Jackman Still Calls Australia Home with 2006 Boy From Oz Arena Tour

By: Oct. 24, 2005
LIZA MINNELLI
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Stage and screen superstar Hugh Jackman has been confirmed as the star of the 2006 Australian arena tour of his Broadway smash The Boy From Oz. Once again, he will don the gold lamé and Hawaiian shirts to play singer/songwriter Peter Allen in the glitzy show.

With dates and venues to be announced in the near future, the tour will come to such cities as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. According to press notes, Jackman "will be joined on stage by Australians in seven additional star roles, an ensemble of forty singer/dancers, a thirty piece orchestra, elaborate sets, state of the art lighting, and over 400 dazzling costumes." The production, which is designed to play Arena Stages, will be produced in association with Seed Productions.

"I am so excited and honoured to be returning to the Australian stage in The Boy From Oz. The Boy From Oz is a celebration of not only a great Australian, but of what it means to be Australian, and I look forward to celebrating Peter Allen's life in a thrilling tour with a great Australian cast. After a year with the show on Broadway I can't wait to sing 'I Still Call Australia Home' in Australia," stated the star, an Oz native.

The Boy From Oz will actually be returning to Australia. It had its world premiere in Sydney in March 1998; it became the most successful new Australian musical ever staged. It then toured Australia for two years, winning numerous awards and grossing in excess of $60 million. The musical, which opened on Broadway on October 16th, 2003 and played for 364 performances. A sell-out hit, it would have run longer but for the film commitments of Jackman, who received the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. The Boy from Oz, which featured a score by Allen (with additional music by others), and a book by Martin Sherman (adapted from the original by Nick Enright), was directed by Philip William McKinley and choreographed by Joey McKneely. The show also starred Stephanie J. Block as Liza Minnelli, Isabel Keating as Judy Garland, Beth Fowler as Peter's mother and Jarrod Emick as Peter's lover, Greg Connell.

"The Boy From Oz tells the dazzling, funny and heart-breaking story of the great entertainer Peter Allen, from his humble beginnings growing up in the Australian outback through a meteoric rise to fame as an international star who would go on to sell out week-long engagements at Radio City Music Hall. Singing in country pubs from age 11, Peter Allen survived family tragedy to become a local TV star at age 16. Discovered by Judy Garland, he married her daughter Liza Minnelli and went on to become a beloved performer and an Oscar-winning songwriter," state press notes.

The multi-talented Jackman, who won an Emmy for hosting the 2004 Tony Awards, was nominated for the 1998 Olivier for Best Actor in a Musical for his Curly in the Royal National Theatre's Oklahoma! A musical theatre veteran back in Australia, he played Joe Gillis in the 1996 production of Sunset Boulevard in Melbourne, and Gaston in 1995's Beauty and the Beast. Film credits include the X-Men films, Someone Like You and Van Helsing. A third X-Men film is currently filming, and Jackman will also reprise his role as Wolverine in a spin-off movie of the same name.

For more information on The Boy From Oz: The Arena Tour, visit www.theboyfromoz.com.au. To register for information regarding an internet pre-sale for the show, visit the respective ticketing websites: www.ticketmaster.com.au (for Sydney) and www.ticketek.com.au (for Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide).

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