An Indigenous Australian didgeridoo player and a maracas shaking ensemble dancer sharing a Broadway stage with the gold lame wearing song and danceman movie star: it’s “Hugh Jackman Back on Broadway.” Travel through the life and loves of Hugh Jackman over a thoroughly entertaining and engrossing 2 hours and 20 minutes as he shares with the audience his favorite musical numbers in song (and tap dance) from movies he loved as a child (or starred in), pays tribute to his wife and his father through childhood and family stories, and honors the Aboriginal heritage of his beloved Australia. “Luck Be a Lady,” “Singing in the Rain,” “I Go to Rio,” “Mack the Knife,” and “I Got Rhythm,” are just a few of the numbers that had us snapping our fingers (at his request) and clapping along. He told tales from his work in movies as Wolverine in the X-Men series, Kate & Leopold, and Happy Feet musicals The Boy from Oz and Carousel. As he described his experiences living in the Outback during the filming of Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, down the aisle and onto the stage come Clifton Bieundurry a vocalist and foundation artist for Nomad Two Worlds who performs in his traditional Walmajarri language; two didgeridoo payers, Paul Boon, from Western Australia who also owns and curates a gallery specializing in sales of Indigenous Australian art, and Nathan Mundraby a descendant of the Yidinji rainforest people and Lama Lama tribe of Thaypan Country in Queensland; and Olive Knight, a vocalist who Hugh Jackman introduced as an Aboriginal Treasure. It was she, he said, who was invited by the Prime Minister of Australia to attend the “Apology” in 2008 for 200 years of mistreatment of the Aboriginal peoples by the Australian government. Tickets (performances now through Jan 1, 2012) and info at http://www.hughjackmanonbroadway.com. by Lisa Skriloff
Feature Article: “Hugh Jackman Back on Broadway”
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