Blast from the Past!

[jo]

Maybe a collection of memorable Jackman interviews or articles?

He is usually great and fun ( as he is always game for most anything) when the UK's Jonathan Ross gets to interview him.

This was circa 2009, after he hosted the Oscars and while promoting ORIGINS:WOLVERINE... although the conversation meanders into other topics.

[jo]

Another fun appearance on Jonathan Ross ( promoting Real Steel in 2011)




There is mention of Back on Broadway -- and the possibility of bringing it to London.

Why did it not happen?

Because...

he auditioned and got cast as Jean Valjean!




Jo

[jo]

I can't even remember this -- and I was at MSG for all 3 HJ shows ( TheManTheMusicTheShow) in 2019.

Maybe I was laughing hard, too, at Hugh's (aka Peter) antics

[jo]

I never saw this brief review of THE RIVER by Deadline.com





The audience was never so close to the stage players as in this play ( at Circle in the Square).

In that brief glimpse of Hugh lying down on the couch -- how many seated maybe a foot or so away from him on the side ( called the Riverbank ) were tempted to touch him - LOL!


Jo

[jo]

Opening number of TheMan.TheMusic.TheShow at Madison Square Garden!

[jo]

From the recent past (April 2022) --

[jo]

Someone resurrected this on TWITTER --



It came as part of the series of commercials for Lipton Tea - when he first worked with Michael Gracey & the TGS choreographer Ashley Wallen.

At that time, seeing Hugh dance like this was a great surprise. His dancing in Oklahoma! & The Boy from Oz were not the heart of the shows ( as it had become in The Greatest Showman & The Music Man). But what has impressed most people ( based on comments) was not that he could dance this well... but he seemed to enjoy doing it a lot ( he was not pre-occupied with showing off his steps... but he was showing his enthusiasm with such a fun activity).

I guess after this, his destiny as Prof Harold Hill ( of Shipoopi & 76 Trombones) was already written in the stars


Jo

[jo]

From Viva Laughlin --

[jo]

It's rare for an interview with Hugh Jackman that one gets a full grasp of his appreciation of being a theatre professional.

I posted this article in the past -- but in case some would want to revisit it -- I am reposting it. Please click on link.


www.nytimes.com/2022/05/24/theater/hugh-jackman-the-music-man.html?unlocked_article_code=lJHdkXOmEg393LceaGGj1RUE8EyUBkg5SxOlP4PBpCVk761Tek4Pgt0aTQ-YsgRkyg8s8hqbF_Btth-PIjdKtSncOzb5vsAyMitPoY2kGWpnV3SleHU7Dn0gPj5y5X00vR2QDCCsoiLIIvjU8rX7Ef3mWJCjFn8STq7KriXDw35osTqkbhUJQaBwaaR6EYVsUsxF9KN8vt5qWZ-JQIrXnwnqEOcekIf7e1I9XPo4FtqB1RXmVsBXNGbsqii7CHsrOh0O-LQhGPPY_0zIM1m6mkqd5ABjkYcgKIl7Ytz3uD8rJ4bbWrV2qZh8P1xVt4zD3czpeh-4t2m-NgssIVzal6CI4Zg&smid=url-share

[jo]

Nicole with the Australian trombone & Hugh's aborigine stance

[jo]

Remember when he was a guest on Russian TV ?

[jo]

Singing The Greatest Show on the Today show to promote his music tour!




As a single release, based on RIAA certification, the song reached at least 2 million units in sales for the uSA alone!

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN ENSEMBLE THE GREATEST SHOW February 23, 2021 ATLANTIC RECORDS SINGLE
MORE DETAILS
Release Date Previous Certification(s) | Date(s) Category Type Certified Units Genre
OCTOBER 27, 2017 2x Platinum | February 23, 2021 None Digital 2 Million POP
Platinum | December 13, 2018
Gold | July 25, 2018

[jo]

The photo of Hugh Jackman and Sonia Friedman at the London Opening Night of Stranger Things :The First Shadow
brought to mind the staging of THE RIVER on Broadway, a show produced by Ms Friedman.




x.com/JoAB46466753/status/1735528908949475794?s=20

JoAB
@joab46466753
HughJackman&SoniaFriedman collaborated on the B'way transfer of"The River". HJ starred as The Man. SF produced the show. They collaborated on repricing some seats to very affordable level ($35 for "some riverbank" seats or touching distance to the low stage at CircleInTheSquare.



x.com/JoAB46466753/status/1735529888629784652?s=20

[jo]

[jo]

JoAB
@joab46466753
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If you got the riverbank seats, this sketch indicates where you would have been seated



Lucky to have gotten riverbank seats twice -- once where Hugh was gutting the fish by the water spigot...and the other time was by the couch where hugh was lying down ( lol - I could touch him as he was only about a foot from me).


Jo

[jo]

From way, way back in the past!

