"--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 BroadwayDirected 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.