Tonight's the Night - John Barrowman
Feb. 16th, 2009 01:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fairyd123Just got back from seeing the pilot taping of Tonight's the Night earlier today.
I wasn't too sure what to expect. I'd read the press and listened to John's radio interviews but variety is a very difficult thing to do well and so I was a little wary especially as, despite how fond I am of John I have sometimes found his presenting style to be a little cheesy. Whilst shows like Animals at Work and The Kid's Are Alright were nice enough vehicles for John they didn't really showcase his talents all that well and I was concerned about whether Tonight's the Night would be any different.
I shouldn't have worried.
I thought it was superbly entertaining and it's a perfect vehicle for John. Apart from his actual concerts it was without a doubt the best thing I have ever seen him in.
John was looking great in a shiny suit which looked silver in some lights and purple in others and a black shirt. Very similar to the suit he wore on his concert tour last year.
He was hugely engaging and charismatic as a presenter and you could see just how much enthusiasm and passion he has for the project. It would be fair to say that John didn't always look terribly happy this year in panto - it seemed to be a hard slog for him this time round but today it was like the world had been lifted from his shoulders. He spent most of the taping giggling like crazy and it was really lovely to see.
The media have rather over-emphasised the similarity to Jim'll Fix It - the show isn't quite like that at all.
The show had different elements to it - granting a performance wish, celebrating a local hero, righting a performance wrong, revealing someone's hidden talent and Stage Fright - a section where John takes on a mystery guest at a particular task.
The weakest element of the Pilot was the "righting a performance wrong" section - although I think that had more to do with the person they chose than the segment itself. It featured a man who had been on Mastermind with a specialist subject of "The Films of Jim Carrey" and who only managed to get one answer right. The press picked up on it and called him "blunderman" and "disastermind" which understandably upset him! John gave him the chance to fix that by asking him questions on the same subject and he only had to double his score to win (although it was far from clear what if anything he actually won). The guy was a bit of a sad sack and really hard to warm too and he contradicted John on stage which didn't go down all that well! Not a particularly compelling section.
The "granting a performance wish" part featured a little girl. She used to be a trampolinist and had had a bad accident which resulted in her arm being broken in two places. Unfortunately due to her injury she couldn't perform anymore and had had her confidence dented. The thing that got her through was her love of the film The Little Mermaid and I'd Do Anything and Jodie Prenger who she was a huge fan of.
They showed a VT of John surprising her and her mother at an acquarium (very cute - the girl nearly keeled over when she saw John) and he then arranged for her to come on the show dressed as Ariel from The Little Mermaid and sing "Part of Your World". She wasn't a particularly good singer - but it isn't really about that. Half way through the song Jodie appeared nearly giving the girl a heart attack and by the end of it the little girl, Jodie and John were in floods of tears - bless him.
I must admit that as sob stories go it wasn't quite the tear jerker I would have expected - I imagine the production team probably received far more heartbreaking tales but I suspect that for the pilot it was chosen because it was an incredibly easy and cheap wish to set up. Plus it worked very well.
Although I have to say I know that a lot of people in the fandom have applied to the show to have their dreams come true but I do think to get chosen you're going to need a killer "story".
The "celebrating a local hero" piece was brilliant. Bradley (who had at least 50 guests in the audience - it was hilarious!) was a police man who had worked hard within the community taking his love of the performing arts and setting up a "Community Idol" talent contest which he solely organised getting people to donate prizes etc. It was a roaring success and people in his community had credited it with helping relations between the police and the youth in that area. The idea had been so successful that he pitched it on a nationwide level and it was being taken up by various other boroughs. And he'd done all this while his father was dying.
His wife wrote into the BBC and John surprised him by recording a dvd which he and his colleagues sat down to watch thinking it was a training film. John arranged for him to do a big swing routine and he sang "Have You Met Miss Jones?" .
And he did it brilliantly. He had a hell of a voice and was a very smooth mover. He seemed really taken aback at the reception he received - he was fantastic.
