016: It’s quite exhausting being John Barr.

John “Jonny” Barr is our very special guest on the Show People Podcast. He’s currently touring the UK playing iconic composer Lionel Bart (Oliver!, Blitz, Twang) in The Story of Bart and this year sees him celebrate 40 years working in show business. Jonny discusses growing up in East London, the relationship he had with his family, attending Sylvia Young Theatre School and appearing in Oliver! at just the age 12 as well as the many experiences from his career, including working with Roger Moore in Aspects of Love, playing Dr. Parker in Bat Boy and two very different productions of Ragtime. Other productions include Les Miserables, Snoopy, A Class Act, Sweeney Todd, Assassins, Bent, Cats, Diamond, Flora The Red Menace, Evita, Peter Pan and many, many others. Jonny has enjoyed an international cabaret career and boasts five solo albums (one of which, once being released had Barry Manilow write to him to say how much he enjoyed his work) and he can be heard on many original cast recordings such as the Jesus Christ Superstar 25th Anniversary Recording, Les Miserables Symphonic Cast Recording, Batboy, Matador, Godspell, Oscar, Scrapbook, Dracula and Listen Up.

Episode features include:

The Soapbox: Jonny discusses how the audition process has changed over the years and not necessarily for the better. The boys also discuss self-tapes, the length of time it can take for producers to make a decision on casting a role and even offer some suggestions of how things could be better.

Dramatic News: Andrew covers the latest dramatic news including stories about Mark Shenton, the Olivier Awards, Theatre Royal Stratford East and the new Show People Podcast merchandise.

The Platform: Todays platform is given to our special guest John Barr and an original track called Dad’s Song – Where Do I Start? written by John Barr and David McAlmont and performed by John Barr fro his album All I Am (available to listen to on Spotify and to purchase at Dress Circle – The Shopbiz Shop).