Hugh Jackman As I Live and Breathe

Yes. Saturday night, I was standing in front of my booth and something quite out of the ordinary occurred. Hugh Jackman walked by with his wife and a friend and then stopped 10 feet away from me to talk a little before the show.

What show was I working on? Does it matter? Well. You might want to know. I was handing out headsets at Drowsy Chaperone, standing by my console, waiting for hard of hearing patrons.

10 feet away from me. 10 feet. 10. Ahhhhhhhhh.

He is taller and thinner than he appears on screen. He was wearing glasses, a striped scarf, a plain sweater and jeans. And no one, with the exception of a couple of guys who may or may not have been a couple, recognized him. Of course, the house staff recognized him but we pretty much know better than to bug celebrities on an outing to the theater.

Anyway, this couple asked me if he was who he was and wanted to know if they should go up to him. I told them that he was indeed Hugh Jackman and that since no one was really bothering him that he probably wouldn't mind. They did approach him and Hugh Jackman handled the situation very nicely. He shook hands with them, spoke with them for two minutes or so and then posed for a photo.

I didn't find out until later that the blond with him was his wife. She's lovely but she's not GORGEOUS. I guess he's good looking enough for the both of them. She was an ordinary beautiful person (as opposed to a ridiculously beautiful movie star person). Not knowing anything about him, this didn't strike me as odd. Based on his demeanor, body language and tidbits of conversation, I judge him to be as regular a guy as I've ever seen a celebrity be.

So. Here is what I've learned from this experience.

1. Hugh Jackman is exceedingly handsome both on screen and in person.

2. He's not put off by fans approaching him and will probably react well if you were to approach him in a non-threatening way that wasn't in anyway rude or interruptive.

3. He's down to earth and married to a seemingly nice, down to earth person.

High Fidelity - Notes

It's Saturday and I'm working a double dose of High Fidelity.

During the walk-in I was talking with one of the Associate Producers. He was telling me how upset he was about Ben Brantley's review from the Friday NY Times. I tried to reassure him that Ben Brantley was simply the wrong critic to have reviewed the show - that Brantley's taste was more like that of the blue haired old ladies that come to see Wednesday matinees than it was of the hipsters to whom they seem to be appealing. I told him that Brantley missed the point of the show - that he just didn't get it. I was kind of kissing his butt a little bit. After all, this guy I was talking to is a big time Broadway producer.

What was I going to say? That Ben Brantley was right? Of course not. If you read the Ben Brantley review from beginning to end you'll realize that his review is actually very well informed. He's read the book by Nick Hornby and he's seen the film by Stephen Frears. His observations are based on both literary and filmic experience with the story. On top of that, he knows Broadway and has been reviewing shows for quite some time. I think it's safe to say that he knows what he's talking about.

The general feeling is that Brantley's review was harsh. But if it were good, they would have been thrilled. But does Brantley give good reviews? I don't recall ever reading a review about anything that he liked. Here is a link to his theater reviews. Can you find a play that he liked?

High Fidelity isn't brilliant but it isn't awful either. If you use Wedding Singer and Les Miserables as measuring posts the Wedding Singer being the worst and Les Mis being the best, High Fidelity falls dead center in terms of commercial appeal. The show will definitely find its audience. All you have to do is to decide whether or not you want to be a part of that audience.