The "revealing a hidden talent" section had John revealing to a completely in the dark and very confused woman that her husband wasn't working Tuesday evenings at all but in fact learning to play bass guitar with a band and they then performed. She was rather forgiving of the fact that he'd been lying his ass off to her and seemed rather taken with John - quite keen on taking him home with her!
There was an audience participation section which was completely daft but featured a hilarious Italian woman called Dominga who John seemed to fall hopelessly in love with. She was just utterly hysterical. He did a bit of salsa dancing with her and it was just very funny. The only prize was two tickets to see Joseph (ex- Joseph contestants Ben and Keith were in the audience) although John did say at the beginning that the prizes wouldn't be as good for the pilot (earlier in the show he specifically said that one audience member could win a holiday of a lifetime so maybe that's what they'll actually be giving away when it airs).
Not really fitting into any of the above sections but equally brilliant and hilarious had John surprising a gruff security guard called John (or Big John as they called him) in the audience. He had never bought his girlfriend of 3 years a present . There was then a weird section of someone called Ben Adams who is probably a huge pop star and who I have never heard of supposedly wooing the girlfriend and he then sang "Tell Her About It". John said that the Big John would win prizes if at the end of the show he performed a dance routine with a West End Cast.
Cue the Cagelles from La Cage Aux Folles - very pretty very fit boys in drag doing an incredibly energetic dance routine.
Big John appeared in a wig and large ruffled dress like the Cagelles wear and very very gamely did a dance routine with them while his girlfriend and John cried with laughter. The girl was laughing so hard I think if she hadn't been clinging to John for support she would have been on the floor. It all ended with him saying "I know I don't tell you this very often but I do love you." which had all the audience awwwing!
The prizes were a bit naff though - chocolates, roses and a case of champagne.
As for John? Well the Stage Fright bit was fantastic. He came on dressed in a pretty skin tight blue and black outfit (which really showed off his arms - he has killer biceps - he looked amazing!) and a blue fighters style robe with "JB" on it in sparkly crystals.
His opponent was Matt Dawson - a rugby player. And their task was to do some moves with a baton.
Which just happened to be on fire at each end.
(As John put it "It's not the first time I've been called a big flamer!")
We saw a performance from the circus professionals who did a whole amazing routine with the flaming batons and then cut to VT of Matt and John preparing (John managed to injure his back badly at the first session - looked like he could barely move).
They then had to do two sets of moves and a super secret surprise move. Considering that they were twirling flaming batons they both did incredibly well. John dropped his at one point (after rather ambitiously throwing it up in the air) but some of his other moves were unbelievable - I mean he was rolling this firey baton around his neck without using his hands! It was enormously impressive it really really was. I was absolutely wowed by it.
Matt Dawson was perhaps a little more cautious in his moves than John but he didn't drop the baton. The audience had to vote for the winner. Given that the audience was comprised mostly of fangirls the result of the vote was a bit of a foregone conclusion which is probably why John gave the money to Matt's chosen charity (something to do with bowel cancer) and kicked in £250 himself to Children in Need,
And my night was made complete by the fact that John sang!
He sang!
It takes so little to make me happy. He opened the show with All Night Long by Lionel Ritchie and closed with Love is In the Air - both were accompanied by very slick, very well choregraphed dance routines which I think probably gave us a bit of a flavour of what John's concert tour will be like this year. Vocally he sounded great and he was just really clearly enjoying himself. John seemed absolutely delighted at the reaction to the first show which was a nice boost for him before he departs on his holiday (he said he was off tomorrow).
It wasn't clear to us which of the segments, if any, would be aired on tv as the press interviews indicated that the pilot wouldn't be transmitted. It would be a crying shame for the firey batons routine never to see the light of day as it was hugely impressive and I imagine people would love to see it (and this isn't exactly the kind of show where they'll be a dvd which it will show up on as an extra!) Also it seems a bit mean for the little girl and Bradley the police man not to get their moment on tv but we'll see.
All in all a hugely enjoyable, very well crafted, cheese free show which I am very much looking forward to watching when it airs. I suspect he's going to find himself airing opposite Britain's Got Talent which is a ratings monster but hopefully he should be able to carve out a very nice little chunk of Saturday night ratings for himself as on the basis of this pilot he very much deserves too.
