Just booked my tickets to "THE BOY FROM OZ Arena Spectacular" in Australia in April...

[stage_door76]

Posted: 2/13/06 at 8:20pm

Yes, I have officially made the advanced purchase ( $250AU per ticket!) to see Hugh, Angela and Chrissy in Melbourne on August the 12th of this year in the BOY FROM OZ - ARENA SPECTACULAR.

Let's just hope I can organise my work schedule and flights accordingly!

I'm absolutely excited beyond belief. I don't suppose anyone else is making the extended trip at all? Any native Aussies like me as excited? Surely you are!?



The Boy From Oz in Aus

[Fan2]

Posted: 2/13/06 at 8:33pm

A lot of Ozalots are going - coordinating tickets/trips as we speak.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 2/13/06 at 9:29pm

It's not worth that much money....The show was fine when Todd did it years ago.

[Fan2]

Posted: 2/13/06 at 10:14pm

People are going because of Hugh - a lot of them have already bought tickets. And it sounds more like a concert than theater with mentions of screens, etc. - sort of sounds like Radio City only larger.

Posted: 2/14/06 at 1:22am

I hope the $250.00 tickets are close to the front. Being up the back would suck.

[alterego]

Posted: 2/14/06 at 1:26am

You can bet there will be an entrance with a camel. I'm still puzzled that 'writer' is listed as nick enright. Does this mean they are doing the old script and not the Broadway version?

Posted: 2/14/06 at 1:33am

They're probably doing it so they don't have to pay any royalties. R.I.P. Mr Enright.

[alterego]

Posted: 2/14/06 at 1:48am

I would have hoped this new version would be an improvement on the original. It was a flawed show then and I guess it will be again. Still if people are only going to see Jackman...

[emo_geek]

Posted: 2/14/06 at 2:08am

huff, I still don't see what the fuss over Jackman is about...then again I went to 700 sundays not knowing who billy crystal was hehe ^_^

Posted: 2/14/06 at 4:06am

I'm tempted to fork out just to see Chrissie Amphlett do Judy Garland again. But I don't know- all that cash to be seated somewhere crap. I've got a couple of weeks to decide.

[jo]

Posted: 2/14/06 at 7:36am

I booked tickets, too - but for August, not April

Looking forward to seeing Australia!


Updated On: 2/14/06 at 07:36 AM

[Fan2]

Posted: 2/17/06 at 8:37pm

I thought this was a fabulous article in one of the Australian newspapers.

http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,18166496%255E7642,00.html

The star from Oz

All the world's a stage for the mega-talented Hugh Jackman, writes Sandra McLean
17feb06

THE minute you meet Hugh Jackman it hits you: the producers of The Boy From Oz have made a dreadful mistake.

This former journalist-turned-actor, right, is simply too good looking to play Peter Allen, the legendary song and dance man whose life is immortalised in the hit stage musical.

True, the flamboyant Allen, who died in 1992 after a brilliant career in Australia and the US, had sex appeal. He married Liza Minnelli, didn't he? But for all his energy and flair Allen, who wrote I Go to Rio, I Honestly Love You and Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) was hardly leading man material.

He had a weedy frame, a receding hairline and despite his penchant for maracas and sequins, always looked like a boy from Tenterfield.

But Jackman is definitely leading man material. He's tall, charming and handsome. Think Cary Grant meets Gregory Peck. "He's a dish – pure and simple," sighed one of his admirers.

Women just love Jackman, not only for his good looks but for his obvious devotion to his wife, fellow actor Deborra-Lee Furness and their two adopted children, Oscar, 5, and Ava, nine months.

It's not only women who can't find enough superlatives to lavish on Jackman.

The notoriously demanding New York theatre elite loved him so much they let him host the coveted Tony Awards and then gave him an award as well for his portrayal of Allen in The Boy From Oz on Broadway in 2003.

When The Boy From Oz premiered in Australia in 1998 with Todd McKenney as Allen, audiences embraced it. It made $60 million at the box office and more than a million people went to Rio with a floral-shirted Allen.

