New York Times Ben Brantley Review Calls Hugh Jackman “A Flaming Queen”

Ben Brantley, The New York Times theatre critics, is causing controversy with a review of Hugh Jackman’s limited-run one-man show, Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway. Titled Hugh Jackman Keeps His Pants On, Brantley repeatedly insinuates that Jackman is gay, writing “Let’s face it. Mr. Jackman is, unapologetically and triumphantly, the bi-est guy in town: bicultural, bimorphic, binational, biprofessional and, for entertainment purposes, bisexual. I’m really not talking about sexual identity here. Well, I am, but only in a Platonic sense. Mr. Jackman makes a point of reminding us throughout his fleet-footed show, which combines musical numbers with an “All About Hugh” narrative, that he’s a long- and happily married man, and I have no evidence to the contrary. But despite — or perhaps because of — his firmly affirmed marital status Mr. Jackman often gleefully comports himself onstage in the manner of what, in less enlightened times, might have been called a flaming queen.” The remainder of the review – with rifts on Judy Garland, Billy Holiday, and Jackman’s “double-jointed” sexuality is at the source.