Looking Back

[jo]

Oh -- I should have mentioned it but I was referring to the closing of the show - its most memorable performance, apart from the number in the 2004 Tonys. The clip shown on the BWW article was from the 2004 TONYs.

I guess it is because the Opening Preview and the Closing Show both happened in September. We had to wait for about another month for the show to open officially...and then there was the shock of the horrible reviews and someone suggesting that the show was headed for a funeral

But everything ended well...

Jo

[jo]

In his original costume for BICOASTAL ... before he replaced it with gold pants after the TONYs --




What he performed at the TONYs combined both Bicoastal and Not The Boy Next Door.

Jo

[mamaleh]

The closing performance was indeed memorable, but I think the Actors Fund performance gave it a run for its money and maybe then some. Lots of wild goings-on with not only the cast but the crew on stage. I especially remember doorman Kevin swinging his shirt over his head as did many other shirtless males in the crew and cast as they paraded across the stage. It was a fun evening.

Ellen

[JH4HJ]

I stumbled across this OLD (fan?) review while looking for something else.

THE BOY FROM OZ is a jukebox musical in that it took the works of Peter Allen and a book written to tell the story of his life and made a new book musical--not a review or a dance concert or even a pretty lame story line like MAMA MIA. It is a biography musical. Regrettably, who cares about Peter Allen's life? Growing up I loved his music and his performing. Still do. But at the end of the day, most people who saw THE BOY FROM OZ (critics and public alike) wondered why anyone cared enough about Peter Allen to do a musical about his life? There are more famous and more successful people who have done more in their lives than fulfill a childhood dream to become (mildly) famous, attach oneself (through marriage) to two of the world's biggest gay icons and come out of the closet as a homosexual and then succumb to a horrifying terminal illness. It is a story but not the most compelling one and I say this as a fan of this man's work as a songwriter and performer, not wishing to belittle anything about him--only to question the purpose of writing this musical. Apparently that purpose was to showcase the talents of a man so extraordinary that the musical became a hit in spite of its well discussed flaws, simply based on his performance. The book for BOY FROM OZ is OK, the score has potholes big enough to lose a New York Times theater critic in and the reviews were enough to close an Ibsen revival; but Hugh Jackman made it one of the most magical and memorable nights anyone could ever spend in a theater.

Sort of a "left handed" compliment for Hugh's performance?

[hughmanity]

Full-on compliment for Hugh; diss for show.  Although, if you pay a left-handed compliment to a left-handed person, does it cancel out and become an actual compliment?!  Hahaha. (Btw, being left-handed is just one of the traits Hugh and I have in common-  )

Sept 24, 2020 13:02:40 GMT -5 JH4HJ said:

I stumbled across this OLD (fan?) review while looking for something else.

THE BOY FROM OZ is a jukebox musical in that it took the works of Peter Allen and a book written to tell the story of his life and made a new book musical--not a review or a dance concert or even a pretty lame story line like MAMA MIA. It is a biography musical. Regrettably, who cares about Peter Allen's life? Growing up I loved his music and his performing. Still do. But at the end of the day, most people who saw THE BOY FROM OZ (critics and public alike) wondered why anyone cared enough about Peter Allen to do a musical about his life? There are more famous and more successful people who have done more in their lives than fulfill a childhood dream to become (mildly) famous, attach oneself (through marriage) to two of the world's biggest gay icons and come out of the closet as a homosexual and then succumb to a horrifying terminal illness. It is a story but not the most compelling one and I say this as a fan of this man's work as a songwriter and performer, not wishing to belittle anything about him--only to question the purpose of writing this musical. Apparently that purpose was to showcase the talents of a man so extraordinary that the musical became a hit in spite of its well discussed flaws, simply based on his performance. The book for BOY FROM OZ is OK, the score has potholes big enough to lose a New York Times theater critic in and the reviews were enough to close an Ibsen revival; but Hugh Jackman made it one of the most magical and memorable nights anyone could ever spend in a theater.

Sort of a "left handed" compliment for Hugh's performance?

[jo]

This has gotten fresh public airing because of the Alex Trebek tribute.


If you watch the clip to the end -- it features the prolonged ovation ( probably a standing ovation) that follows the number. What is amazing is this press reel was taken by the official sources of the show within the very early days of the show, actually during previews ( because the opening number of ALL THE LIVES was not captured, as it replaced the opening number later in previews). So, even as early as then, ONCE BEFORE I GO, as the show's 11 o'clock number was already a major hit with crowds. In addition to the number itself, I think at that point the audiences were already appreciating the extraordinary performance they were witnessing. They couldn't wait for the finale to show their appreciation!

