James Barbour: “Love is the essence of the human spirit”

His first Broadway leading role was Billy Bigelow in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL. Then he performed other main characters as The Beast in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, Rochester in JANE EYRE, Leon Czolgosz in ASSASSINS and  Sydney Carton in Jill Santoriello’s A TALE OF TWO CITIES.

After his solo run at Sardi´s last Christmas with ‘The Holiday Concert’, James Barbour comes backs to Sardi to premiere a new cabaret show ‘Love Songs’ beginning January 31st.

James Barbour tells us about this new show and about his Broadway career.

THE CONCERTS YOU WILL OFFER AT SARDI´S ARE ENTITLED "LOVE SONGS", FOR ALL THE SONGS YOU WILL PERFORM ON THESE CONCERTS TALK ABOUT LOVE. WHY HAVE YOU DECIDED TO FOCUS ON THIS TOPIC?
The characters I play tend to be tragic romantic heroes. Whether they are literary figures, fictional creations or historical characters. Love, in some way, always plays an important part in their development and thus I’ve found that many of the greatest theatrical songs use love as their theme. It’s a natural for me. Plus I truly believe that “Love” is the essence of the human spirit. It’s a universal emotion no matter who you are, where you live or what you believe. We all have love for someone or something.

HOW ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE THE SELECTION OF THE SONGS YOU WILL PERFORM AT THE CONCERTS?
Many of the songs will be from shows that I have done in the past. “If Ever I Would Leave You,” “If I Loved You” as examples and then I’m going to pick standards that have always been favorites of mine such as “Embraceable You.”

YOU WILL HAVE THE PLEASURE OF SHARING THE STAGE WITH SOME SPECIAL GUESTS. CAN YOU COMMENT ON HOW THESE COLLABORATIONS WILL BE?
Yeah it’s quite fun, the most interesting part of this is that my show is different every night depending upon who the guest is. The guest (or guests) brings in whatever they feel like singing. It’s a treat for the audience and they get to see a different Broadway star each night.

LAST CHRISTMAS YOU WERE OFFERING ‘THE HOLIDAY CHRISTMAS’ ALSO AT SARDI’S RESTAURANT. HOW IS TO PERFORM IN SUCH AN SPECIAL PLACE?
Sardi’s is an amazing place filled with such history. The walls are lined with caricatures of every famous person you can image, all signed by them as well. Laurence Oliver’s caricature hangs in the corner of the room in which I perform. All of these entertainers, at some point, shared that very space in which I stand, it’s rich with history. And it’s actually the main reason we chose that venue. What better place to do a concert with Broadway stars than Sardi’s. The other nice thing is that the audience is within arms reach of me. Usually I’m hundreds of feet away on a stage. There’s interaction at Sardi’s that I can’t have from a larger stage.

YOUR LAST EXPERIENCE ON BROADWAY WAS WITH THE NEW MUSICAL A TALE OF TWO CITIES, THAT CLOSED AFTER TWO MONTHS OF PERFORMANCES. WHY DO YOU THINK THE SHOW WASN´T A BOX OFFICE SUCCESS? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT WITH THE CURRENT ECONOMICAL CLIMATE IT IS RISKY TO BRING NEW SHOWS TO BROADWAY?
That’s the million dollar question. There are so many things that go into making a successful Broadway show. Many of them are controllable factors and many of them are arbitrary. Our show was very expensive to run and I think we opened at the wrong time. I would have preferred to open in the spring rather than the fall. We were the first big show to open and that put a great deal of pressure on us by having to sustain our show through the fall, into the holiday season and then into January and February, which are notoriously the worst months for theatre.
Reviews were a factor, at least in the eyes of the producers, but I don’t take much stock in them anymore. They hit the papers one day and then they’re gone. WIKCED got some bad reviews as did PHANTOM and they are the blockbuster hits of Broadway. It’s really about marketing and word of mouth. So our overall reviews of the show were mixed despite getting standing ovations every single night… and I mean every single night from EVERY audience that came to see us.
As an actor, I don’t read them, but I was told I fared fairly well. But I’m not shy, I once said to a prominent critic (who is actually a friend) that I wish critics would say “In my opinion I feel that this show is…” rather than say “This show is…” His response was indicative of why I feel shows are suffering. He actually said to me, “James, we can’t say ‘in my opinion’ because the audiences are not smart enough to make up their own minds. So we have to tell them what they should think” I was rather taken aback at that but he truly feels that way. I like to think that the audiences are the reason we are doing these shows. You can’t create theatre in a vacuum. So when the ticket buyer is standing on their feet at the end of a show, I think that’s review enough.
I jokingly called Janaury 4th “Black Sunday” because we had something like 9 Broadway shows close all on the same day. There was one major thing that was against us and that was the economy, everyone was affected by it. I truly believe however, that it’s a leveling out time. A time where we need to re-evaluate what we’re bringing to Broadway and why. Icosts about one million dollars just to “load in” a show into a Broadway theatre, that the instaljlation of sets, lighting and sound etc.
So, is it a risky economical climate to bring shows to Broadway? It always has been. Theatre is a risk, but I will say this, after World War II the first buildings rebuilt after all the devastation… the theatres. We have to keep creating, we have to keep dreaming. I mean who would have thought that an African Amercian named Barack Obama would become President of the United States, I for one am overjoyed. It’s an amazing time and exciting time and I think a time for reflection and reconstruction. I’m hopeful that as a world we can come together to create a better place. And for me theatre and art as a whole are a big part of that adventure.