Stage Whispers
@stage_WHISPERS
A sneak peek at the feature ‘Hugh Jackman’s First Drama Class’ by Sara Lander from our current edition. Read more about this edition at stagewhispers.com.au/news/stage-whispers-magazine-december-2023-february-2024-edition-out-now

[jo]

When he was in Australia for the premiere of THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, it seems QANTAS ( for which he was a brand ambassador presumably at that time) allowed him to enjoy an experience in a flight simulator.

He was thrilled with the experience, although he was not allowed to fulfill a donut request (not the food).

www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1646142358781063

PS: I remember once when he was on a plane that can land on water on the bay around Sydney, he was seated in the co-pilot seat and was enjoying himself tremendously. LOL - I thought he has wanted to be a chef, not a pilot, on a plane when he was a kid

Jo

[jo]

This was in 2018 - most likely when he was promoting THE GREATEST SHOWMAN in Paris?

[jo]

x.com/JoAB46466753/status/1745134861109854545?s=20

JoAB
@joab46466753

[jo]

I really wish the plans to adapt the play to a movie had gone through.

Can't even find any unofficial copy anywhere

It would be nice if they can co-star in a future movie.


Jo

[jo]

From Wikipedia - reception of the play on Broadway:

Critical reception
In reviewing the original Chicago Dramatists' production, Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune called the play "a gritty, rich, thick, poetic and entirely gripping noir tale."[3] Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "Huff provides [the actors] with enough fiery, superbly rendered, often deeply poetic speeches, enough mood shifts, enough emotional cataclysms and action-packed storytelling to keep this hallucinatory roller-coaster ride in motion. I would be happy to see this production again with an audience of real men in blue, just to take the temperature in the room."[3]

Steve Oxman of Variety observed, "Keith Huff's crackerjack two-hander ... turns out to be less like the perpetual drizzle of its title and more like a snowball that builds to an avalanche. While Huff starts with a couple of familiar characters — good cop/bad cop Chicago patrolmen with alcohol and racism issues — he deepens them into complex figures, compellingly human even when at their most despicable. The adroit character development combines with a billowing narrative to deliver some rattling emotional crescendos.... While he could maybe pull back on a contrivance or two, the playwright smartly sticks to his conceit of piling one worse complication on top of another, effectively investing A Steady Rain with genuine dramatic power and a sense of true tragedy."[5]

In his review of the Broadway production, Ben Brantley of The New York Times, who was generally satisfied with the performances of Jackman and, especially, Craig, wrote, "If Mr. Huff has not managed to reweave this premise [childhood friends find themselves on opposite sides of the law and in love with the same woman] with any surprising threads, he has packed it with enough lurid incident to fill a season of Law & Order."[6]

Time's Richard Zoglin, naming it one of the Top 10 Plays of 2009 and ranking it at #2, commented that "Casting a couple of big movie stars in a Broadway play can cut both ways. Audiences may stand in line for tickets, but critics can put on their scowling "show-me" faces — as many did for Keith Huff's one-act play, which cast Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman as a pair of Chicago cops in crisis. Both stars were excellent, but they were wonderfully served by Huff's taut, tough-minded script, which takes potentially clichéd material — the moral challenges faced by cops on the urban mean streets — and makes it fresh and compelling."[7]


Reviews
"Jackman allows you to feel both the warmth and the tyranny of Denny's love. A taller presence than Craig, he takes up more stage space physically and theatrically, which is just how it should be, given the way his character swaggers like the king of his own limited universe." — Los Angeles Times[8]

"Jackman does an excellent job playing a man who heedlessly jumps the median between superego and id, in the best tradition of the self-mythologizing American sociopath. The erstwhile X-man has never spelled danger, with or without muttonchops." — New York[9]

"Under John Crowley's direction, the two stars present the increasingly far-fetched tale with an amiable diffidence that lets them show you their acting ability, as each gets into his character's moments of personal pain, while carefully keeping the sordid events at a distance [...] Jackman, with his wonderful easy fluidity, shows once again that he's a natural-born stage star." — The Village Voice[10]

At least a copy of the printed play was available then.

Jo

[jo]

Revised my reply --

x.com/JoAB46466753/status/1745140807500509372?s=20

JoAB
@joab46466753
HughJackman & DanielCraig in ASteadyRain,which ran on B'way for a limited engagement in fall of2009. Plans to adapt to film did not push through.Spielberg was said to have expressed early interest on it.But the producers decided not to pursue plans(script adaptation draft done)

[jo]

Is it too late for Hugh & Daniel to go back to the film adaptation plans?

It is a powerful and gripping play. The material is not dated.

Not a typical police drama...but going deeper into the lives of the men in blue ( although they were plainclothesmen here)

Jo

[njr]

“A Steady Rain” in 2009 was the last time I was in NYC! Two other expensive trips in 2022 precluded me from going to see “The Music Man.” 😢

Nancy

[jo]

Rehearsing for the opening number at the BRITS!