by Priscilla

Aug.22, 2010, under Cast Blog

We asked you to send in your questions for John. Here are the first set of them and his answers.

What drew you to the role of Bob?

When I saw the show I realised, age wise, it was probably the only part that I could play. Also I‘ve said this to a lot of people, but I think that he’s the most non-judgemental person that I have ever played and he may well be the most non-judgemental person in any play or musical. I admire him for the fact that he’s not fazed about anything he comes across. He’s lived this life to the full roaming around the world. A bit of a hippie in the 60’s, saw action in Vietnam in the 70’s and he’s not fazed by anything whether it is sexual orientation or whether it be aggressive behaviour with the men in Coober Pedy. He doesn’t judge them. He’s disappointed and tries to defend Felicia, Bernadette and Tick, but he doesn’t judge the men for their behaviour. That’s something I admire in him and as a human being something I aspire to.

John Bowe

Do you feel left out that you don’t get to drag up?

I’ve always said there is one good thing and one bad thing about being in this show and playing the part of Bob. The bad thing is that everyone gets to wear heels, which makes me look short on stage. The good thing is, I’m the only one that gets recognised when I go out of the stage door.

What do you do during most of the first act?

Well the horrible people that run this show insisted that I come in for the warm up before the show. So I have to be here about an hour before the show starts for the physical and vocal warm up. After that I kind of just relax, read something, listen to the radio. I still obsessively listen to quite a lot of the show on the speakers backstage. I then have a sense of how vocal the audience is and I need that to know where to pitch my performance. I get ribbed by the other principals and the ensemble that I only do half a show, but I do point out that I am twice their age and as I say, “but what a half it is”.