YOU WERE IN THE TONY AWARD PRODUCTION OF ASSASSINS IN 2004. HOW IT WAS THE EXPERIENCE OF WORKING ON THIS SONDHEIM SHOW?
What a show! The cast was stellar and the creative team amazing. I was truly blessed to be a part of that production. And I count myself doubly blessed to have worked with Stephen at least once in my career. He is the heart and soul of contemporary musical theatre and his works span generations. The thing is, that at the end of the day he’s just like the rest of us, OK incredibly brilliant, a musical genius and all around amazing artist, but what I mean is that he’s human. And we all share that common bond. So for me, after that first time of thinking “Oh my God I‘m about to sing a Stephen Sondheim song for Stephen Sondheim”…everything kinda of fell into place. He’s an incredible nice man with tremendous insight.

YOU STARRED IN THE 1994 REVIVAL OF CAROUSEL ON BROADWAY, STARRING THE LEADING ROLE. BILLY BIGELOW IS A VERY CONTROVERSIAL CHARACTER, HE DOESN´T WANT TO WORK, HE BEATS HIS WIFE... BUT AUDIENCES LOVE HIM NEVERTHELESS. AS AN ACTOR WAS IT A CHALLENGE TO PERFORM SUCH AN INTERESTING ROLE?
The key to me as an actor is to find the redemptive quality in each character I play. Take Leon Czolgosz from ASSASSINS, he assassinated a President, how do you get the audience to empathize with him? I had to find a way. Similarly with Billy Bigelow I needed to find a way to make him human. Well, it’s in the lyrics of the famous song “Soliloquy.”
Billy Bigelow made mistakes in his life, we all have on some level but we’re all human. Redemption is an essential part of our existence and forgiveness an even bigger part. So when Billy realizes that he’s got to take responsibility for the things in his life, he tries to the best of his ability to do so. It was a challenge to play Billy Bigelow but it’s those multi-faceted flawed characters that I feel are the most real. It was the role of a lifetime (not to mention it was the show where I met my wife).

NOW IN BARCELONA (SPAIN) IS GOING TO OPEN BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, AFTER HAVING A HUGE SUCCESS IN MADRID. THE BROADWAY PRODUCTION WAS ALSO A HUGE SUCCESS. HOW DID YOU REMEMBER PERFORMING THE BEAST?
I loved it, I truly did. Again, a flawed character looking for redemption, a tragic hero who in essence gives up his life so that the one he loves can live. Once I got used to the physicality of the character and the extensive make-up it was my task to ‘The Beast’ real. I changed my walk, I changed my voice and searched for what made this person human, for that’s what he was, a human cursed to walk the earth as a beast until he found love. Go see it! You’ll love the show!

YOU PERFORMED THE TITLE ROLE IN THE RECORDING OF DRACULA’S CONCEPT ALBUM, THAT HAS YET TO BE RELEASED. HOW WAS THE SCORE CREATED BY FRANK WILDHORN? DO YOU KNOW IF IT WILL BE RELEASED SOMEDAY?
I love singing Frank’s music. We sort of fit together like hand in glove. The CD actually has songs on it that were never on the Broadway show. Pretty amazing stuff. I’m not sure when it will be released but I know they’re working on it. You can hear one track from it, “Loving You Keeps Me Alive” on my CD, ‘James Barbour Broadway in Concert’. Incidentally Frank and I are working on a new CD which we’re going to start recording in a couple of months. I’m actually going to sing one of his songs in Spanish and one in Italian and then I planning to tour with my concerts as we release the CD. I’m very excited about it.

YOU STARRED AS ROCHESTER IN THE BROADWAY MUSICAL JANE EYRE. A REVISED VERSION IS CURRENTLY IN THE WORKS, AND THERE ARE CONVERSATIONS TO MAKE JANE EYRE IN CONCERT IN NYC. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE PART OF THIS SHOW AGAIN?
I heard something about that but I’m not involved. I actually approached Paul Gordon about 4 years ago with an idea to do a concert version. It never materialized, glad that they’re doing it again. It had much too short a life as well.

YOU HAVE STARRED ON ORIGINAL SHOWS AS WELL AS ON REVIVALS OR REPLACEMENTS. DO YOU ENJOY CREATING ROLES MORE THAN GOING INTO ESTABLISHED ONES?
I enjoy creating roles. When you replace or do a role that has been done before, you are in effect ‘reinventing” the role and finding ways to make it your own rather than creating it from scratch.
I’ve always thought, however, that they should have a separate category in the Tony awards for Actor sin a new musical and Actors in a revival. Creating a role from nothing vs the ability to go back and look and listen to those who have done it before you. Both have their merits but I think each one should stand alone.

HAVE YOU GOT A FAVOURITE ROLE THAT YOU´VE PLAYED ON MUSICAL THEATRE?
The one that has yet to be written but I will say that Sydney Carton rivals Billy Bigelow for the top spot.

James Barbour in A TALE OF TWO CITIES