The Greatest Showman's Hugh Jackman Has Already Seen In The Heights, Shares His Honest Thoughts About Next Movie Musical

Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman

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Hugh Jackman has had a long career in film, with his name synonymous with years spent playing Wolverine in the X-Men movies. But Jackman’s roots are in musical theater, with movies like Les Miserables and The Greatest Showman helping to marry his talents. The Tony Award winning actor managed to catch Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights movie, and shared his honest thoughts about the movie musical.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s original Broadway musical was In the Heights, making him a huge name in the theater world. Crazy Rich Asians director John M. Chu brought that musical to the movies with the upcoming film adaptation, which Hugh Jackman was lucky enough to see ahead of its theatrical opening. Jackman shared his thoughts in a passionate video, check it out below.

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Well, there you have it. It looks like Hugh Jackman is all aboard the In the Heights hype train. What’s more, he was new to the musical and experienced it for the first time as countless moviegoers will. Celebrities: they’re just like us.

Hugh Jackman’s rave about In the Heights comes to us from his personal Instagram page. He’s currently in the musical mindset, preparing to return to Broadway with the revival of The Music Man. But he took the time to catch a screening of In the Heights, and had nothing but positive comments about John M. Chu’s film adaptation.

In the Heights will be hitting HBO Max on the same day as theaters. You can use this link to sign up for the streaming service.

While his caption reads that he recommends catching In the Heights, Hugh Jackman opened up more about his feelings in the actual video. As he explained, he missed the show when it was still on Broadway, and therefore hadn’t been introduced to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first award-winning musical. But that seemingly allowed him to experience more surprises. As The Greatest Showman star put it,

Honestly, it filled me with delight. I thought the singing was incredible, I thought the dancing was incredible. The music is amazing, the direction is amazing. Every single member of that cast I thought was phenomenal. I’m telling you just because I’m in musicals doesn’t mean I watch everything and every musical-- I don’t. And I certainly don’t love every musical. This one is a winner with a capital W.

It certainly seems like Hugh Jackman was thoroughly impressed with In the Heights. The stage musical was awarded Tony and Grammy Awards while also being nominated for a Pulitzer, but the movie is clearly elevating the source material. The trailers show how John M. Chu’s direction added magical moments, including characters singing and dancing on the side of a building

Luckily moviegoers will be able to judge In the Heights for themselves shortly, as the highly anticipated movie musical will arrive next month. It should be interesting to see how many newcomers like Hugh Jackman tune in, especially considering what a global sensation Hamilton grew to be.

In the Heights will arrive in theaters and homes on June 11th. In the meantime, check out the 2021 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.

Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.