Hugh Jackman paused midway through his set at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday to share the story of a time 30 years ago he feared his musical theater career might be over before it ever started.
He’d gone to audition for a production of “Beauty and the Beast” in Melbourne, Australia, and decided to sing “Stars” from “Les Misérables” because, well, that was the only music he had handy at the moment, Jackman told the crowd on hand for the official opening night of the 2025 Hollywood Bowl season.
And it went well – until it didn’t.
“I cracked on the final note. It was just spectacular,” Jackman said of the magnificence of his mistake.
As he planned to leave the audition in what he was sure was disgrace, one of the people evaluating auditions asked him why he’d picked such a challenging number, and Jackman told him the truth.
“He said, ‘Well, you can throw that away, you’ll never sing that again,’” Jackman said to laughter from the crowd. “I think what he meant to say was, ‘Why don’t you put that away for 30 years until you can sing it at the Hollywood Bowl.’”
The audience cheered loudly, though not as loudly as they did when Jackman then sang “Stars” perfectly all the way through that long final note.
The moment served as a fine summation of Jackman’s powerful performance on Saturday, which mixed powerful performances of songs he’s done on stage and screen in “Les Miz,” “The Greatest Showman,” and “The Music Man,” with favorites from songwriters and singers including Neil Diamond, Peter Allen and Frank Sinatra.
Add in the occasional anecdote and the superb backing of conductor Thomas Wilkins and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, augmented at times by musicians from YOLA – the LA Philharmonic’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles – and a fireworks display to cap it all off.
Then consider that the night raised more than $2.6 million for the LA Phil’s community and learning programs, which include YOLA, and it’s clear that the summer at the Bowl took off in the most wonderful way on Saturday night.
Jackman arrived onstage with an acoustic guitar, singing “Crunchy Granola Suite,” one of two Neil Diamond songs in his set. If you only knew him as Wolverine from the X-Men movie franchise, you might have been surprised to see how effortlessly he worked the stage and the amphitheater.
The X-Men-only fans were few in number, we’d bet, for this crowd reacted loudly as Jackman sang that first number, and then ventured into the audience, singing and dancing through the “The Greatest Showman,” the title track to the 2017 movie musical in which he starred and which provided about a third of his 90-minute set.
After “Come Alive,” another “Showman” song, “Ya Got Trouble,” a number from “The Music Man,” in which Jackman played Professor Harold Hill on Broadway, sent him running a lap of the lower Bowl, singing as he took selfies on fans’ cameras, slapped hands, and even stopped to hug his friend the singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge.
Neil Diamond’s hit “Sweet Caroline” turned up not long after, this time with a bit of a story added. Jackman will appear in December in the film “Song Sung Blue” with Kate Hudson as two members of a down-on-its-luck Neil Diamond tribute act.
“You Will Be Found,” a tune from the musical “Dear Evan Hanson,” saw Jackman start the song accompanying himself on a grand piano, a skill he joked he was barely qualified to do, especially given the extremely talented musicians in the orchestra.
“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry to all these incredible musicians who have dedicated 20,000 hours to playing on this stage, when I’ve literally done 93 hours between the ages of 15 and 19,” he joked before starting and, we must report, doing just fine on the simple melodies that kicked off the number.
Between “Stars” and a second “Lez Miz” song, “Valjean’s Soliloquy,” Jackman brought concertmaster Kathryn Eberle up front with him for a version of John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” reworked as “Aussie Boy” to better reflect Jackman’s roots Down Under.
The second half of the show mixed medleys in with the musical theater numbers. Jackman first played on Broadway in “The Boy From Oz,” a musical built around the life and work of Australian songwriter Peter Allen, whose hits included in the show on Saturday included “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do),” “/Don’t Cry Out Loud,” “Honestly Love You,” “Quiet Please, There’s a Lady on Stage,” and “I Go to Rio.”
Eighteen young musicians from YOLA had earlier performed with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra during its opening set. Jackman brought them back on during his act to join the orchestra again for “A Million Dreams” from “The Greatest Showman.” With lyrics that include lines such as “A million dreams for the world we’re going to make,” the song felt perfect for these students who soon will enter the world beyond YOLA.
“This is my shower song,” Jackman announced as the end of the show neared. “Fly Me To the Moon” followed, so now you can picture Jackman soaping up with the correct soundtrack. Unless his shower song is also “That’s Life” or “New York, New York,” the other two numbers in a Sinatra medley.
“From Now On,” the sixth and final “Showman” song in the show, was accompanied by the orchestra and the cacophonous percussion of fireworks exploding in the sky above the bandshell.
Then, with “Once Before I Go,” another Peter Allen song, delivered a bittersweet farewell. “Once before I go, I want you to know that I would do it all again,” the song begins, as the singer reflects on his life, its ups and downs, and says goodbye for now.