The Man They Tried to Cancel, But Couldn’t
John Barrowman: My Life in Musicals
19 September 2026
The Apex, Bury St Edmunds
I should probably begin with a confession. I didn’t think this was going to be my cup of tea.
Katie had always wanted to see John Barrowman, so I got the tickets before she could talk herself out of it and we caught the train to Bury St Edmunds, had dinner at Slim Chickens and headed to The Apex.
I knew him from Live & Kicking, Doctor Who and Torchwood and was vaguely aware that he had enjoyed a long career in musical theatre. However, ask me to match the songs with the shows and I would have struggled.
I wasn’t expecting too much although I expected it to be camp. I just hadn’t appreciated quite how camp one evening could become.
Over two and a half hours later, I emerged from comfortably the most self-indulgent, outrageous and gloriously camp show I have ever seen.
And I absolutely loved it.
His Life, His Show, His Rules
My Life in Musicals is part concert, part autobiography and entirely John Barrowman.
The stories are about him. The photographs are of him. The video messages are about him. Even when somebody else appears on screen, it is usually to tell another story about him.
If self-indulgence were an Olympic event, Barrowman would turn up wearing sequins and take gold.
That isn’t a criticism. It is the entire point.
The show travels through a career stretching back to his West End debut in Anything Goes in 1989. From there came stories and songs connected to productions including Miss Saigon, The Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard, Beauty and the Beast, Chicago and La Cage aux Folles.
I recognised plenty of the songs and had heard of most of the shows, but don’t ask me which came from where. There were people around me who appeared to know what was coming from the first note.
I was not one of them. Thankfully, it didn’t matter.
Songs including Anything Goes, Why God Why?, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, The Music of the Night, Being Alive and I Am What I Am were mixed with backstage stories, old photographs and plenty of theatrical gossip.
Barrowman regularly wandered away from his original point, discovered another story along the way and eventually arrived somewhere near the song he was supposed to be introducing.
The show could probably have been considerably shorter. It wouldn’t have been nearly as entertaining.
That Voice
Whatever anyone thinks of John Barrowman, the man can sing.
His voice remains remarkably strong. There was no avoiding the difficult notes or letting the audience do half the work. He attacked every song with real power and and the sound completely filled The Apex.
He was accompanied by pianist Ben Papworth, who was exceptional throughout and somehow kept up with every story, diversion and change of direction.
A Tribute to His Mum
The most moving part of the evening was Barrowman’s tribute to his mum, Marion, who sadly died earlier this year.
Until then, the show had largely been a riot of laughter, innuendo and musical-theatre excess. The change in mood was immediate.
He spoke openly about her influence on his life and the love of music, humour and performance she had passed on to him. For somebody so comfortable filling every inch of a theatre with his personality, this was a much more vulnerable moment.
It was heartfelt, beautifully handled and clearly still extremely raw.
Katie may have shed a tear.
The Man They Tried to Cancel
There was no pretending that the last few years hadn’t happened either.
Barrowman largely disappeared from mainstream British television after stories about his past behaviour resurfaced. Apologies followed, work disappeared and the entertainment industry seemingly decided it could manage without him.
John Barrowman clearly decided otherwise.
There was defiance running through the evening. He accepted that people make mistakes and learn, but made it equally clear that he wasn’t prepared to erase the personality that made him successful.
The final message was impossible to miss.
He is what he is.
Final Thoughts
I expected My Life in Musicals to be entertaining enough, but probably more for Katie than for me.
Instead, I was completely won over.
It was excessive, unfiltered, sentimental, frequently filthy and monumentally self-indulgent. It also had tremendous warmth, brilliant music and a performer who knows exactly how to hold an audience.
Not bad for something that wasn’t really my cup of tea.
They tried to cancel John Barrowman.
It didn’t work.
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