Author Topic: The Wretched Lift Their Voices: Anne Hathaway & Hugh Jackman in 'Les Misérables'  (Read 63507 times)

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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"--And he makes it clear from his first entrance — striding across the stage, hitching up his pants over his lean hips and raising his eyebrows companionably as a fan emits a passionate squeal — that he’d be oh so easy to love."





http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/theater/reviews/hugh-jackman-back-on-broadway-at-broadhurst-review.html



Theater Review
'Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway'
A Master of Mass Flirtation

By BEN BRANTLEY
Published: November 10, 2011



"Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway," and impossibly energetic, at the Broadhurst Theater.


Click and scroll, find Multimedia for video excerpt on stage:

Hugh Jackman on Broadway with, from left, Kearran Giovanni, Lara Seibert and Emily Tyra.


Hugh Jackman practices safe sex like nobody else. His sweet-and-hot new show “Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway,” which opened on Thursday night at the Broadhurst Theater, is a great, guilt-free platonic one-night stand. O.K., so maybe the guy tends to run on about himself (his dreams, his job, his family, you know the drill) and cracks a few too many hokey jokes.

But when he gets down to business, this dream date delivers. And even when he’s grinding his hips before front-row patrons at eye level, you know that with Mr. Jackman there’ll be no morning-after regrets or feelings of sleaziness. He is, in his gold lamé way, as perfect a gentleman as anyone your grandmother swooned over at the Roxy. You half expect him to send you (and everyone else in the theater) flowers the next day.

The impossibly talented, impossibly energetic Mr. Jackman is a glorious dinosaur among live entertainers of the 21st century: an honest-to-gosh old-fashioned matinee idol who connects to his audiences without a hint of contempt for them or for himself. A movie star with a major action franchise (as Wolverine in the “X-Men” series), Mr. Jackman says he’s happiest as a song-and-dance man, the kind who conducts mass flirtation with a wink, a wriggle, a firmly handled melody and maybe a cane and some tap shoes.

This hot-ticket concert, previously seen in San Francisco and Toronto, has had writers comparing Mr. Jackman to fabled entertainers like Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra (in his pre-chairman-of-the-board days). If Mr. Jackman isn’t in that league (and I wouldn’t dare try convincing the audiences at the Broadhurst that he isn’t), it’s only because he’s too nice, too sane.

There’s never that lurid, dangerous threat in the air that he might just fall apart (as there was with Garland) or turn nasty (as with Sinatra and the rawer rock ‘n’ roll idols of the last third of the 20th century). On the other hand, you never think that he’s some synthetic, airbrushed illusion — like many of the stadium-playing chart toppers of today — held together by smoke, mirrors and synthesizers.

No, Mr. Jackman is palpably present and in his own skin. You feel you could reach out and touch him, and you may well have occasion to as he works the aisles of the Broadhurst, where his show runs through Jan. 1. That’s what he’s there for: to connect, to love and to be loved. And he makes it clear from his first entrance — striding across the stage, hitching up his pants over his lean hips and raising his eyebrows companionably as a fan emits a passionate squeal — that he’d be oh so easy to love.

That’s love in a major key. Mr. Jackman sings the occasional ballad, but he’s more in his element in sunlight than in shadows. Born in Sydney, he makes much of being a game-for-anything Aussie, always up for a drink, an adventure, a good time. This is not to suggest that there’s anything remotely slapdash about his performance in this show, which is directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle. Mr. Jackman dances with a Rockette’s precision and makes sure that his lyrics (sung with a hint of an outback twang) land with clarity and meaning.

Of course those moves and words wouldn’t count for nearly as much if Mr. Jackman didn’t inflect them with infectious affection for what he’s doing. He is as much of a classic musical-comedy nerd as any character on “Glee” and a lot more authentic.

He establishes his Broadway bona fides in his opening number. His voice, a capella, precedes him onstage, singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” from “Oklahoma!,” the show that established Mr. Jackman as a musical star to reckon with when he appeared in it 13 years ago at the National Theater in London. And he concludes the first act with a beguilingly sincere version of Billy Bigelow’s “Soliloquy,” from another Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, “Carousel.”

