NEW YORK — Hugh Jackman won't be making his Broadway debut until this fall — playing entertainer Peter Allen in the musical "The Boy From Oz" — but he will be the host of the 2003 Tony Awards show June 8.
Jackman, who co-stars in the current hit film "X-Men 2," has appeared in the 1998 London revival of "Oklahoma!" as well as the Australian productions of "Sunset Boulevard" and "Beauty and the Beast."
The Tonys, honoring the best of the Broadway season, will be broadcast on CBS from 8-11 p.m. EDT from the stage of Radio City Music Hall. The presenters will include Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Barbara Walters, Tyne Daly, Danny Glover, Christopher Reeve, Laurence Fishburne, Vanessa Redgrave, Lynn Redgrave and Joey Fatone.
"The Boy From Oz" opens Oct. 16 at the Imperial Theatre, vacated last Sunday by the long-running production of "Les Miserables." Preview performances of "The Boy From Oz," a big hit in Allen's native Australia, begin Sept. 16.
The show, a musical biography of Allen's life, includes Allen's discovery by Judy Garland in 1964 as well as his marriage to Liza Minnelli three years later. "Oz" also features Stephanie Block as Minnelli, Isabel Keating as Garland and Beth Fowler as Allen's mother.
Allen died of AIDS in 1992.