This is a weekly feature on BroadwayLiving.com. It’s
just like the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”. You
know how it goes…someone throws out an actor’s
name and you have to try to connect them to Kevin Bacon
in six steps or less.
I thought it might be fun to do
the same thing with the theater’s luminaries. I
will be trying to connect them to the longest running
show in Broadway
history, The Phantom of the Opera and its
very first “Phantom”, Michael Crawford.
Happy birthday, Hugh! Hugh Jackman turns 39
today. The Australian born actor received his
training at the Western Australia Academy of Performing
Arts in Perth, soon after he landed a his first big
role on a popular Australian TV series, Correlli.
Jackman’s international path
to Broadway began in Melbourne where he played Gaston
in Beauty and
the Beast and Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard. In
1998 he was off to London to play Curly in the Royal
National Theatre’s production of Oklahoma,
a performance he would reprise in the movie version
of that production.
He put his mark on another Rodgers and Hammerstein
classic when he performed the role of Billy Bigelow
in a one-night-only benefit performance of Carousel at
Carnegie Hall in 2002. Then in 2003 he made his
debut on the Great White Way as Peter Allen in the
bio-musical The Boy From Oz. His portrayal
of the famous performer and song writer would earn
him the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
Those unaware of his song and dance talents are no
doubt familiar with his film appearances, most notable
as Logan/Wolverine in the X-men movies. For
five consecutive years from 2000 to 2004 Hugh was named
one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful
People”.
1) Hugh Jackman played Peter
Allen in The
Boy From Oz with Stephanie J. Block
2) Stephanie J. Block did The Pirate Queen with Linda
Balgord
3) Linda Balgord was in Passion with Cris Groenendaal
4) Cris Groenendaal was the original Monsieur André in Phantom
of the Opera with Michael Crawford
“And soon they’ll all
know my name,
I’ll have fortune and fame
when I got my name in lights.”
…Peter
Allen in The Boy From Oz
So that’s the game. Join
me each week as I try to come up with new ways of
connecting Michael
Crawford to the entire theater community.
