Hugh Jackman

In 2002, Jackman sang the role of Billy Bigelow in the musical Carousel in a special concert performance at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke's. In 2004, Jackman won the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical for his 2003–2004 Broadway portrayal of Australian songwriter and performer Peter Allen in the hit musical The Boy from Oz, which he also performed in Australia in 2006.^[9] In addition, Jackman hosted the Tony Awards in 2003, 2004, and 2005, garnering positive reviews. His hosting of the 2004 Tony Awards earned him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performer in a Variety, Musical or Comedy program.

Jackman co-starred with Daniel Craig on Broadway at the Schoenfeld Theatre in a limited engagement of the play A Steady Rain, which ran from 10 September 2009 to 6 December 2009.^[32]

He returned to Broadway in a new show, Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre, which began performances on 25 October 2011 and concluded on 1 January 2012.^[33]

Jackman returned to Broadway in the new play, The River, which ran at the Circle in the Square Theatre from October 2014 to February 2015.^[34]

In November and December 2015, Jackman made a national tour of Australia with his show Broadway To Oz. He performed a range of songs from Broadway musicals, from Les Misérables to a Peter Allen tribute (including classics such as "I Still Call Australia Home"), with his 150-piece orchestra, choir, and backup dancers.^[35] The show began at Melbourne.

Catherine Zeta-Jones

Zeta-Jones was born in Swansea, Wales, on 25 September 1969 to David Jones, the owner of a sweet factory, and his wife Patricia, a seamstress.^[1][2][3] Her father is Welsh and her mother is of Irish Catholic descent.^[4] She was

named after her grandmothers, Zeta Jones and Catherine Fair.^[3] She has an older brother, David, and a younger brother, Lyndon, who worked as a sales representative before venturing into film production.^[5][6] When she was 12, the family moved to the seaside village of Mumbles.^[7][8][9] She was educated at the Dumbarton House School, a private school in Swansea.^[10] The family came from a modest background, but they won £100,000 in a bingo competition, allowing them to pay for Zeta-Jones' dance and ballet lessons.^[3]

Her mother sent Zeta-Jones to the Hazel Johnson School of Dance when she was five years old.^[11][12] She participated in school stage shows from a young age and gained local media attention when her rendition of a Shirley Bassey song won a Junior Star Trail talent competition.^[13][14] As part of a dance troupe, she routinely took trips to London, where she auditioned for roles in the theatre.^[15] At the age of nine she was selected to play one of the orphan girls in a West End production of the musical Annie, and at 11 she became a national tap-dancing champion.^[12] In 1981 she played the lead role of Annie in a production of the musical at the Swansea Grand Theatre.^[2][3] Two years later she

played the lead role of Tallulah in a West End production of Bugsy Malone.^[16] When she was 15 Zeta-Jones dropped out of school without obtaining O-levels and moved to London to pursue a full-time acting career; she was engaged to perform in a touring production of The Pajama Game.^[17][18] Describing her teenage years in London, Zeta-Jones said, "I would queue up for auditions and then change my costume or put on a different leotard and audition again. It might take me two tries, but I always got the job. I figured out what they wanted".^[12] She went on to attend the independent Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick, London, for a three-year course in musical theatre.^[19]

In 1987, when she was 17 years old, Zeta-Jones was picked as the second understudy to the lead actress in a West End production of 42nd Street. During one of the performances, both the star and the first understudy were unavailable, and Zeta-Jones was asked to play the role of Peggy Sawyer—a chorus girl who becomes a star. The producer was impressed by her acting ability and allowed her to play the role for the next two years.^[4][20][21] Her next stage appearance was with

the English National Opera at the London Coliseum in 1989 where she played Mae Jones in Kurt Weill's Street Scene.