Hugh Jackman Talks ‘Les Miserables’: “I auditioned. I went hard for the part. I wasn’t sitting back waiting for this one”

After smashing Broadway records with his Broadway revue Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway, the X-Men actor has no intention of resting his voice. 

His next project will be the latest film adaptation of the musical Les Miserables, and Jackman will playing the lead role of Jean Valjean. 

It is impossible to not detect Jackman’s enthusiasm for the role in his interview with New York magazine, in which he reveals how badly he wanted to portray Valjean in the film.  Read more

Watch: Hugh Jackman on ‘Theater Talk’

If you haven’t watched Theater Talk either on online or when it airs on PBS, you’re missing out.

Host’s Michael Riedel (Broadway columnist for the New York Post) and producer Susan Haskins always have great guests from the current crop of Broadway shows – that is, if they aren’t afraid or mad at Riedel who is notorious for his skewering. 

They interviewed Hugh Jackman right before he ended the Broadway run of his one-man show, Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway.

He shares some of the stories he talks about in his show, upcoming films Les Miz and Wolverine and growing up in Australia.

It’s a great interview – but I’m biased because I have a man-crush on Jackman.

Check it out below!  Read more

Hugh Jackman: “To actually be onstage as myself is really freeing, and hopefully in some ways it’s more powerful”

We’ve done so many posts lately about Hugh Jackman here at Daily Actor that we could probably change the name of our site to “Daily Hugh”, but can you blame us? Jackman, one of the most talented and versatile actors working today, has been making major headlines with his Broadway return, aptly titled Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway.  Jackman is one of the few actors who seem to do everything right: action (the X-Men films, Real Steel), drama (The Prestige), and of course, Broadway.

So why does Jackman take on so many varied roles? 

As he tells Playbill, it’s more about survival than anything else.  “Honestly, it’s basically been about avoiding unemployment. When I first graduated from drama school, my goal was to keep pushing open as many doors as possible, so that included all different types of film, musical theatre, and straight plays. I figured, well, I’m pretty good at quite a few things, so I’ll keep on working at all of them. I also feel that it’s good for actors to say ‘yes’ and risk making fools out of themselves. Ultimately, that approach has been something that’s defined me in this business.”   Read more

Watch One-Minute (1!) of ‘Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway’

Hugh Jackman‘s one man show, Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway, started previews October 25th and everything I hear is that it’s excellent.

And why shouldn’t it be? Michael Riedel wrote in his NY Post column that “he’s rehearsed it eight hours a day, every day, for the past two months in New York. “He’s exhausted,” says a confidant. “But watching him onstage, you would never know it.”

In the show, he has a 18-piece orchestra and performs Broadway tunes, old classics and aboriginal music from Australia.

Playbill.com shot a minute – seriously, only a minute – of the show that you can watch below. 

For tickets, click here.

Read more

Watch: Hugh Jackman Rehearse His Upcoming Broadway Show

Getting ready for his upcoming show, Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway, Hugh Jackman held a press event to showcase parts of the show and BroadwayWorld came away with some great video of the event.

Catch Hugh as he sings, dances and taps his way through ‘Luck Be a Lady’, ‘Singing in the Rain’, ‘I Got Rhythm’ and other classic Broadway songs.

Including some short interviews, it’s almost a full 15 minutes but I think it’s worth the watch.

The show begins October 25th and runs till January 1st, 2012 at The Broadhurst Theatre. For tickets, click here.

Read more

Hugh Jackman on the Stage Versus the Screen: “Acting is acting. It’s the same thing”

Where isn’t Hugh Jackman these days?  He not only stars in Real Steel, the #1 movie at the box office this past weekend, but is gearing up for his own show in a return engagement on Broadway in Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway.  But Jackman took a momentary break from his busy schedule to talk to Collider.com about his approach to acting on both the screen and the stage and on the intimidation of his next big role.

One of Jackman’s next major roles is Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, one of the most successful musicals of all time.  Jackman, who says he has seen the musical three times, claims that landing such a role is both intimidating and fun… because it’s the same thing to him. 

“It’s intimidating, and that’s the fun of it. I feel, you have to be a little bit intimidated or a little bit nervous. The percentage is probably 80/20. If 80% of you is really, really confident you’re going to nail it, and 20% of you is genuinely, really not so sure, that’s the kind of percentage you need to push yourself on, to do better than you’ve ever before. If it’s 100%, then I feel the audience can feel it. I feel like Jean Valjean is one the great literary figures in musical theatre. It’s one of the most famous characters of all time. Whoever is playing it, it should be them at their best, you know? That’s why I’m singing everyday and have been for awhile. And, that’s why I auditioned for the part,” he said. Read more

Hugh Jackman: “There’s something magical about Broadway”

In case you haven’t heard, Hugh Jackman is making a long-awaited return to Broadway doing a ten-week run in his own show, Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway.  Jackman’s show will consist of him performing his all-time favorite musical songs.

Part of the reason why Jackman is doing the show is out of necessity — he’s aware that he’ll never be able to star in all of these productions!  He explains, “It took me a year [to choose which songs I would perform].  My overall goal was that I desperately wanted to sing these songs.  So the whole show would have a thing for me where if I’m busy and let’s say I have two weeks off, I would be like ‘I really want to go do this show for a week.’ rather than ‘Okay. I’m doing this show.’ It was really important to me to really choose stuff that I love and not just stuff that I thought people would love.  I have an eclectic kind of…there is some musical theater from stuff that I’ve done and there’s stuff that I have wanted to do that I haven’t done.  There are also standards, rock and roll, and a little bit of everything.”  Jackman’s choices are personal, but it’s likely that audiences won’t mind at all.   Read more

‘Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway’ Advanced Tickets for Fans. 2 Days Only!

This morning, Hugh Jackman offered his Twitter followers a chance to grab some advanced, fan-only tickets for his upcoming show, Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway.

Grab them while you can, because they’re only available today and tomorrow (Sunday). The tickets are valid for performances beginning 10/25/11 through 12/25/11.

Click on the link to BroadwayOffers.com, type in the code: HJFAN924

Read more

Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway

Hugh Jackman is coming back to Broadway in a show titled… Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway.

Opening next month, Jackman will be accompanied by an 18-piece orchestra and will be performing “a personal selection of his favorite musical numbers that reflect on the stage and film star’s remarkable life and career, from The Boy from Oz to Hollywood.”

“I can’t believe it’s been 7 years since I was singing and dancing on Broadway,” he said. “There is nothing like performing on the Great White Way and I’m so excited to be coming ‘home.’”   Read more

Katie Couric talks to Hugh Jackman

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