The non non-stalking of John Barrowman

About a year ago, around the time that he was (unfairly) eliminated from Dancing on Ice, there was a discussion about non-stalking* John Barrowman, given the opportunity. So, once we knew he was doing panto, it was pretty much a given that we would be going , even though it meant a trip to Cardiff** in January.

So last Thursday, in the middle of all the dire warnings of gales, and 'only travel if your journey is absolutely necessary'***, Corinne and I were on the road. It was quite a scary journey, and we did see at least 3 lorries that had been blown over in the wind, but we arrived safe and sound, if pretty tired.

Still, the thought of John revived us, as did food and drink, and we took our seats. Just before the show went up, there was an announcement. 'As John Barrowman has a severe throat infection, the part of Jack will be played by...' Corinne and I looked at each other with a mixture of shock, and horror. Where were the signs? Surely this couldn't be true, we hadn't come all this way not to see him?

But, it was, and we had. I think for at least the first 15 minutes I felt shell shocked, and numb. When 'Jack' entered, and there was a joke about a dalek that fell totally flat, my heart sank even further. It was clearly a production that was built so much round John, and his performance, it wasn't going to work without him. The fact that it was at its funniest when things when wrong tells the tale, and it wasn't a patch on York Theatre Royal panto (but then, no panto is, and I was making an exception for John). Being true Yorkshire, and having paid for the tickets, we stuck it out, but it really didn't get much better, and it felt as though there were songs missing, that John would have sung.

As we sat in the bar afterwards (a drink was definately needed at this point) I still really didn't know what to say - except that, as we were staying two nights, we could check if he was playing the shows on Friday.

Friday morning, we called in at the theatre, and reserved two tickets for the evening performance. They were expecting him to be back, as he'd been off 3 days, but advised calling later to find out for definate. Later, 'no, he's not doing the matinee, but it's 99% certain he's doing the evening show'. About 5.15, we called at the theatre - 'yes, he's definitely on'! So tickets were collected, and we headed for the bar, and much needed doubles.

We arrived back at the theatre about 15 minutes before curtain up. 'Val, the signs are back!' And, to my dismay, the signs saying that John was ill, which had not been there earlier, had been put up again. The box office confirmed that he had come in, but almost immediately had gone home again 'we could kill him'! So, we asked for a refund, as no way were we going to sit through that again, and spent the money on a really nice meal instead.

So, John, I really hope you're feeling better, as you must have been really ill to miss so many shows. You missed us too, this time. But there will be other shows and other times. It's a long game.

The above picture, therefore, is the closest that I got to John!

*copyright Corinne

**which is a bl***y long way

***theatre = necessary in my book