DANCIN’ WOLVERINES
A great move in anti-typecasting: TIME reports,
[Hugh] Jackman, 35, has spent the past three years assembling a sturdy little pre-movie-star career, adding a few heroes in turmoil (notably Wolverine in the X-Men movies) to a clutch of swoony romantic interests (in Kate & Leopold and Someone Like You). His next project, Van Helsing, in which he plays a 19th century monster hunter, will be the first movie in which he’s the main attraction. So what does Jackman do while waiting for its release? He takes on Broadway in an unknown show called The Boy from Oz.
This is not a shrewd movie-star-in-training move. Let’s forget the fact that Broadway is brutal — the hours, the critics, the repetition. The show itself is an extremely risky venture. It’s the life story of Peter Allen, who had maybe five well-known songs to his name, the most popular of which, I Go to Rio, he performed in a top with big flouncy sleeves. Allen’s bio has a few points of interest. Despite being weapons-grade gay, he married Liza Minnelli. Despite coming from the Australian outback, he headlined in Vegas, won an Oscar and sold out Radio City Music Hall. But that’s not the kind of story arc that would seem fit for a multiplex hero. Recent events have shown that people welcome all sorts of extracurricular ambitions in action stars, but performing 20 songs onstage in loud shirts while dancing may not be one of them.
True. But developing one’s acting prowess presumably is.
Despite being weapons-grade gay, he married Liza Minnelli.
Interesting snippet from the article. I’m going to assume the author never watched “Liza and David,” let alone the jillion SNL skits making fun of them.
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