Maureen Wood meets up with a former pupil who became a stage legend

Maurren Wood and John Barr — Maureen and John meet again for the first time 50 years on.

John Barr, East Ham born and bred, was in my first ever class as a teacher back in 1972. Recently, he joined the women of Forest Gate Women’s Institute to give a glimpse into his astonishing career of nearly 50 years in musical theatre.

John began his journey in professional theatre aged 12, as one of Fagin’s boys in Oliver! alongside Roy Hudd as Fagin.

In his teens, he frequently bunked off school in the afternoons to go up West to see matinees of shows. Sweeney Todd was a favourite, which he later went on to appear in four times.

By the age of 20 he had appeared on tour in Evita, understudying the role of Che Guevara, and playing the role two days a week in matinees He went on to appear in Cats, Sweeney Todd, Aspects of Love, Chicago, Rehab the Musical , The Who’s Tommy and Les Misérables among many others. He also appeared in the film version of Les Mis.

He branched out into cabaret, both here and in the States, appearing at the Library of Congress and touring from Chicago across the country to venues including Las Vegas and San Francisco. His career has taken him all around the world to the Far East and Australia.

He has appeared as Peter Pan, and King Rat in pantomimes as well as playing a wide variety of Dames. He bravely took on the role of Koko in the Mikado for Opera Della Luna. He divides his time between performing and teaching the next generation the tricks of the trade in his Acting through Song courses.

He is currently appearing in It’s a fine Life: The story of Lionel Bart, in which he commands the stage mostly on his own for more than two hours, giving wonderful performances of some of Lionel’s greatest songs and an insight into his rather sad life in later years.

For the WI he sang Where is Love, his voice still as pure and strong as when he was aged seven. And we were able to join in with a rousing performance of Consider Yourself!

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