The Boy from Oz: Hugh Jackman Channnels Peter Allen

Hugh Jackman is not the original boy from Australia who made good. That title belongs to the late singer and songwriter Peter Allen. Jackman brought Allen back to life in the Broadway musical The Boy from Oz which was based on the sensational biography of the man who wrote many hit songs in the 1970s. Allen was also the first husband of Liza Minnelli.

Allen wrote ballads such as ‘Don’t Cry Out Loud’ for Karen Carpenter and ‘I Honestly Love You’ for Olivia Newton-John. During his life he was flamboyant, bisexual, and in the end an almost forgotten creative genius. Jackman portrayal tells the story of how Allen was discovered by Judy Garland and brought to New York to start his career.

The Boy from Oz includes tracks like ‘When I Get My Name In Lights’ and ‘Best That You Can Do’ that depict Allen’s desire for fame and his complicated marriage to Minnelli. Jackman does a fantastic job of delivering the emotion behind Allen’s life in song. When you hear Jackman sing the CD’s signature tune ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ you really can feel that he, like Allen, means it.