In between he croons, belts, twirls and shimmies through several high-powered medleys — tributes to New York City and the irrepressible urge to dance (in which “I Won’t Dance” segues into “gotta dance!”). He has smooth assistance from a terrific onstage orchestra (with musical direction by Patrick Vaccariello) and a comely sextet of dancing backup singers. The second act finds him blissfully reincarnating a man who has become an alter ego for him (and the opposite of the manly mutant Wolverine).

That’s the pansexual, endlessly insinuating Peter Allen, whom Mr. Jackman portrayed to Tony-winning perfection in the 2003 bio-musical “The Boy From Oz.” (Channeling Allen provides the chance for Mr. Jackman to get as close to down and dirty as he allows himself in this show.) There is also a sprightly homage to the Hollywood movie musicals Mr. Jackman says he watched on television on Sunday afternoons in his boyhood (after finishing rugby practice, mind you) and an earnest novelty rendition of “Over the Rainbow,” performed by Mr. Jackman and aboriginal musicians from Australia.

The topical jokes and misty reminiscences that mark time between musical numbers are standard issue at best. And you should know that there are (oh dear) perky video montage sequences. (Mr. Jackman as a lad, Mr. Jackman with his son, Mr. Jackman in various movies.)

I usually wince when performers truck out self-celebrating scrapbook stuff. But Mr. Jackman presents this material with a deflating air of not humility exactly or self-mockery, but rather an ingratiating sense of how absurd, silly and wonderful it is to be a real-live star who can make grown women (and men) tremble just by smiling.

For that’s what this show is all about, finally: the erotically charged, two-way relationship between a star and his fans. The Playbill  for “Back on Broadway” makes it clear that sex is what this production is selling. It shows Mr. Jackman looking surly with a two-day stubble and a large-headed microphone rising straight up his chest.

The Hugh Jackman that awaits you inside is friendlier than that, not to mention clean-shaven. And I promise you he won’t do anything untoward with his microphone. All he asks is that you love him loving you loving him. And it’s pretty close to impossible to deny him that.


HUGH JACKMAN
Back on Broadway


Directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle; music direction by Patrick Vaccariello; sets by John Lee Beatty; costumes by William Ivey Long; lighting by Ken Billington; sound by John Shivers; video by Alexander V. Nichols. Presented by Robert Fox and the Shubert Organization. At the Broadhurst Theater, 235 West 44th Street, Manhattan; (212) 239-6200; telecharge.com. Through Jan. 1. Running time: two hours.

WITH: Hugh Jackman, Robin Campbell, Kearran Giovanni, Anne Otto, Lara Seibert, Hilary Michael Thompson and Emily Tyra.
« Last Edit: December 24, 2012, 10:37:47 pm by Aloysius J. Gleek »
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Offline delalluvia

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[swoon]  :-* :-* :-*

Offline Katie77

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He is amazing.....
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.

It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfection

Offline brianr

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At that wonderful dinner I shared with Bettermost people in New York last year, the waiter mentioned he knew Hugh Jackman. Probably due to my accent, the only thing I share with that hunky man.  If only he could have arranged a meeting :(.  It would have really topped off my visit.  In fact it would have topped off my whole life.  :laugh:

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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Hugh's been doing the rounds
with his new Broadway show--
and Martha Stewart used to
be one of his neighbors in NY, so--
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9qy4xbQ7v4&NR=1[/youtube]


[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnH-ZNigE-M[/youtube]


[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZogaajFf22k&feature=relmfu[/youtube]



Martha had the penthouse
at 173 Perry Street--

Hugh's triplex (full floors 8-10)
is still at 176 Perry Street






Martha used to be in the left building, Hugh is in the middle, with Nicole Kidman upstairs (if she hasn't
moved)--Hugh is often seen jogging on West Street and the Hudson River Park Esplanade across the
street.
Nice!!   :D :D :D

"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
"Camping Out"

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIJjWpkCiyo&feature=related[/youtube]
.



