The Lives of Me – The Boy from Oz

Any review of this show must naturally begin with the amazing performance of Hugh Jackman. I’ve been a fan of Hugh’s for a while, more for this theatre work than for his movies (I admit, I’ve never seen X-Men!), and was really excited to see him on stage. Still, I was not the least bit prepared for his charisma and the way he absolutely dominates the stage. You can’t take your eyes off him, and his energy didn’t flag once, though he’s on stage for the majority of the show. It’s just an amazing performance that I feel privileged to have seen. I’m absolutely certain he’ll win the Tony for it.

Hugh Jackman at the stage door

The rest of the cast is also very good. I’ve read a lot about how Isabel Keating and Stephanie Block are doing impressions rather than really acting, but I thought they were both great. Mitchel David Federan is amazing as the young Peter, and Jarrod Emick was as solid as he always is.

The set-up of the show is that Peter tells his own life story to the audience, interacting directly with the crowd and also appearing in the various scenes. This works both for and against the show – Hugh is absolutely charming when explaining the various events that are going on, but I felt a little more “showing” rather than “telling” would have been preferable. Also, all of the songs in the show are songs that Peter wrote or co-wrote, and many of them are shoved into the show where they don’t exactly create the right mood – like when you do puzzles, and push and push on pieces that don’t quite fit. The songs are all entertaining, but not all of them have a lot to do with what’s happening in that moment in the show.

Not really knowing much about Peter Allen before going in, I didn’t feel like I really learned a lot about who he was. I found out a lot of things about his life, but not necessarily a lot about his actual character.

Still, the production is well-enough done that I didn’t at all regret the choice to see the show, and especially to see Hugh Jackman. If you get a chance to see the show with him, I say take it – I’m not sure how worthwhile it will be once he’s finished with it though.