Great memories!


Jo

[jo]

If you don't have the full set of press reels -- the person who uploaded ONCE BEFORE I GO has also uploaded most of the clips. IIRC, there are a few missing clips earlier in the show.

Keep swiping --


www.youtube.com/channel/UCSQBNPyhLpUMRyCMg9aCTug


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

[jo]

[jo]

[jo]

Series of performances from the two Boys from Oz, featuring Peter's songbook which was the musical backbone of the Broadway show. Other performances from other cast members from the Broadway TBFO also featured.

Enjoy each comparative clip



Peter and Hugh showing how to be Australia's most celebrated entertainers! When Hugh won his TONY for the role, the last part in his acceptance speech was to dedicate his win to Peter Allen!

Includes a rare Back-to-Back comparison of NOT THE BOY NEXT DOOR performances from Hugh Jackman ( from the show itself and from the TONY Awards). Thank goodness the production released the media clips/press reels to promote the show early on in its run. It gave a chance for the fans of the show to relive those moments and for new HJ fans to discover why he was so celebrated for that yearlong Broadway run!


Jo

[jo]

The show should have been filmed in full.

On hindsight, it was probably Hugh who did not want a home video release of the show, even after it closed. A petition was circularized and drew thousands of proponents but it did not prosper.

But this could have become a popular streaming show on Netflix or the other streamers. Although with the press reels there are already good enough materials to give audiences an indication of Hugh's remarkable portrayal/performances. Maybe someone could do a proper documentary using the stuff from the above article? Maybe enhance it from the perspective of the Broadway show. Only thing which the show missed -- and what poor judgment to exclude it from the show - was TENTERFIELD SADDLER ( that gave an insight of Peter's background).

They could also include clips from the arena tour of TBFO, as there were more impressive stagings in that Aussie show?

Jo

[chessie]

This is so much fun! Thanks for posting it, Jo. It's great to relive the show through clips of the numbers, but you're so right that it should have been filmed in its entirety. The level of talent that was present in that production boggles the mind.

Carol

[jo]

[jo]

Neil Macey
@namacey
·
5h
Replying to
@shentonstage
Already arrived in my iTunes Podcast app
Mark Shenton Blue heart
@shentonstage
·
5h
You’re ahead of the game, then! It uploads at 7pm Thursday evenings but my column on ShentonStage with commentary on the choices made plus links to videos only runs on Fridays from 7am, so that’s the “official” publishing time!
🕷MSS Blue heart
@malc150
·
25m
Replying to
@shentonstage
Hugh Jackman: The Boy from Oz! My favourite!

[jo]

Variety

Nov 9, 2003 5:00am PT
Screen Trade: Standout perfs for a young decade

By William Goldman

Let’s start with a movie I know you never saw.

Why am I so smart? Because no one on this or any planet saw “Veronica Guerin,” and that is on your head, because in it, Cate Blanchett gives one of the major performances of the decade so far.

There have been a shocking number of sensational performances this year, which is the subject under discussion today (only up to the end of October, please).

And there have been not one but two remarkable comedy jobs which will not be noted by the Academy voters because they suffer from the lunatic assumption that comedy is easy. (Ye gods.)


Not only did Eugene Levy co-write — or whatever it is he and Christopher Guest do on their nights out — “A Mighty Wind,” but the role he played, the nut romantic from long ago, somehow touched the heart. (If you weren’t moved when he gives Catherine O’Hara the rose, you’re wrong.)

But how about Mr. Depp? And in a pirate movie? Has there been a more valuable performance within memory? I thought he was brilliant, and I couldn’t stop smiling at the thought of all the studio suits who must have gone just nuts during dailies about Johnny being so over the top getting on their cell phones in mild hysteria, bombarding the set with pleas to please bring it down!

Blessings to both these guys.

I have gushed more than usual here; forgive me, but I ain’t done yet. I want to talk about a new subject for me and it is this: Which man and which woman will be the stars of the next decade?

The past ten-spot is pretty easy to decide now: Julia has been our queen and just pick one of the Toms for top guy.

But this is looking into the future. Who will we be most in love with from now until 2013?

OK, before you get my choices, take a second and think for yourself.

Got your lady? You sure?

My girl is Keira Knightley.

She may be all of 18, so I realize what an amazingly stupid prediction I have just made, but in “Bend It Like Beckham” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” she came closer than anyone yet to being the new Audrey Hepburn.

