The newly opened Broadway revival of The Music Man is the first time Hugh Jackman has played brazen swindler Harold Hill (though, per the Playbill credits, he apparently played Salesman #2 as a teenager). But the role is such a natural fit for Jackman’s interests as an actor that the performance itself feels like a revival, too – a triumphant return, rather than a long-awaited teaming of superstar and role. Thanks to Covid, it can be both: this Music Man planned to begin its run in 2020, only to be pushed back repeatedly, finally beginning previews in December 2021, then shutting down for a week after Jackman himself caught Covid. It officially opens many months and two calendar years after its initial target.
Throughout the swiftly paced production, Jackman looks like he’s been raring to go. As Hill, a con artist disguised as a traveling salesman who moves in on a small Iowa town, selling the promise of civic improvement through musical instruments, uniforms and band instruction, Jackman is appropriately snaky and cynical – when he’s not pretending to be an upstanding musical impresario, of course. But when he brings a signature number like 76 Trombones or a smaller one like Gary, Indiana to a close, there is unmistakable joy in his eyes; at times, facing the rapturous crowd reactions, he looked as if he might burst out laughing with glee.
