Gig review: John Barrowman

Published on 28/10/2010 20:40

JOHN BARROWMAN *** CLYDE AUDITORIUM, GLASGOW

TO EMPLOY the sort of gently naughty innuendo his drummer would have met with a comedy toms roll, 20 years in showbiz have taught John Barrowman nothing if not how to push people's buttons.

At this homecoming gig, the bidialectal US-raised Scots expat pounded them – and I'm still talking about the buttons – with a long evening of flowery song and fruity anecdotes in his dusted-off posh Glaswegian brogue, mostly beginning "When I was a wee boy…" and ending either with the crowd in hoots of laughter or a chorus of "aaaaws".

Forged in the high-camp boot camp that is musical theatre, Barrowman's is a brand of light variety entertainment so feathery a toddler's sneeze could blow it away.

But it'd be churlish to say this wasn't honest, value-for-money good fun – albeit much more so during the first hour than the fourth.

We got the Spiderman theme done show-tune style, Copacabana acted out by dancers, a dewy-eyed number alluding to Barrowman's role as Captain Jack in Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood and the odd contemporary pop song la Rule the World, the prospect of which – John Barrowman doing Take That! – was so mind-blowing to the lady in front of me that she appeared to start convulsing.

Barrowman's parents loomed large, as family photos were projected onto the stage backdrop. When said silver-haired septuagenarians appeared in the flesh all dolled-up to waltz to Remember When, then engage in some risqu banter with their boy – Dad: "I'm James Bond," Mum: "I'm Pussy Galore," John: "You see where I get it from?" – well, you can imagine how that went down.