I wish someone would remake “Roman Holiday” so you’d see how right I am. (And don’t you wish the idiots who remade “Sabrina” — no names please — had just held off until now?)

This is a teenager with genuine performing talent and an all but illegal beauty — let’s see what she does with them.





OK. For my male star, I jump mediums and 3,000 miles.

I have gone to the theater for 60-some years. And yes, I was there for Brando in ’47 in “Streetcar.” I was there for Merman in the legendary gypsy run-through of “Gypsy.” But nothing prepared me for Hugh Jackman.

“The Boy From Oz” — about songwriter and singer Peter Allen — is not close to being a wonderful musical. It’s not even all that good. But it mattereth not, because Jackman is visible pretty much all the time. And what a blessing that he chose at this point in his movie career to come back to the stage. And please let him do it again.


For now what we must all do is get our asses to the Imperial Theater on West 45th Street — there, now you know everything — and just watch him.

What Jackman does inside that structure is only this: He can sing with anyone you ever heard on the legitimate stage, he can hoof like crazy, he is funny and most surprising of all, maybe, is that he is vulnerable and sad. Plus courteous, kind, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

Star of the next decade?

Not even close.

Movies and theater?

Let us pray…

Did Hugh Jackman fulfill that promise, as seen by the late Oscar-winning screenwriter and theatre pundit William Goldman?

And SOME!!



Now Hugh Jackman is becoming more and more recognized for how he has widened his range and how impressive his acting/performing portolio has become.

I wonder what Mr. Goldman would have said of Hugh's upcoming interpretation of THE MUSIC MAN??

And of his recent TheManTheMusicTheShow concert show??


Jo

[jo]

I hope Hugh saw the comments from the late William Goldman, even if only for these lines --

I have gone to the theater for 60-some years. And yes, I was there for Brando in ’47 in “Streetcar.” I was there for Merman in the legendary gypsy run-through of “Gypsy.” But nothing prepared me for Hugh Jackman.

Accolade of the highest degree!


Jo

[jo]

Here you are -- theatre critic Mark Shenton top favorite on the Broadway stage!

shentonstage.com/shentwens-my-favourite-broadway-leading-men-in-musicals/

ShenT(w)ens: My Favourite Broadway leading men in musicals
Mark ShentonFriday March 5,


I previously chose my top ten favourite Broadway leading ladies in musicals here; this week it’s the turn of the gents. And the same ground rules apply: they’ve all got to be people who are still regularly active on Broadway, or at least were when the theatres shut down nearly a year ago. So there are no names from the past and have sadly already left us, or who’ve not been on Broadway in a long while.

As ever, I could easily stretch to a #ShenTwens (as Betty Buckley suggested to me on Twitter, expanding the list to twenty). In fact, I may not have done so in the podcast, but there’s nothing to stop me doing so here — so while this column today reflects my #ShenTens, come back tomorrow for the second half and my countdown from 11-20, to make a #ShenTwens. (It means you get more bang for your buck, with video links to 20 performers!)

LISTEN HERE: (Jo's Note : the link to the podcast is seen on the main article link)


1. Hugh Jackman





After starting his career in his native Australia as a musical theatre actor, Hugh Jackman’s breakthrough role was when he came to London’s National Theatre in 1998 to star in Trevor Nunn’s glorious Olivier Theatre reimagining of Oklahoma! By the time the production transferred to Broadway, however, Jackman was already on his way to global superstardom as Wolverine in what would become The X-Men film franchise (and he was replaced by Patrick Wilson, himself destined for movie stardom).

VIDEO: Singing Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin’ at Hey, Mr Producer, a 1998 benefit concert to honour producer Cameron Mackintosh




He hasn’t, however, deserted the theatre — returning to the stage to headline The Boy from Oz (2003, a show about fellow Aussie showman, the late, great singer-songwriter Peter Allen), and as well as bringing a concert show Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway to the Broadhurst in 2011, he’s also done two plays on Broadway, A Steady Rain (2009, co-starring with Daniel Craig) and The River (2014). He should have been back on Broadway last year, starring in the title role of a new revival of The Music Man; but the pandemic has delayed that to 2022 now (his co-star will be one of my top ten favourite leading ladies, Sutton Foster).

VIDEO: Performing as Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz at the 2004 Tony Awards:






2. Nathan Lane
There’s no actor on Broadway of quite such unfettered ebullience as Nathan Lane, a theatrical clown of the old school, who is equally adept in musicals as he is in plays. I first saw him making a riotous comedic splash as Nathan Detroit (a character he’s taken his stage name from) in a day-glo revival of Guys and Dolls in 1992, before playing Pseudolus in an equally hilarious revival of another Broadway classic, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1996, winning his first Tony for best actor in a musical.