Not quite that many will see Jackman bring his Broadway magic to Australia when he appears in a lavish arena production later this year.

It's a coup for audiences but Jackman's decision to break his busy film schedule to do The Boy From Oz back home is curious as he could easily have left Peter Allen on Broadway.

At 37, he is one of Hollywood's most bankable stars, having just finished working with Woody Allen on a new film, Scoop.

After his brief visit to Australia this week, when he made an advertising campaign for Foxtel, he returns to the US to film The Prestige with Scarlett Johansson.

Jackman has his third X-Men film out later this year. He could have been the next Bond until wife Furness reportedly advised him against taking the job and he turned it down.

In six years since his first Hollywood movie, X-Men, Jackman is no longer just a boy from Oz. According to leading producer Ben Gannon, he has the talent to become the legend from Oz.

He cites Arthur Laurents, writer of West Side Story and Gypsy, who described Jackman's Boy From Oz as "the greatest Broadway performance since Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl".

"Hugh has charisma, first of all," says Gannon, who with Robert Frost is producing the arena version of The Boy From Oz.

"When he walks on stage he has a quality that is hard to define – you see it occasionally in really big stars and that is what Hugh will become."

Gannon says Jackman is one of the few big stars who can mix film with a musical theatre career.

"That's what makes Hugh different," Gannon says. "He has the soul of a performer. He is a movie star too but most movie stars are not performers. They could not do a Broadway show. I can't think of anyone who could. So Hugh is unique. He loves performing but it is really hard for him now that he is such a hot commodity to find time to get away from doing movies."

Jackman says the decision to bring The Boy From Oz home to Australia was largely of his making – after it had got the financial nod from Gannon and Frost who are backing the $10 million production.

"It all started when I was doing the Tony Awards last year and we did a little bit of Peter Allen," he said. "It was a big venue, the Radio City Music Hall where Peter had most of his success. There were seven-and-a-half-thousand people there and it felt great. When we did the last week of The Boy From Oz on Broadway, I just knew it wasn't over. It was bittersweet because I wanted to finish then because I was exhausted, but I didn't want it to be over."'

With an arena show Jackman has the chance to assuage the rock star within. "My wife says I'm the biggest ham she knows," he says ruefully. Emmy-Award winning American director Kenny Ortega, who has worked with Cher, Michael Jackson and Barbra Streisand, will be at the helm so it could be more rockbiz than showbiz, with a chorus of Rockettes and special effects.

Jackman, like Allen, went overseas to seek fame and fortune, but the similarities between the two appear to end there. Yet Jackman says when he plays Allen it is like having an alter ego.

"It's like Jekyll and Hyde," he says. "Peter just takes over. When I did a part of the show in Las Vegas after we closed on Broadway I wondered if I still had it in me but it was like I had a Peter Allen battery on my back. You become a different person."

Allen left Australia in the 1960s and went to the US and Japan where he met Judy Garland who introduced him to her daughter, Liza Minnelli. Allen and Minnelli were married for four years, the young Australian then going a separate way to pursue a less conventional career and lifestyle. His chart hits were romantic and introspective but Allen's true persona emerged on stage. In 1981 at the Radio City Music Hall in New York he danced with the Rockettes and rode a camel during a rendition of his frothy hit I Go to Rio. Eleven years later, Allen died in Australia of complications from AIDS.

Allen's homosexuality is not glossed over in The Boy From Oz and it provides the most touching parts of the performer's life story when his lover dies and he writes a song for him.

Jackman, like fellow actor Heath Ledger, has found himself as a heterosexual heart-throb in a gay role, says he had no misgivings about taking the part.

"I don't think Peter's sexuality defined him," Jackman says. "He was known as one of the first big performers to come out about his sexuality and that was very brave. But ultimately knowing all this doesn't help me in portraying the role. He was just a natural performer who loved life. His attitude towards his sexuality was like everything else – he just didn't believe in any barriers.

"Women found him sexy too. He wasn't mincing it up all the time. He just wanted people to have a good time – he would laugh at himself and make fun of himself. He was just a great performer. I am just trying to get the essence of him."