"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
"Camping Out"

Offline Katie77

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At that wonderful dinner I shared with Bettermost people in New York last year, the waiter mentioned he knew Hugh Jackman. Probably due to my accent, the only thing I share with that hunky man.  If only he could have arranged a meeting :(.  It would have really topped off my visit.  In fact it would have topped off my whole life.  :laugh:

I wonder if you agree with me Brian, that Hugh Jackman was not a household name in Australia, before he went to America.

I know he did some movies, but it was his wife Deborah Lee Furness who was the better known of the two of them.

Or did I miss something in Australia?
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.

It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfection

Offline brianr

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I wonder if you agree with me Brian, that Hugh Jackman was not a household name in Australia, before he went to America.

I know he did some movies, but it was his wife Deborah Lee Furness who was the better known of the two of them.

Or did I miss something in Australia?
I am not the person to ask such things. I rarely watch TV and did not see many movies until I retired from full time work in 2002. I know I lost my heart to Hugh in "Kate and Leopold" which I watched on the plane to Europe in 2002. I actually watched it on the way back again even though my earphones were not working. I was happy to just watch :P and knew the story anyway ;D
He seems to have been in "man from snowy river" which i saw but perhaps just a small part. I think the "Boy from Oz" made his name here although he seems to have hosted the Myer Christmas show (for others, it is very big on Christmas eve TV in Australia) before that.

Offline Aloysius J. Gleek

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I am not the person to ask such things. I rarely watch TV and did not see many movies until I retired from full time work in 2002. I know I lost my heart to Hugh in "Kate and Leopold" which I watched on the plane to Europe in 2002. I actually watched it on the way back again even though my earphones were not working. I was happy to just watch :P and knew the story anyway ;D




[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpSlJaP2sHw[/youtube]
;D ;D



FYI, there was  a Leopold, Duke of Albany in 1876 (he was 23 years old at the time)--but unfortunately, he didn't look a thing  like Hugh Jackman!


 ::)




Also, he didn't marry Meg Ryan--instead:  


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Leopold,_Duke_of_Albany

Marriage
 
Prince Leopold, stifled by the desire of his mother, Queen Victoria, to keep him at home, saw marriage as his only hope of independence. Due to his haemophilia, he had difficulty finding a wife. Heiress Daisy Maynard was one of the women he considered as a possible bride. He was acquainted with Alice Liddell, the daughter of the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford for whom Lewis Carroll wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,  and was godfather of Alice's second son, who was named for him. It has been suggested that he considered marrying her, though others suggest that he preferred her sister Edith.
 
Leopold also considered his second cousin Princess Frederica of Hanover for a bride; they instead became lifelong friends and confidantes. Other brides he pursued included Victoria of Baden and Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.
 
After rejection from these women, Victoria stepped in to bar what she saw as unsuitable possibilities. Insisting that the children of British monarchs should marry into other reigning Protestant families, Victoria suggested a meeting with Princess Helene Friederike, the daughter of Georg Viktor, reigning Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont. On 27 April 1882, Leopold and Helena were married, at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. Leopold and Helena enjoyed a happy (although brief) marriage. In 1883, Leopold became a father when his wife gave birth to a daughter, Alice. He died shortly before the birth of his son, Charles Edward.


Poor Meg Ryan!

 :laugh:

"Tu doives entendre je t'aime."
(and you know who I am...)


Cowboy Curtis (Laurence Fishburne)
and Pee-wee in the 1990 episode
"Camping Out"

Offline Meryl

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Martha used to be in the left building, Hugh is in the middle, with Nicole Kidman upstairs (if she hasn't
moved)--Hugh is often seen jogging on West Street and the Hudson River Park Esplanade across the
street.

Nice!!   :D :D :D

Very nice!  I can see where we stood along the river when we took our Brokie walk there earlier this year.  8)
Ich bin ein Brokie...