He’d win it again in 2001 for his performance as the original Max Bialystock in the stage musical version of Mel Brooks’s The Producers (in 2005, he also won the Olivier when he reprised that performance in the show’s London premiere at Drury Lane, after being brought in at short notice to replace the originally cast Richard Dreyfuss, who was let go during rehearsals when it became apparent that he could not meet the role’s demands).

VIDEO: Nathan Lane, Lee Evans and the West End company in The Producers, at the 2004 Royal Variety Performance.


He’s done two more Broadway musicals, a revised version of the Sondheim-scored The Frogs (2004, which he was partly responsible for adapting) and The Addams Family (2010, playing the patriarch Gomez Adams), but many more plays in the years since, including a sell-out revival of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple (2005, opposite his Producers co-star, Matthew Broderick), an all-star revival of Terrence McNally’s It’s Only a Play (2014, again with Broderick, as well as Stockard Channing, Megan Mullally, Rupert Grint and F. Murray Abraham), the National’s revival of Angels in America (first in London, then on Broadway in 2018, winning the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a play as Roy Cohn), and most recently the short-lived Taylor Mac play Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus (2019).

3. Norm Lewis
A welcome fixture on Broadway since the early 90s when he made his Broadway debut in The Who’s Tommy (1993), Norm Lewis has played such iconic roles as Javert in Les Miserables (first in 2006, then reprising it in the West End in 2010 before playing it in the show’s 30th anniversary concert at the 02 Arena in London) and the title role in The Phantom of the Opera (2014, the first black actor to play the role on Broadway).

His sole Tony nomination was for Leading Actor in a Musical for playing Porgy in a revival of Porgy and Bess opposite Audra McDonald.

VIDEO: Performing You Is My Woman Now, with Audra McDonald.


But he is equally wonderful in everything he does, which has also included the Broadway premiere of Disney’s The Little Mermaid (2008) and the revue Sondheim on Sondheim (2010, in a company that also included Barbara Cook and Vanessa Williams). Most recently, he took over as Agwe in a revival of Once on this Island at Circle in the Square in 2018 — and I went to see it again just to see him!

4. Danny Burstein
A Broadway character actor who has evolved into a performer with leading man stature, Danny Burstein steals the show in the currently-suspended Moulin Rouge (playing Harold Zidler, a kind of MC character at the fabled club, for which he has been Tony nominated).

VIDEO: A scene from Moulin Rouge:


Other leading musical roles have included Tevye in Broadway’s last Fiddler on the Roof revival (2015) and Buddy Plummer in Broadway’s last Follies revival (2012, opposite Bernadette Peters as his wife Sally Durant Plummer), both of which he was Tony nominated for leading actor in.

VIDEO: Performing Buddy’s Blues at the 2012 Tony Awards:


He’s also made his mark in featured roles in The Drowsy Chaperone (2006) and South Pacific (2008), both of which he again got Tony nominations for.

He was also married to the late, great Rebecca Luker, who died last year after suffering from the debilitating neurodegenerative disease ALS; during the same period he was struck by a severe case of COVID19 himself. Fortunately he survived but she did not; he wrote movingly of his marriage for the Hollywood Reporter here (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/danny-burstein-on-the-devastating-loss-of-his-wife-fellow-broadway-star-rebecca-luker-guest-column)

5. Aaron Tveit
The sole nominee for the Tony Award for best leading actor in a musical for his performance in the currently suspended Moulin Rouge, he presumably has the lock on winning it, but he still needs to secure 60% of the Tony voters approval to do so.

VIDEO: Performing Come What May from Moulin Rouge, in an official music video:


After beginning his career as a takeover for Link Larkin in Hairspray (2006) and Fiyero in Wicked (2008), he first came to my attention as Gabe, the deceased son who lives on in the memory of his bereaved mother Diana in Next to Normal (2009, Gabe). He went on to star as Frank Abagnale Jr — the Leonardo DiCaprio role of the criminal chancer — in the stage musical version of Catch Me if You Can in 2011, opposite Norbert Leo Butz (see below). In 2014 he made his London debut as John Wilkes Booth in a revival of Sondheim’s Assassins at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

6. Brian Stokes Mitchell
Known universally on Broadway as simply Stokes, Brian Stokes Mitchell is a leading man of the old, vintage sort in the mould of Alfred Drake (whose roles as Fred Graham/Petruchio he would inherit in a revival of Kiss Me, Kate on Broadway in 1999, winning his first Tony). He was also Tony nominated for playing the original Coalhouse Walker Jr in Ragtime (1997) and Cervantes/Don Quixote in a revival of the title role of Man of La Mancha in 2002. (Don Quixote), More recently he had leading roles in Women on Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in 2010 and Shuffle Along in 2016.

