As word got out Friday that Hugh Jackman will be this year 's Oscar host , a clip from the 2004 Tony telecast of his performance from `` The Boy From Oz '' made the rounds .
made the rounds
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As word got out Friday that Hugh Jackman will be this year 's Oscar host , a clip from the 2004 Tony telecast of his performance from `` The Boy From Oz '' <m> made the rounds </m> .
If only he 'll wear those gold lame pants .
As word got out Friday that Hugh Jackman will be this year 's Oscar host , a clip from the 2004 Tony telecast of his performance from `` The Boy From Oz '' <m> made the rounds </m> .
If you happened to miss the 2004 Tonys , Jackman , playing the flamboyant Australian songwriter Peter Allen , sang , danced and writhed his way across the stage in a leopard skin top and skin-tight gold lame pants .
Will the Oscar gift baskets include smelling salts ?
Jackman , who has hosted the Tonys several times and won an Emmy for doing so in 2005 , certainly knows how to hold a stage -- he won a Tony for `` The Boy From Oz '' -- and by choosing him , first-time Oscar producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon are betting that Broadway can do what comedy could not .
Previous hosts -- Jon Stewart , Ellen DeGeneres , Chris Rock -- all followed the traditional stand-up model and the ratings have steadily soured .
Obviously a change is required , and though I would lean toward thinking `` television '' rather than `` Broadway '' ( why , I even wrote a piece about it , for this coming Sunday 's Calendar , before the host choice was announced ) , Jackman is , of course , another way to go .
Clearly Mark and Condon are less concerned with solving the ratings crisis as they are with creating a new vibe for the show .
Jackman may have more talent in his little finger than most of us do in our entire bodies , but he does n't have the fan base of DeGeneres or Rock .
If you are among the thousands who loved his hosting of the Tonys , you 're probably not only watching the Oscars anyway , you 're hosting your own annual Oscar party .
Yes , Jackman was just named People 's Sexiest Man Alive , and yes , he is Wolverine of `` X-Men '' but do we want Wolverine hosting the Oscars ?
Probably not .
Otherwise , Jackman 's movie career has been less than memorable , capped by this year 's box office dud `` Australia . ''
And as last season 's mercifully short-lived `` Viva Laughlin '' proved , one talented person does not a television show make .
Or at least not a good television show .
But Mark and Condon are the team that brought us `` Dreamgirls , '' which actually makes Jackman an obvious choice .
There 's nothing wrong with a big Broadway-esque opener similar to Billy Crystal 's famous musical clips , but with more hip action .
Beyond that , however , it gets a little worrisome .
The Oscars have a prickly relationship with singin ' and dancin ' and as anyone who saw Rosie O'Donnell 's recent disaster knows , nothing fails bigger than a failed variety show .
What Jackman does have in his favor is an unapologetic , unabashed love for , and understanding of , theater .
He is n't snarky and he is n't an outsider .
He is a from-the-bottom-of-his-heart performer who seems utterly happy and at ease in front of an audience .
No doubt those in the Kodak will enjoy an energetic and dazzling evening .
How it will play on television remains to be seen .
But maybe it 's time we stopped caring about that so much .