John Barrowman to Return to the London Stage in La Cage aux Folles

British musical-theater star John Barrowman will “put a little more mascara on” and “hustle out his highest drag” when he steps into the West End revival of La Cage aux Folles on September 14. He’ll play Albin, a.k.a. Zaza, the headliner at the St. Tropez drag nightclub, through November 28 at the Playhouse Theatre.

Barrowman became a household name in Britain after creating the role of bisexual time-traveling ex-con Captain Jack Harkness in the BBC’s Doctor Who, which spawned the hit spinoff series Torchwood. He served as a judge alongside Andrew Lloyd Webber on such West End talent-search shows as I’d Do Anything, Any Dream Will Do and How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? Barrowman made his West End debut in 1989 opposite Elaine Paige in Anything Goes; he later played Joe Gillis to her Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, a role he repeated on Broadway. Other starring roles include Chris in Miss Saigon, the Beast in Beauty and the Beast and Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera. On Broadway, he appeared in Putting It Together.

The Terry Johnson-directed revival of La Cage—which features music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and a book by Harvey Fierstein—recently earned two 2009 Olivier Awards, including best musical revival and best actor for the original Albin, Douglas Hodge. The production currently stars Roger Allam as Albin and Phillip Quast who, incidentally, starred with Barrowman in 1997’s The Fix at the Donmar Warehouse as his lover Georges.