I wasn't too sure what to expect. I'd read the press and listened to John's radio interviews but variety is a very difficult thing to do well and so I was a little wary especially as, despite how fond I am of John I have sometimes found his presenting style to be a little cheesy. Whilst shows like Animals at Work and The Kid's Are Alright were nice enough vehicles for John they didn't really showcase his talents all that well and I was concerned about whether Tonight's the Night would be any different.
I shouldn't have worried.
I thought it was superbly entertaining and it's a perfect vehicle for John. Apart from his actual concerts it was without a doubt the best thing I have ever seen him in.
John was looking great in a shiny suit which looked silver in some lights and purple in others and a black shirt. Very similar to the suit he wore on his concert tour last year.
He was hugely engaging and charismatic as a presenter and you could see just how much enthusiasm and passion he has for the project. It would be fair to say that John didn't always look terribly happy this year in panto - it seemed to be a hard slog for him this time round but today it was like the world had been lifted from his shoulders. He spent most of the taping giggling like crazy and it was really lovely to see.
The media have rather over-emphasised the similarity to Jim'll Fix It - the show isn't quite like that at all.
The show had different elements to it - granting a performance wish, celebrating a local hero, righting a performance wrong, revealing someone's hidden talent and Stage Fright - a section where John takes on a mystery guest at a particular task.
The weakest element of the Pilot was the "righting a performance wrong" section - although I think that had more to do with the person they chose than the segment itself. It featured a man who had been on Mastermind with a specialist subject of "The Films of Jim Carrey" and who only managed to get one answer right. The press picked up on it and called him "blunderman" and "disastermind" which understandably upset him! John gave him the chance to fix that by asking him questions on the same subject and he only had to double his score to win (although it was far from clear what if anything he actually won). The guy was a bit of a sad sack and really hard to warm too and he contradicted John on stage which didn't go down all that well! Not a particularly compelling section.
The "granting a performance wish" part featured a little girl. She used to be a trampolinist and had had a bad accident which resulted in her arm being broken in two places. Unfortunately due to her injury she couldn't perform anymore and had had her confidence dented. The thing that got her through was her love of the film The Little Mermaid and I'd Do Anything and Jodie Prenger who she was a huge fan of.
They showed a VT of John surprising her and her mother at an acquarium (very cute - the girl nearly keeled over when she saw John) and he then arranged for her to come on the show dressed as Ariel from The Little Mermaid and sing "Part of Your World". She wasn't a particularly good singer - but it isn't really about that. Half way through the song Jodie appeared nearly giving the girl a heart attack and by the end of it the little girl, Jodie and John were in floods of tears - bless him.
I must admit that as sob stories go it wasn't quite the tear jerker I would have expected - I imagine the production team probably received far more heartbreaking tales but I suspect that for the pilot it was chosen because it was an incredibly easy and cheap wish to set up. Plus it worked very well.
Although I have to say I know that a lot of people in the fandom have applied to the show to have their dreams come true but I do think to get chosen you're going to need a killer "story".
The "celebrating a local hero" piece was brilliant. Bradley (who had at least 50 guests in the audience - it was hilarious!) was a police man who had worked hard within the community taking his love of the performing arts and setting up a "Community Idol" talent contest which he solely organised getting people to donate prizes etc. It was a roaring success and people in his community had credited it with helping relations between the police and the youth in that area. The idea had been so successful that he pitched it on a nationwide level and it was being taken up by various other boroughs. And he'd done all this while his father was dying.
His wife wrote into the BBC and John surprised him by recording a dvd which he and his colleagues sat down to watch thinking it was a training film. John arranged for him to do a big swing routine and he sang "Have You Met Miss Jones?" .
And he did it brilliantly. He had a hell of a voice and was a very smooth mover. He seemed really taken aback at the reception he received - he was fantastic.
The "revealing a hidden talent" section had John revealing to a completely in the dark and very confused woman that her husband wasn't working Tuesday evenings at all but in fact learning to play bass guitar with a band and they then performed. She was rather forgiving of the fact that he'd been lying his ass off to her and seemed rather taken with John - quite keen on taking him home with her!