VIDEO: Performing Make Them Hear You from Ragtime:


7. Norbert Leo Butz
Blessed with the oddest name on Broadway, Norbert Leo Butz is an original in other ways, too. He was the first Fiyero in Wicked (2003), and quickly morphed into a leading man in his own right, co-starring the original companies of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005, winning the Best Actor in a Musical Tony, opposite John Lithgow), Catch Me if You Can (2011, in the role of Carl Hanratty, played by Tom Hanks in the original Spielberg film, and again winning the Tony) and Big Fish (2013).

VIDEO: Performing Time Stops, from Big Fish (with Kate Baldwin)


Most recently he starred as Alfred P Doolittle in a spectacular revival of My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre in 2018. He also originated the role of Jamie in Jason Robert Brown’s The Last 5 Years in its first Chicago production in 2001, before reprising it Off-Broadway the following year.

8. Joshua Henry
Since making his Broadway debut in the ensemble of the original production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights in 2008, Joshua Henry has gone on to hit the heights with Tony nominations for leading actor in the Broadway premiere of Kander and Ebb’s The Scotttsboro Boys in 2011 and as Billy Bigelow in an all-star revival of Carousel in 2018; plus a featured actor nomination for Violet in 2015. Most recently I saw him the title role of a brilliant Off-Broadway musical The Wrong Man at MCC in 2019.

VIDEO: Performing If I Loved You from Carousel, with Jessie Mueller


9. Andy Karl
I first noticed — who couldn’t? — Andy Karl as the original UPS mail delivery guy in the original production of Legally Blonde in 2007 (where he met his wife Orfeh, so she clearly noticed, too!), but he then emerged as athletic leading man himself in the stage musical version of Rocky (2014), then showed real comic chops in a revival of On the Twentieth Century (2015, using Kristin Chenoweth as a dumb-bell), before starring in the original productions of two more film-to-stage musical transitions for Groundhog Day (2017, in the Bill Murray role of weatherman Phil Connors) and Pretty Woman (2018, in the Richard Gere role of Edward Lewis).

VIDEO: Performing Seeing You from Groundhog Day, at 54 Below:


10. Alex Brightman
After earning his first Broadway credit as an understudy in the very short-lived Glory Days (2008), which closed on its opening night, Alex Brightman has gone onto his own glory days, leading the cast of the 2016 Broadway premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock as Dewey Finn (the Jack Black role in the film) and then the title role in Beetlejuice (2019), both of which he was Tony nominated for.

VIDEO: Performing Stick it to the Man from School of Rock

[jo]

You may want to listen to the podcast -- the podcast link can be found from the main link of.
the article. The # 1 choice ( Hugh Jackman) is discussed towards the end - so simply fast forward to that part, if you wish to.

It is a more expanded explanation of his reasons for choosing Hugh Jackman in " the coveted # 1 Spot"!

*He says the most major reason is Hugh's sex appeal!

*He said he saw TBFO a few times ... and mentions the late Barbara Cook as an avid fan show saw it at least 10 times.

*He said that when Hugh was offered the Wolverine part after starring in Oklahoma!, people thought he was lost forever to film stardom. Not so!

*He did say Hugh has the talent to deliver! (Jo's note: And the sex appeal to boot... but he failed to say that what marks Hugh's performance is "the joy of performing" that he exhibits when he is in musicals!)


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

One of the photos on BygoneBroadway --

http://instagram.com/p/CMH9B2PDQF-

I honestly thought Isabel Keating was a perfect Judy...

and the chemistry between her and Peter (Hugh) was stronger than his bonding with Liza ( Stephanie Block)

Check out the comments.


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

Big Grin!

Ben Brantley

liked your reply

Thanks for the reminiscence, Mr. Brantley!
Such a fun show&a great display of talent. The late William Goldman shared your praise of Hugh Jackman for that BoyFromOz performance! Never was a more talked-about closing show!
We'll miss your critique when he returns in @musicmanbway

[njr]

^ I wonder if you realized you used the word “reminiscence” (or if he did) Is Ben Brantley no longer working as a theater critic?

Nancy