You recently wrapped a world tour with
your concert production The Man.
The Music. The Show. Did you enjoy it?
It was a dream year. I still pinch myself; I had
so much fun. I had an amazing crew, and those
audiences were incredible. They exceeded
every expectation I’ve ever had. And yes,
I was very tired at the end of it!What was the best part of playing arenas?
Oh, the audiences. Their energy. And it was
great to go around the world and really be able
to connect with fans. I spend a lot of time doing
movies, where you don’t get much time
with the fans, so when I’m in an arena
with 20,000 people, it’s crazy to me.Had you started rehearsing
for The Music Man [before
Broadway went on hiatus]?
Yeah, we were sort of doing early
rehearsals, but we don’t really
start rehearsals until July. SuttonFoster and I are just sort of learning the
singing and reading the script and getting
started on it. I’m so excited about it.If you could revive any other show to star
in, what would it be?
Oh, I don’t know! I can’t think of any. This
musical was the first one I ever did. I was in
drama school [in Perth, Australia], and I did
it way back then. For 10 years people had
been saying to me, “Which musical would you
like to revive?” I was always like, “I think
I want to do a new musical!” But after I did
[the movie] The Greatest Showman, I just
went [snaps], “The Music Man!”Who would you like to see take over
the role of Wolverine?
I don’t know. It depends on which way they go
and how young they’re going to start. I didn’t
start the franchise until I was 30, and I finished
when I was, like, 50, or maybe late 40s. So there’s
definitely an option to go younger. But it’s
a great role. Whoever gets it, God bless them.
They’re going to be in for the ride of their life.You and your wife have been a couple
for 25 years. What do you still learn
about each other?
We make time for each other. We’re
always learning, and humans change.
Even though we’ve been together
25 years, you’ve still got to reset all
the time. I’m always reeling about
how funny she is, how amazing she
is and how smart she is. The longer
it goes on, the better it gets. •T
The lights have just gone out on Broadway for at
least several weeks because of the coronavirus
pandemic, but plans for shows coming this fall
are still underway. That includes a revival of the
classic 1957 musical The Music Man starring
Sutton Foster and Hugh Jackman, who says he
can’t wait to get back onstage. Jackman, 51, who
is just an Oscar shy of being an EGOT winner
(Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony), has always
been musically inclined. In the mid-’90s, early in
his acting career, he starred as Gaston in Beauty
and the Beast and Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard
in productions in his native Australia. In 1998 he
took his first steps toward global fame when he
won acclaim as leading man Curly in London’s
revival of Oklahoma!
When he was cast as Wolverine in 2000’s
X-Men, he suddenly found himself busy as a
Hollywood A-lister, but he never stopped perform-
ing onstage, winning a Tony for 2003’s The Boy
from Oz. Now People’s 2008 Sexiest Man Alive,
a father of two with wife Deborra-Lee Furness,
is excited about returning to the first musical he
ever performed in back in drama school in Perth.
(At the time he played Salesman No. 2, not the lead
role of con man Harold Hill.) Already memorizing
lines and itching to get into rehearsals, Jackman
talked with People at an event for Montblanc
( he’s a global ambassador) about his love for the
theater—and how he keeps his marriage strong.‘The
longer it
goes on,
the better
it gets’
—JACKMAN,
ON HIS
MARRIAGEJackman met Australian
actress Deborra-Lee Furness,
now 64, when they starred
on the 1995 drama Correlli—
they married in 1996 and
are parents to Oscar, 19, and
Ava, 14. “We’re there for
each other no matter what,”
he told People in 2018.Partner in
Song
At the 2014 Tony
Awards, which
Jackman hosted,
he danced
in the aisle with
his future Music
Man costar
Sutton Foster.Hugh &
Deborra-Lee’s
25-Year
Love Story63CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: BEN WATTS/TRUNK ARCHIVE; PATRICK RIVIERE/GETTY IMAGES; KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES; HEATHER WINES/CBS/GETTY IMAGESMarch 30, 2020P13JAC2A.indd 63 FINAL 3/16/20 9:39 PM