JT grad John Barrowman brings ‘Torchwood’ , Capt. Jack to U. S.

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13 - John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness on "Torchwood: Miracle Day" on Starz.

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Updated: October 29, 2011 12:41AM

For months now, John Barrowman’s face has graced Internet sites and magazines, including TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly and even USA Weekend this past Sunday.

It’s big news in the entertainment world that his star vehicle — “Torchwood: Miracle Day” — premieres Friday night at 9 on the STARZ cable channel.

It’s Season No. 4 for this “Doctor Who” anagram and spinoff, but the switch is that it’s an American show now.

Joliet’s own Barrowman has been a big deal on Great Britain TV for years. American television never captured Barrowman as completely as the BBC did when Capt. Jack Harkness first sauntered across the “Doctor Who” screen six years ago.

As the show shifts to the United States, perhaps Americans, too, will embrace this London West End stage legend and catapult him to — dare I say it? — intergalactic stardom.

JT theater roots

The making of this luminary began on a Joliet West High School stage back in 1981, and Joliet’s own famed accompanist Beverly Holt was there for his four high school musicals, a Bicentennial Park production and parts of his journey from Chicago to Cannes to Cardiff to California and back. Holt has been a steady source for all things Barrowman, from his return trips to Joliet for four summers in the early 2000s to train young artists, to his commitment ceremony, to at least 10 albums, two biographies, roles big on stage, small on film and wildly varied on both British and American television.

Here in America, his adopted homeland, Barrowman mixed it up on Aaron Spelling’s “Titans” (2000), was forgettable in “Central Park West” (1995) and guested on an arc of last season’s mega-popular ABC show “Desperate Housewives,” where he strangled a character played by Ellen Crawford.

He was splendid but brief on “DeLovely” (’04) and hit the right chord in “The Producers” (’05). It’s best to forget that he starred in one of the worst shark movies ever made, “Shark Attack 3: Megalodon” (’02).

Born in Scotland, youngest of three children, Barrowman moved to the United States at age 9 as his father climbed the ranks at Caterpillar. (Dad was plant manager in Joliet.)

After graduating from Joliet West in 1985, Barrowman was one semester short when he left college. He was supposed to study Shakespeare in London when he won a role in his first professional musical, the same Billy Crocker in “Anything Goes” he’d performed at Bicentennial Park. While he never earned a degree, he’ll be given an honorary doctorate of music and drama this month from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama at graduation.

With dual citizenship, Barrowman went on to headline in a dozen or so West End musicals in London. If you were to count the number of theatrical productions he’s starred in and British TV shows he’s either starred or appeared in over the last 22 years, the phrase “the hardest working man in show business” would not be off the mark.

Gleek at heart

His own production company keeps him busy, but he pops up seemingly everywhere: kissing David Tennant (his “Who” doc) at San Diego’s Comic Con in 2009, probing his homosexuality in 2008’s “The Making of Me” and starring in a gaggle of children’s TV shows and Christmastime “pantomimes.”

One wish he hasn’t been granted yet is a spot on “Glee,” which he adores. Another: He also hopes to be a guest star again on “Doctor Who” during its 50th anniversary. (He appeared in four episodes in 2005, three in 2007, and had a cameo in 2010.)

It was Season 3 of “Torchwood,” a five-parter called “Children of God,” that grabbed the most viewers and paved the way for STARZ.

That was a big bucks production, and this one starting Friday night is even bigger bucks and is 10 shows. “It’s bigger than it’s ever been before!” enthuses Barrowman, age 44.

American spin

But, most importantly, Holt added, it is a Russell T. Davies production. Davies revived “Dr. Who” phenomenon in 2005 and created the “Torchwood” series.

“Miracle Day” is about what happens when people stop dying. Barrowman tipped off “Digital Spy” that the heretofore immortal Harkness becomes mortal. It gives the character a lot of new ground to cover.

Joining the “Torchwood” cast are American actors Mekhi Phifer (Dr. Pratt on “ER”) and Bill Pullman, who’s best known for playing good guys (“Independence Day” and “While You Were Sleeping”). In “Torchwood,” Pullman plays a pedophile, child murderer and inhuman monster who is the first not to die. despite three lethal injections.

Five months of filming, mostly at Warner Brothers Studios in L.A., ended in mid-May. Barrowman is now back in the U.K. starring in and co-producing the third season of “Tonight’s The Night” for BBC TV, a show that grants wishes and has been picked up in four European countries.

In September, he will record his fourth album on the Sony label, and in October he starts his fourth concert tour of the U.K. performing in 27 cities in six weeks.

What next?

Holt, who has been a church organist for 46 years and is director of music ministry at Grace United Methodist Church, says Barrowman has bought a home in California. Does that point to more “Torchwood”?

“Why wouldn’t there be?” she said.

Most of all, Holt enjoys what “a good human being” Barrowman is and how he has been active in U.K. charities and performing for the royal family.

Holt and Barrowman keep in touch mostly by phone these days, but she’s been there for live performances that she calls just as legendary as “Torchwood.”

“I’m prejudiced,” she said. “But when he was on Broadway with Betty Buckley, when he was Bobby in ‘Company’ at the John F. Kennedy Center, and in ‘La Cage Aux Folles,’ he is always incredible. Every time he does a role he brings something of himself into that role that makes it distinct … Every time I watch him I think it’s the best thing he has ever done.”