Tony Award winner and Oscar nominee Hugh Jackman will return to Broadway in a revival of The Music Man. The Scott Rudin production will begin previews at a to-be-announced Shubert theatre September 9, 2020. Opening night is set for October 22.
Jerry Zaks will direct, with choreography by Warren Carlyle; the two reunite after collaborating on the 2017 revival of Hello, Dolly! (also produced by Rudin).
Jackman earned a Tony Award for his Broadway debut as Peter Allen in 2003's The Boy From Oz; he went on to appear in the plays A Steady Rain and The River and also headlined his own Broadway concert in 2011. He's also been seen on stage in Carousel at Carnegie Hall and in Oklahoma! at London's National Theatre. In addition to his long-running stint as Wolverine in the X-Men series, his extensive film career includes the movie musicals Les Misérables (earning an Oscar nod for playing Jean Valjean) and The Greatest Showman. He'll soon embark on a world tour, aptly titled The Man. The Music. The Show.
The actor, who'll take on the role of smooth-talking conman Harold Hill, has had several brushes with The Music Man well before the Broadway announcement. Jackman has said the show was his first exposure to musical theatre as a high schooler, and even auditioned with a solo rendition of the show's wordy opener "Rock Island." He offered an encore performance, of sorts, as host of the 2014 Tony Awards, rapping the lyrics alongside T.I. and LL Cool J.
The Meredith Willson musical premiered in 1957 with a cast including Robert Preston and Barbara Cook (Preston went on to reprise his performance in the 1962 film adaptation). It was last seen on Broadway in a revival starring Craig Bierko and Rebecca Luker.
The new production will feature sets and costumes by Santo Loquasto, lighting by Natasha Katz, sound design by Scott Lehrer, orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, and dance arrangements by David Chase. Patrick Vaccariello will serve as musical director.
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