or Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and saying, ‘What the fuck was Barrowman thinking?’

Perhaps most importantly, I also participated in these talent shows because I want to help launch careers. I’m not sitting on that lovely chair in my fabulous Neil Marengo suits just to find a performer for a single role. For example, from the beginning of Any Dream Will Do, I knew that Daniel Boys was something special and had a strong, confident voice, but I could sense that Danny wasn’t going to be Joseph. For one thing, he was too mature for the role.

Whenever I talked with all the boys at Joseph camp, or during rehearsals, I’d tell them that they needed to see this show as a platform to showcase their talent. Danny and a few others listened and they took this advice to heart.

As a result, Danny has done really well since he was voted off. He recently released a CD and he’s performed in a number of shows, including Avenue Q in the West End. Danny also toured with me on my ‘An Evening with John Barrowman’ tour in the spring of 2009, and our duet of the romantic ballad ‘I Know Him So Well’, from the musical Chess, has received all kinds of accolades. More on that in a later chapter.

Another Joseph contestant who has found success following the TV show is Ben Ellis. Ben didn’t have the strongest voice in the competition, but he demonstrated week after week that he was an entertainer. He reminded Denise8 and me of a young Robbie Williams – and, let’s face it, he was very pleasing on the eye. Ben, like Daniel, has done well in his career since the show, playing the male lead in Hairspray and doing numerous presenting jobs on TV.

Helping to launch the careers of such talented individuals has been a real point of pleasure and pride for me – and for many of the other judges.

So, partly as a consequence of our shared values, David Ian and I had a lot of fun together on that first panel. I learned a lot from him – but he also learned a lot from me during our time together. I once explained to David and his wife what tea-bagging was.9 I’m sure he was forever grateful, and thinks of me every time his wife dunks a Tetley.

I’d never met Zoë Tyler before, but I liked her immediately. She was outspoken, and wasn’t afraid to challenge the producers if something came up about which she felt strongly. She was ballsy. I like that quality in a woman.10 Zoë was also the vocal coach for the Marias (and later the Josephs, too) and her style of teaching and developing them was fairly similar to mine. She always offered criticism fairly and honestly, and when she issued a challenge to a performer, she tried to help them see ways to meet it. I’ve always felt that, in any situation where you’re trying to teach someone, it isn’t helpful simply to describe and label what you see them doing wrong, without offering any suggestions as to how they can improve.

On Any Dream Will Do, the panel shuffled, and entertainer Denise Van Outen and producer Bill Kenwright joined Zoë and me. Bill and I had a professional relationship, but we never saw eye to eye about much during the show. As Bill was one of the economic backers and producers of this revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, I felt he had a considerable financial motive in finding a marketable Joseph for the production. Unlike David Ian or Andrew Lloyd Webber, Bill was a businessman first and foremost, and for him, almost any Joseph would do, as long as he looked the part and could sing the songs.

From the beginning, Bill had his eye on two particular Josephs, Lewis Bradley and Craig Chalmers. Craig was voted out in week seven, but Lewis survived till the final. Unfortunately, having heard his vocal qualities and his full range, I knew Lewis couldn’t hit the final note in the Joseph song ‘Close Every Door’. The audience loved Lewis throughout most of the series, but I never believed he’d have the stamina or the spunk11 to carry a West End show.

During my time on the talent shows, I particularly loved working behind the scenes at the Joseph and Nancy camps. I enjoyed the teaching part of the job and the chance it afforded me to share some of the nitty-gritty aspects of the business with the performers. I have to say, though, that the boys in the Joseph camp cried way more than the girls in Nancy School. The boys were always weeping!

Sometimes, the lessons learned on talent shows occur in unexpected ways. It’s not just the performers or even the production staff who gain knowledge – the judges can learn a thing