Review: Hugh Jackman Dazzles in Debut with Boston Pops at Tanglewood

Making his debut with the Boston Pops at Tanglewood on August 11, Hugh Jackman dazzled his sold-out audience – under the Koussevitzky Music Shed and stretching as far as the eye could see on the lawn that surrounds it – from the moment he took the stage.

Dressed to the nines in a bespoke black tuxedo, the abundantly charming Jackman opened his briskly paced 90-minute, intermission-less set – a reprise of his 2025 Radio City Music Hall residency, “From New York, With Love” – with an upbeat “Crunchy Granola Suite,” the 1973 Neil Diamond hit that Jackman and co-star Kate Hudson performed in the 2025 feature film “Song Sung Blue.” From there, Jackman moved smoothly into “The Greatest Show” and “Come Alive” from his 2017 movie musical “The Greatest Showman,” which features a score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

His highly successful film and stage career gave the Tony, Grammy, and Primetime Emmy Award winner some great material to fill out the evening’s set list, including a rousing “Ya Got Trouble” from Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man,” which Jackman first did as Harold Hill in the 2022 Broadway revival. At Tanglewood, as he had at New York’s Winter Garden Theatre, Jackman turned a patter song into a barn burner, taking his traveling salesman character on the road, this time up and down the aisles and even out onto the lawn.

After sharing a tender and funny story about a dinner he had with Neil Diamond at the latter’s home in Colorado during the making of “Song Sung Blue,” Jackman traded his black tuxedo jacket for a sequined vest and hit another one out of the park with a rousing “Sweet Caroline,” the 1969 chart-topper inspired by Caroline Kennedy and long the anthem of the Red Sox, with its built-in responses, “So good, so good,” returned by his listeners with full-throated enthusiasm.

The Australian, who became internationally known in 2000 when his superhero character Wolverine became the central figure of Twentieth Century Fox’s “X-Men” film series, earned warm laughs with his take on “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” a number one song for John Denver in 1975, this time reimagined as “Thank God I’m an Aussie Boy.”

Moving the program back to Broadway, Jackman donned a cream-colored dinner jacket to serve up a compelling “You Will Be Found” from Pasek and Paul’s “Dear Evan Hansen,” which he dedicated to his lifelong friend Gus Worland, founder of the Australian mental fitness and suicide prevention organization Gotcha4Life. Next came a powerfully rendered “Valjean’s Soliloquy” from the 2012 film version of “Les Misérables,” the Claude-Michel Schönberg musical with lyrics by Alain Boubil in which the actor/singer starred as Jean Valjean.

Jackman received the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Aussie song-and-dance man Peter Allen in 2004’s “The Boy from Oz,” so it was only fitting that his concert pay tribute to the late singer/songwriter whose energetic performance style he so impressively captured on Broadway.

The Peter Allen medley included “I Go to Rio”; the Academy Award-winning “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do),” co-written by Allen, Christopher Cross, Burt Bachrach, and Carole Bayer Sager; “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” a Melissa Manchester hit co-written by Allen and Bayer Sager; and “I Honestly Love You,” fellow Aussie Olivia Newton-John’s first number one hit. With “Quiet Please, There’s a Lady on Stage,” a ballad Allen wrote about his then mother-in-law Judy Garland during his marriage to her daughter Liza Minnelli, Jackman infused the song’s narrative with respect.

There was a more joyous emotion, though, when Jackman welcomed two-time Tony winner Sutton Foster (“Anything Goes,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie”) to the stage. The pair, who’ve yet to go fully public with their relationship, seemed besotted with each other as they dueted on “A Million Dreams” from “The Greatest Showman.”

With conductor Keith Lockhart continuing his recovery from a shoulder injury, Patrick Vaccariello – Jackman’s frequent musical director, including on the film “The Greatest Showman” and on Broadway’s “The Music Man” and “The Boy from Oz” – took up the maestro’s baton for the evening, with the Pops in excellent form.

The world-class orchestra’s versatility was evident throughout the evening, perhaps especially when they backed Jackman on a Frank Sinatra medley of “Fly Me to the Moon,” “That’s Life,” and “New York, New York,” in which he more than echoed the sound and swagger of the Chairman of the Board.

After a spirited “From Now On” from “The Greatest Showman,” Jackman, a great showman in his own right, stilled the audience with his moving version of “Once Before I Go.” The song, originally written for Ann-Margret by Allen and Dean Pitchford as a closing number for her concerts, became widely associated with Allen when he included it in his own shows. As he did in “The Boy from Oz,” Jackman imbued the song with deeply felt emotion, connecting with it on a visceral level.

If the reception he received at this concert is any indication, Jackman may already be contemplating a future appearance with the Boston Pops.

Photo caption: Hugh Jackman is seen here in his debut with the Boston Pops at Tanglewood on August 11. Photo by Hilary Scott.

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