Hugh Jackman may have shot from obscurity to superstardom almost overnight once he joined the cast of Bryan Singer’s X-Men two weeks after shooting had already started, and Wolverine will always be the first thing that comes to people’s minds when they think about the actor, but his first love has always been musical theater.
His last role before being whisked off to Hollywood was in a stage production of Oklahoma! on London’s West End, and since rocketing to the top of the A-list, the Australian star has gone on to win a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and hosted the ceremony itself four times, even scooping a Primetime Emmy for his efforts in 2005. If anything proves Jackman’s love for the genre though, it’s the fact that one of the first things he did after retiring as Wolverine was to go on an 88-date worldwide concert tour called The Man. The Music. The Show.
The live variety performances incorporated a lot of the songs from his fan favorite movie The Greatest Showman, and subscribers will now be able to check out the smash hit musical when it arrives on Disney Plus this week (on August 14th), whether it be for the first or fiftieth time. While Hugh Jackman scored a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy, the movie itself wasn’t exactly universally beloved by critics and holds middle-of-the-road scores of 56% on Rotten Tomatoes and 48 on Metacritic.
That being said, despite a slow start at the box office where it opened in fourth place with just $9 million, it went on to remain in the Top 10 for an incredible fifteen weeks on its way to a global haul of $435 million, with the soundtrack selling over 7 million copies in the process. Following on from the zeitgeist-grabbing Hamilton, Disney will no doubt be hoping that The Greatest Showman will prove to be just as popular for fans looking for their next musical fix, and you’ll be able to check it out for yourself this Friday.
