‘Oklahoma!’: Watch The Unlikely Moment That Made Hugh Jackman A Star!

All this week Decider is celebrating the most polarizing punctuation in pop culture: the exclamation point! More spirited than a period and more decisive than a question mark, the exclamation point is as divisive as it is volatile. Invigorating sentences with enthusiasm and gusto since the 15th century, this renegade maverick of grammatical anarchy has irrevocably disrupted the status quo of the punctuation game. Love it or hate it, Decider commemorates the imitable mischief-maker known as the exclamation point.

Usually it’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment someone becomes a star, but Hugh Jackman is different. We know exactly when he became a star, and it has nothing to do with adamantium claws and a mutant gene. It’s the moment he stepped onto the stage in the opening moments of The Royal National Theatre’s 1998 production of Oklahoma! and breathed new, sensuous life into a tired Rodgers and Hammerstein standard.

Yes, Hugh Jackman became a star on the stage.

I can understand if you missed Jackman’s Olivier-winning performance 20 years ago. After all, I didn’t see I can even understand if you didn’t realize that a high-quality live recording of the production was sitting in PBS’s free-to-stream Great Performances library until very recently. That’s why I’m pleased to share that you can still watch a few of his show-stopping numbers on PBS’s YouTube page. Specifically, you can watch him strut onto the stage with a lazy smile to sing “Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin.'”

Okay, so this single three minute clip is important for two reasons. One, it’s fucking hot. I said it and I know what I’m saying. Most suburban kids like myself got their Rodgers and Hammerstein fixes from the mid-century Hollywood film adaptations or squeaky-clean (and super-cheesy) local dinner theater productions. But if you listen to the scores, or consider the stories in context of a deeper American mythology, you soon realize that these stories aren’t as pure as our pious music teachers would have us believe. Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote catchy pop operas about the triumphs and tragedies of human life — and sensuality was part of that.

Maybe because it was British, or maybe because it was directed by theater great Trevor Nunn, but the 1998 production of Oklahoma! got the darker side of the story. It understood that the characters were hot-blooded people. Luring us into this was a young Australian actor named Hugh Jackman. We hear his voice first, clear as a clarion and bright with optimism. Then, he saunters onto the stage, exuberantly enjoying the day, and ecstatically enjoying himself. Jackman’s Curly has all the earnest optimism we’re conditioned to expect from a Rodgers and Hammerstein hero, but he’s also got a mischievous twinkle in his eye. Maybe it’s in his devilish grin, or the way he spreads himself back over a ladder, but we know from the get-go that he’s not just singing about the glory of nature.

Jackman more than commands the stage; he owns it. It’s a captivating turn that bridges old school Broadway technique with something exciting and new. His star power oozes through the lens and you can see that he is meant for movies.

Which leads us to the second reason why this scene, and this specific performance, is so important. Without his celebrated turn as Curly, Jackman would never have landed on a last minute shortlist to replace Dougray Scott as Wolverine in Bryan Singer’s first X-Men movie. Wolverine made Hugh Jackman a movie star, but Oklahoma! made Hugh Jackman Wolverine.

Where to Stream Great Performances