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When Hugh Jackman takes the stage for his one-man global arena tour next year, he’ll be ready to perform hits fromThe Greatest Showman,Les Misérablesand other Broadway and film projects from his past — as well as a number of fresh, never-before-heard songs.
“I really want to do some original music for this show,” the actor tellsRolling Stone.“I’m hoping to have written something that I can perform. I really want to write with Justin [Paul] and Benj [Pasek], who didThe Greatest Showman and Dear Evan Hanson the musical — I love Dear Evan Hanson and I would love to do a song from that as well — and I’m literally doing all those workshops now, deciding what all the material is going to be.”
Jackman, who announced the 34-stop world tour last week, said he wants the show to be an encapsulation of his favorite musical projects over the years (“There’s no Wolverine kick line, let’s be clear”) as well as a one-of-a-kind experience for audiences, who will get to hear musical works peppered in with anecdotes from Jackman’s decades-spanning career. He envisions the show to include about half a dozen songs fromThe Greatest Showman — a film that has gripped box offices with surprising tenacity since its release last December and yielded a soundtrack that not only spent 30 weeks in the top 10 of the charts, but then went on to inspirean entirely new soundtrackof its own — and the rest of the setlist is still being decided.
“We’re singing a bunch of songs fromThe Greatest Showmanbecause that’s a part of my life, but it’s not ‘The Greatest Showman Live,’” Jackman says. “We’ll also certainly be doing some kind of medley for Les Mis. I also want to get some guests in. I haven’t even asked them yet, but I’d love to get someone like Phillip Quast to come and do something. I don’t know if I want to reorchestrate any songs because the orchestrations are so beautiful, but I want to give them to people in a way they haven’t heard before.”
Tickets for the show start going on sale Friday.
