Why Hugh’s carrying on in secret!
Hugh Jackman has assembled a company for his stadium concert tour and they’re ‘ hiding out’ — rehearsing at a venue the size of an aircraft hangar in the north of England.
The Tony award-winning and Oscar-nominated star is preparing for his The Man The Music The Show world tour, which starts at the SSE hydro indoor arena in glasgow on May 7.
The tour includes dates in Ireland, Belgium, germany, the Netherlands, France, America, Australia and New Zealand — and at London’s O2 from June 2.
‘They need an arena- size set to rehearse on,’ an executive involved with the show told me.
‘They’re hiding out in something like an aerodrome for the space they need to rehearse dancers, singers, an orchestra, technicians... it’s like getting a spacecraft into space. It’s that huge.’
Jackman will perform numbers from shows including Les Miserables,
The Boy From Oz and The greatest Showman.
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who wrote the songs for the smash hit greatest Showman soundtrack, told me they will be observing Jackman’s show closely.
They said a greatest Showman show is in the works but it hadn’t been determined whether it would be a West End musical type production or arena show. ‘It’s at an exploring all ideas stage,’ Pasek said. Jackman’s frequent collaborator, Warren Carlyle, is directing the tour, and overseeing rehearsals at the outof-the-way northern town. Carlyle, a director and choreographer, first worked with Jackman on Oklahoma! at the National Theatre where he was assistant to star choreographer Susan Stroman.
he recently directed the lively Broadway revival of Kiss Me Kate, starring a splendid Kelli O’hara.