Why Jeremy Jordan Sang For Hugh Jackman During Greatest Showman Demo

Hugh Jackman starred in The Greatest Showman – s0 why did Jeremy Jordan sing his parts for the demo? The Greatest Showman demo was used to sell the idea of Jackman’s passion project, but he was unable to sing P.T. Barnum’s songs, despite being a talented singer himself. Other Hugh Jackman movies prove that has a great set of pipes; the Australian actor started out performing in various musical theater productions including Beauty And The Beast, Sunset Boulevard and as cowboy Curly McLain in a West End production of Oklahoma! which earned him a Laurence Olivier Award.

Even after Jackman got his film breakthrough playing Wolverine in the X-Men franchise, he stayed true to his musical theater roots, taking roles in productions of Carousel and The Boy From Oz. Then in 2012, he played Jean Valjean in Tom Hooper’s big-screen adaptation of Les Misérables. Earlier in 2019, Jackman embarked on a global tour with The Man. The Music. The Show in which he performs numbers from both Broadway and Hollywood musicals alongside a few Greatest Showman songs.

The Greatest Showman was a longtime passion project for Jackman and he spent the best part of a decade trying to bring the P.T. Barnum biopic to the big screen. The film finally went into production in 2016 with first-time director Michael Gracey at the helm; this was after the film had been in development since 2009. But, before 20th Century Fox gave The Greatest Showman the official go-ahead, the studio wanted to see a read-through of the script and hear some of the songs. In the end, it took a whopping nine years to make The Greatest Showman

Why Hugh Jackman Couldn’t Sing For The Greatest Showman Demo

Unfortunately, the day before everybody was set to meet for the Greatest Showman demo, Hugh Jackman had surgery on his nose to remove skin cancer which required 80 stitches and came with a strict doctor’s order not to sing. Jackman began having cancer treatments for the growth in 2013, but everything had been booked and it took several months for everyone to get together for the movie’s read-through. Thus, it had to happen regardless of Jackman being sidelined as a singer. Despite not being able to sing for producers, Jackman ultimately did have to go back to the doctor’s to get restitched after the Greatest Showman demo because he ended up breaking orders.

How Jeremy Jordan Helped The Greatest Showman Get Made

Rather than cancel the read-through and risk the future of the film, actor and singer Jeremy Jordan stood in for Jackman by providing vocals while he mimed the stage directions to give everyone an idea of what he’d look like. Broadway sensation Jordan was an ideal choice to understudy for Jackman since he’s starred in several musicals including Newsies, Bonnie & Clyde, and The Last Five Years, the musical film adaptation he was in alongside Anna Kendrick. The demo itself took a long time to prepare and if it was postponed due to Jackman being unable to sing, it’s possible The Greatest Showman would’ve never gotten made at all.

Jeremy Jordan sang for almost the entirety of The Greatest Showman demo since Jackman couldn’t lend his own voice at that time (casting was also not yet finalized for the film). However, while Jackman obeyed his doctor’s orders for the majority of The Greatest Showman demo, one song got the better of him. When Jordan started singing The Greatest Showman’s ending musical number, “From Now On,” Jackman seemingly felt so inspired and moved by the song that he couldn’t help himself and started singing along to the power ballad. He wasn’t sorry that he ended up going against his doctor’s orders to not strain himself by singing, saying on Instagram that the song he sang during The Greatest Showman demo was “worth it.” Whether that was what convinced Fox to go ahead with the film is unknown but director Michael Gracey certainly seems to think so, calling it a “euphoric moment” that helped The Greatest Showman get made.