There was an audience participation section which was completely daft but featured a hilarious Italian woman called Dominga who John seemed to fall hopelessly in love with. She was just utterly hysterical. He did a bit of salsa dancing with her and it was just very funny. The only prize was two tickets to see Joseph (ex- Joseph contestants Ben and Keith were in the audience) although John did say at the beginning that the prizes wouldn't be as good for the pilot (earlier in the show he specifically said that one audience member could win a holiday of a lifetime so maybe that's what they'll actually be giving away when it airs).
Not really fitting into any of the above sections but equally brilliant and hilarious had John surprising a gruff security guard called John (or Big John as they called him) in the audience. He had never bought his girlfriend of 3 years a present . There was then a weird section of someone called Ben Adams who is probably a huge pop star and who I have never heard of supposedly wooing the girlfriend and he then sang "Tell Her About It". John said that the Big John would win prizes if at the end of the show he performed a dance routine with a West End Cast.
Cue the Cagelles from La Cage Aux Folles - very pretty very fit boys in drag doing an incredibly energetic dance routine.
Big John appeared in a wig and large ruffled dress like the Cagelles wear and very very gamely did a dance routine with them while his girlfriend and John cried with laughter. The girl was laughing so hard I think if she hadn't been clinging to John for support she would have been on the floor. It all ended with him saying "I know I don't tell you this very often but I do love you." which had all the audience awwwing!
The prizes were a bit naff though - chocolates, roses and a case of champagne.
As for John? Well the Stage Fright bit was fantastic. He came on dressed in a pretty skin tight blue and black outfit (which really showed off his arms - he has killer biceps - he looked amazing!) and a blue fighters style robe with "JB" on it in sparkly crystals.
His opponent was Matt Dawson - a rugby player. And their task was to do some moves with a baton.
Which just happened to be on fire at each end.
(As John put it "It's not the first time I've been called a big flamer!")
We saw a performance from the circus professionals who did a whole amazing routine with the flaming batons and then cut to VT of Matt and John preparing (John managed to injure his back badly at the first session - looked like he could barely move).
They then had to do two sets of moves and a super secret surprise move. Considering that they were twirling flaming batons they both did incredibly well. John dropped his at one point (after rather ambitiously throwing it up in the air) but some of his other moves were unbelievable - I mean he was rolling this firey baton around his neck without using his hands! It was enormously impressive it really really was. I was absolutely wowed by it.
Matt Dawson was perhaps a little more cautious in his moves than John but he didn't drop the baton. The audience had to vote for the winner. Given that the audience was comprised mostly of fangirls the result of the vote was a bit of a foregone conclusion which is probably why John gave the money to Matt's chosen charity (something to do with bowel cancer) and kicked in £250 himself to Children in Need,
And my night was made complete by the fact that John sang!
He sang!
It takes so little to make me happy. He opened the show with All Night Long by Lionel Ritchie and closed with Love is In the Air - both were accompanied by very slick, very well choregraphed dance routines which I think probably gave us a bit of a flavour of what John's concert tour will be like this year. Vocally he sounded great and he was just really clearly enjoying himself. John seemed absolutely delighted at the reaction to the first show which was a nice boost for him before he departs on his holiday (he said he was off tomorrow).
It wasn't clear to us which of the segments, if any, would be aired on tv as the press interviews indicated that the pilot wouldn't be transmitted. It would be a crying shame for the firey batons routine never to see the light of day as it was hugely impressive and I imagine people would love to see it (and this isn't exactly the kind of show where they'll be a dvd which it will show up on as an extra!) Also it seems a bit mean for the little girl and Bradley the police man not to get their moment on tv but we'll see.
All in all a hugely enjoyable, very well crafted, cheese free show which I am very much looking forward to watching when it airs. I suspect he's going to find himself airing opposite Britain's Got Talent which is a ratings monster but hopefully he should be able to carve out a very nice little chunk of Saturday night ratings for himself as on the basis of this pilot he very much deserves too.