The Boy From Oz, Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Sept 1-3. Tickets ($99 to $249) go on sale February 27.

[alterego]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 2:12am

Once again Allen is always listed as writing Arthurs Theme. This isn't really correct his only contribution to the song was the line "If you get caught between the moon and New York City". When the song became a hit by Christopher Cross the other composer/lyricists Carole Bayer Sager, Burt Bacharach and Christopher Cross tried to buy him out as he had contributed so little to the theme.

It constantly annoys me to see him soley credited with writing the song, much like the rest of the music in The Boy From Oz. It is about time all the others who contributed to Peter Allens success were given some recognition.

[Urban]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 4:42am

I ain't paying $250 for a show I enjoy but I am not a big fan of. Plus as mentioned before, I don't care for the arena format. Call me a snob but I think the format dumbs down the show entirely for the hoi palloi. I don't particularly want to sit next to some heffer housewife who will sing all the songs and drown out Hugh Jackman.

On the other hand, if coordinated right maybe we can all arrange an Australian (preferably Melbourne) BWW meetup!

[tim10086]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 4:58am

Oh man, talk about heffer housewives. This Melburnian Martha heffer was sitting next to me in the Princess during Dirty Dancing (and you know how tight the rows are). Anyway, she had this leather jacket on which kept making "leather" noises, and she was tapping her feet even when there was nothing to beat to.

Updated On: 2/18/06 at 04:58 AM

[Urban]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 5:09am

Dear lord that must of sucked! I have always liked the atmosphere if the Princess but agreed, those seats suck.

Funnily enough I came accross the Dirty Dancing CD today at Dirt Cheap CDs in Collins Place for $10 and almost brought it (along with a couple of other CR that that had there). Didn't in the end because I would've had to of lugged them around everywhere (alot to do today where carrying as little as possible was the best situation).

Heck one of the (many) reasons I have yet to see Dusty is the heffer housewife factor (granted the rest of the reviews ain't selling me either).

[jo]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 7:03am

Kenny Ortega of DIRTY DANCING and NEWSIES fame will direct the show. I am looking forward to more spectacular choreography for this version - and who cares if people enjoy themselves ... What we experienced at the Imperial was different, as it was produced for a musical theatre house. So I don't expect to see exactly the same show -- but it will still be Hugh, his triple-threat talent ( maybe more fantastic dancing), and his charisma and strong stage presence.

For one, I am looking forward to hearing TENTERFIELD SADDLER in its proper context. Although I STILL CALL AUSTRALIA HOME will probably be less poignant ( than when it was sung elsewhere). But I do hope they include the RIO staircase and the loads of fun in the finale!


Updated On: 2/18/06 at 07:03 AM

[PitPro2004]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 1:45pm

**Funnily enough I came accross the Dirty Dancing CD today at Dirt Cheap CDs in Collins Place for $10 **

Hey! Which CD is this? Did they record something new for the Australian production? I'm just curious because I did the NY Workshop with Eleanor Bergstein and we had hoped it would open here but she couldn't secure the rights to the title or something like that, last I heard.

Updated On: 2/18/06 at 01:45 PM

[tim10086]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 4:07pm

I believe its a 2 CD set, which includes the soundtrack from the original film intertwined with songs recorded by the Australian Cast.

[lfae]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 6:54pm

I'd like to have seen it, but I won't be going unless I win tickets (hey, it's happened before) or someone else shouts me because no way am I paying $249 - even staff discount at work only drops that down to $239 - and nor am I shelling out $99 to sit up the back of Rod Laver. Plus I'm not a fan of arena shows, and as much as I like Hugh, I don't love him *that* much. I just hope no one I know ends up in the ensemble *g*

But seriously, those ticket prices are absolutely hideous. You could see Spelling Bee fifteen times for the same price as BFO once!

[alterego]

Posted: 2/18/06 at 8:39pm

And DUSTY and SPELLING BEE are available at Halftix daily. I don't think the show is worth seeing again (or presenting again)at those prices in arena format. It is purely greed on the part of Gannon/Fox and ego (Jackman) to do it again. It wasn't that special to begin with.