Hugh Jackman

Friend of mine took his daughter to see this expecting The Greatest Showman and both were somewhat underwhelmed with all the talk and so many ‘unknown’ songs.Not sure how this was originally marketed but my friend said he felt mis-led??

I really loved seeing Taron do Your Song - the audience lapped it up - and the aboriginal section I thought actually worked very well in the huge, echoey space that is the O2. But I have seen that before so I guess the extra familiarity with the unusual musical style helped.

No matter how good the show is, that place is *still* a barn that lacks atmosphere!

As he said himself, there was some musical theatre 101 in there - people may have gone for The Greatest Showman but why not expose them to a wider range of musicals?

The show isn’t called The Greatest Showman, it’s called The Man, The Music, The Show. It’s about Hugh and his career. I don’t know how anyone could miss that in the advertising.

I loved the Peter Allen section. The bits that fell flat for me were near the beginning - the song to his wife and the number from Dear Evan Hansen.

Saw the final night at the O2 and have to say Hugh knocked it out of the park, great mix of songs he’s known for like The Boy from Oz and Greatest Showman to things like the movie musical medley. Keala Settle was absolutely brilliant as well.

Blimey what kind of life to they lead if that's what the thought of the show.
They must spend all their time assailing, jumping out of planes or maybe they are super heroes 😀

I am still basking in the afterglow of last night. (No, not that kind although obviously had Hugh asked I would have felt obliged)

I thought it was a tremendous show, yes scripted to the Nth degree and highly polished although I think there was a bit more spontaneity last night being the final date in London. His voice showed a little strain at times but frankly if I even attempted half of what he was doing I would be attached to a ventilator today so good on him, and he danced, entertained, interacted and mostly sang up a storm. We had no special guest last night unless the two women in the Les Mis section were special. I loved the Peter Allen bit too, brought back happy memories of seeing The Boy From Oz, and thought the Aboriginal section was very moving. If anything I would have preferred less Greatest Showman songs, and maybe something from Oklahoma or The Music Man even. If people were bored then I would despair of their ability to enjoy anything, I can certainly see it may not be people's cup of tea but bored?

My only disappointment was what may possibly be the most insipid gospel choir in the history of the universe. If you're gonna bring out a gospel choir they need to be raising the roof honey and bringing the joy. This lot were like a gathering of embarrassed relatives singing a hymn at a wedding of a cousin they don't like. Utterly pitiful.

I have massive issues with axs tickets however and am composing a complaint letter. We had VIP tickets and the promoters should be ashamed of their performance having stung people for a lot of money. There was a LOT of anger last night from people, even fury, and had Hugh Jackman not been damn good I think there might have been a riot from some of us. Anyway none of it is down to him as he doesn't fix prices (I don't think) so will stick with the happy memories

It was never marketed as being a stage-version of The Greatest Showman, or all songs from the movie. Maybe they read 'The man. The music. The show.' wrong, and assumed 'the show' referred to the movie somehow. I've always known it would be a collection of songs from shows and movies he did, and songs which mean a lot to him.

Axs did some of the vip tickets for the recent Take That tour. There were lots of complaints. People paid two hundred pounds but found that they were very far left or very far right to the point they couldn't actually see much at all. Others paid a lot of money for block a row a seats believing they were going to be at the front but then turned up and found another block had been added in front that was not on the seating plan and those in front paid less.

Essentially, there was no consistency in the responses to fan complaints. Some were offered complimentary tickets to stadium shows later in the tours. Others had no response at all.

Saw the show again in Las Vegas a week or so ago. Was pretty much the same as London, no special guests so Jenna lee James sang This is me and it didn’t get the big ovation like at the o2.
The Les Mis section went down really well though and the Aboriginal section got a huge reaction, a man a few seats down from me got super animated during it and he’d not seemed to be enjoying himself before, it was clear his wife was the big fan.
Hugh’s voice sounded better than in London, diction was a lot clearer in some numbers. It was a really good night, and I was glad I got to go again.

I still have a bitter taste in my mouth from the experience with the AXS/AEG/Whoever which is a real shame as the show was spectacular.

The eventual response after much pestering remained 'tough'. Apparently I knew what I was getting and therefore cannot complain. To a degree I can see the point as I received what I paid for and it was as described. The fact that the 'package' value was at a stretch £10, and the 'package' charge was £125 above the face value of the ticket seems to be irrelevant.

Sadly it has soured me on promoters and it will take something spectacular for me to even consider such an outlay in the future.

Yes and there were also packages where you could have a photo onstage with Eltons piano for five hundred pounds. For that price you'd think Elton would be there too but, no.

Reg is only a multi-millionaire, not a billionaire. He has Issues with shopping!

(To be fair, he does donate a chunk of money to charity each year. Way more than most rock/pop stars do. And he has never buggered off to a  tax haven. Doubtless he could be a billionaire by now if he wanted, and did what some of his mates do.)