Some of you are too kind...Honestly, Jackman's voice was often flat and too nasal. I suppose I'm accustomed to a high baritone tone with a tenor range for the role of Valjean, so I wasn't too impressed Jackman. His "Bring Him Home" was a bit jarring...I assume his falsetto isn't particularly pleasant to listen to. But he acted the part very well.
"If the movie couldn't have been made without Jackman - which is fairly plausible - then they should have just lowered the key on "Bring Him Home," end of story. I'm a huge fan of his, but talent and hard work don't change a baritone into a tenor. Valjean carries a ton of recitative and relatively staid music while everyone else is getting showoff solos, so the fact that his showoff solo was out of Jackman's range was...not a good thing."
I agree, Plum.
In response to a previous comment, I have heard Hugh sing before, on DVD in Oklahoma, and live in The Boy From Oz. I did have reservations about him singing Valjean because I knew he wasn't a tenor, but waited until I saw the film before passing judgment. As I said previously other than Bring Him Home, the singing was fine.
Ugh, I hate his nasal voice. I'm surprised there are people on a Broadway board who would even like it. Would you want to buy his music? If he had a voice, doesn't it seem like he'd be recording music? He probably knows that without the visuals, the hunky body, the aw shucks grin, the charming patter, if people could only listen to that whiny voice, that would end his music career. I will be really ticked if gets cast in movie remakes of classic musicals, if they can't cast real singers they just shouldn't remake them.
It is not only the voice, it is his incredibly annoying timing and placements of the words and emphasis and vibrato on the wrong syllables that makes it so amateurish.