Saturday and Sunday's events were demonstrations of what it means to be a true performance professional. Everyone involved stepped up to the plate and tried to give us the best time possible under the circumstances. Other than John not being physically on the premises, the strategy worked. I think we all had a ball.
One of the biggest surprises was Gareth David-Lloyd. I knew that he was funny, but I had no idea that he had such a gift for engaging with an audience. He reminded me a lot of JB's relaxed interaction. He took questions from the audience and managed to make every response hilarious. He demonstrated a wide range of skills and experience. He has performed in and directed Shakespearean productions, including Macbeth and Henry V and played lead roles in both. He would like to do more theater, especially Henry IV, Parts I and II, and a Bertolt Brecht play because of the moral ambiguity of his characters. He is also a musician and has a rock band called Blue Gillespie. He sang one song from their album, "Bam! Bam!" using someone's iPod for the backup music. I later downloaded a few songs from the album off of iTunes. All of the tracks had warnings of explicit lyrics. He then played the piano to accompany himself on a song that he had written when he was fifteen called "Take It Like A Bitch." The lyricism of his piano playing contrasted with the raunchy lyrics of an angst-ridden, sexually-frustrated teenager provoked a lot of laughter in the audience. He has since adapted the lyrics to being about his relationship with Captain Jack, which he demonstrated for us, as well. I am including a picture, but I am afraid that it is rather blurred.
Peter Wingfield was also delightful, sharing many stories and images of various productions he had been involved with. He, too, had a relaxed and humorous engagement with the audience. On the way to the airport, we overheard the security staff saying that when Peter arrived, he didn't have a clue about what he would be doing. He had never seen Torchwood, although he probably knew John, or at least of him. He got out his laptop in the bar that night and put together a presentation of some of the films and TV shows he had done, which he accompanied with a sound track. He used these stills to generate commentary and to initiate questions from the audience. It worked very well, and even those of us who weren't familiar with his work enjoyed his sessions. Another true professional.
Carole clearly has benefited from the experience she has had appearing with John at various venues because she seemed much more comfortable in front of an audience than she did when I saw her in L.A. She was as casual and honest as John in her dealings with us. She also has a great sense of humor. In a banter-contest with John, she ended up snogging Gareth, which later instigated the question from the audience: Who was the better kisser, John or Carole? Gareth finally answered "Carole" because he prefers kissing women. Lucky Carole!
I only caught a little of Mark Sheppard's last presentation, but he, too, seemed charming and witty. I kind of regret not making it to his other presentations.
John made a total of three appearances on the satellite link. The first was Saturday afternoon. He showed us his cast and explained how he had sustained the injury. Like most accidents, it happened in a silly way. He was stepping off his concrete deck onto the grass next to his pool. He was wearing flipflops, and his left foot caught on the concrete lip, and his ankle twisted to the left. The way he described it, it turned sideways to a 90-degree angle--ouch! He lay on the ground in agony while his mother, not realizing that he was injured, prodded him with her foot while lecturing him about it was his own fault for wearing those "bloody shoes." He made her get on the screen and tell her side of it. Clearly, she was feeling really guilty. She tried to make it up to him by making him chicken soup.
John took questions from the audience in all three sessions and was his usual naughty but charming self. The sibling bantering between him and Carole was funny. The dynamics in that family must be riotous when they are all together in the same room. Carole can easily hold her own with John and musters up equally cheeky counter-attacks to his teasing. They engaged in one verbal sparring match concerning which kid their father liked best. John said that he had given him a set of golf clubs, so now he was the favorite. Carole responded with she would tell her dad that John was being mean to her, and then he would be sorry.
John held forth in his office wearing a headset; the wall behind him was lined with framed scenes from Torchwood, a suitable backdrop. He could see the people who came up to ask questions and greeted each one by name as he/she came up to the microphone. At one point, Scott brought him a drink clad only in hot pink bikini briefs with the words "Fuel Injection" on the back. John took his shirt off a few times and flexed his pecs and and biceps. Both men are incredibly fit (what an understatement!) John broke down crying at one point when Sherri, an ob/gyn specializing in high risk pregnancies in Alaska, told him about a dream-catcher that a young, pregnant Inuit girl had made for him during a two-month stay in the hospital. Sherri had shown her an episode of "Tonight's the Night," and the girl was so inspired that she wanted to give John something to thank him "because he makes dreams come true." John was clearly very moved, and he promised to raise funds to support the doctor's efforts. The doctor also has three sons, two of whom are gay, and she thanked John and Scott for providing a model of a stable and committed gay relationship that he boys could emulate. John was concerned about how the gift would get to him, so Carole chimed in from the back of the room to say that she would personally pick up and deliver it when she goes to visit him.
The cabaret show was "adult" in the humor and the questions. John spontaneously sang one song a capella. It is one of my personal favorites, and I had heard him sing it before; however, that night, it had special meaning because it came straight from the heart. He sang "Where Is Love?" from "Oliver." There is a video of him singing it on youtube, if you haven't heard him sing it before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syCrEFVbL0k. (For some reason I can't get this to come up as a link.) He also gave us some hints of future gigs, some of which might happen in the U. S. Happy days!
We were asked not to post any images of John on the internet, so I am honoring his request. Gareth didn't want his music posted, although he said we could do what we wanted with the one he wrote when he was a teenager. He was cool with posting pictures of him, too, so I have included one.
Thanks to the organizers, Carole, Gareth, Peter, and Mark the event was saved from becoming a total disaster. I guess there were some disgruntled people who left angry, but most of us stayed and were glad that we did. John went out of his way several times to ask the audience not to blame anyone but him for the situation. And, in some ways, the interaction with John and the others was
even more intimate than if he would have been there physically. We were actually talking to him in his own personal space, something we normally would not get to do. At the end of the program, everyone involved came on stage to say goodbye (see the photo). I know that for myself, I am still glad that I went. Maybe I will get a chance to meet him again when I see him in "La Cage aux Folles" in November.
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