Hugh Jackman: The Man, the Music, the Show

Swoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon.

Mega, ultra, massive swoonage.

People, Hugh Jackman is my favorite living actor.  My #3 favorite actor of all time.  He's very dear to my heart for the roles he chooses, the way he behaves in real life, just his laid-back intensity and evident kindness.  And on Monday, I spent two hours in the same room with him.  And like a million other people, but hey.  We breathed the same air.  His words left his mouth and entered my ears without passing through a screen.  He made me laugh and cry in real-time.

And he sang my favorite song.

MY FAVORITE SONG OF ALL TIME.

Which is not a song from any movie or any musical he was in.  A song I have never connected in any way with him in my mind.  A song I had no even vague thought of, "Maybe he'll sing that tonight" because there was no reason he would.  No way that would ever happen.

He sang "Mack the Knife."  And he sang it the way Bobby Darin sings it.  Like, the whole setting, it was so very much Bobby's swingy, sassy, big-band version.  He even snapped his fingers.  He even did the "Look out, ol' Mackheath is back!" line at the end that is 100% pure Bobby Darin.

I cried.  And bounced.  And reveled.

That was Bobby Darin's signature song.  Hugh Jackman not only knows that song, he clearly knows Bobby Darin's version, and he chose to sing it that way in his concert.

Yup, I'm tearing up all over again.

Someone with a better camera than I am has kindly recorded him singing it and posted it to YouTube, so I can relive my memories of it a little bit, and share with you:

So, um, yeah.  Magical evening.  Especially because I was there with MY BEST FRIEND!!!

 She flew all the way out here to see this show with me, and we had the best time possible.

We had nice seats, not quite centered, but being aslant a little like this let us see eeeeeverything, which was awesome.

I didn't take a ton of photos, which is kind of rare for me, but I knew my phone's camera was too crummy to get any really good pictures, so I chose to just enjoy the moments as they came and not worry too much about trying to capture them.  But I did grab one fairly good shot of him singing "Luck be a Lady," which is from my absolute favorite musical, Guys and Dolls.

Hard to tell in that pic, but he's wearing this snappy black fedora and really selling the song :-)

So, as well as I can remember, these are the songs he sang:

"The Greatest Show" (from The Greatest Showman)
"Come Alive" (from The Greatest Showman)
"Gaston" (from Beauty and the Beast)
"When Somebody Loves You"
"Soliloquy" (from Carousel)
"A Million Dreams" (from The Greatest Showman)
"What Have I Done" (from Les Miserables)
"One Day More" (from Les Miserables)
"I Go to Rio" (from Boy from Oz)
"I Honestly Love You" (from Boy from Oz)
"Don't Cry Out Loud" (from Boy from Oz)
"Quiet, Please, There's a Lady Onstage" (from Boy from Oz)
"Tenterfield Saddler" (from Boy from Oz)
"I Got Rhythm"
"Singin' in the Rain"
"Sing, Sing, Sing"
"Luck be a Lady" (from Guys and Dolls)
"Mack the Knife"
"This is Me" (from The Greatest Showman)
"From Now On" (from The Greatest Showman)
"Once Before I Go" (from Boy from Oz)

I'm not solid on the order of all of those, other than the first three and last two.  Also, someone else sang "I Dreamed a Dream," which is my favorite song from Les Mis, so that was pretty amazing.  And there was a segment with didgeridoos and Aboriginal tribal leaders singing some native Australian such, which was very interesting.  But aside from those two, Hugh sang All The Songs.  So much singing.  So much dancing.  Even a little acting thrown in on songs like "Soliloquy" and "What Have I Done," and he reprised his Peter Allen persona from when he was in Boy from Oz on Broadway years ago.

I came away with this solid bit of knowledge:  Hugh Jackman LOVES to entertain.  Clearly having the time of his life on that stage, holding nothing back, just full-throttle fun times. 

So, um, those are my memories and my pictures and yeah, it was an incredible experience and I'm so glad Cowboy said to me, "You have to go.  We will make this happen."  Thank you, thank you, dear, kind man.