Hugh Jackman’s Low-Budget Musical Opening Is One of the Best Oscar Moments

The Big Picture

• Hugh Jackman’s opening at the 81st Oscars stood out with its unique concept and passion for movies.
• Jackman’s musical number was witty, reflecting the economic realities of the time, and had visually creative gags.
• Jackman’s performance showcased the qualities that make a great Oscar host, like razzle-dazzle, wit, and love for cinema.

The opening segment of the Academy Awards is often tough to crack, but some years, it feels like the people behind this show aren’t even trying. This is particularly true in the modern world (read: 21st-century Oscar ceremonies), where the Academy Awards often seem negatively daunted by the legacy of this show. Fond memories of Billy Crystal running through movies in the 1990s or the terror of accidentally creating a modern successor to the cursed opening to the 1989 Academy Awards inform every step of creating a new Oscars opening. This means that the people behind this program produce opening sequences that just seem either too derivative of the past, too quick to leap into weird mean-spirited meta-commentary, or lacking in ambition (going big is totally what killed the 1989 Oscars after all). The musical numbers from host Seth MacFarlane that kicked off the 85th Academy Awards epitomize the mean-spirited tendencies of 21st-century Oscar shows, while the 83rd Academy Awards saw hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco strolling through famous 2010 movies like they were the second coming of Billy Crystal.

In an effort to live up to the show’s past, the Oscars tend to deliver weird opening segments that are desperate to please viewers. Even more restrained stabs at reimagining how the Oscars can begin end up going nowhere interesting. Just look at the 93rd Academy Awards, which began with a lengthy shot of Regina King just walking through Union Station and to the program’s stage. Where’s the pizzazz and imagination in all of these sequences? What material is being served up right away to the viewer that’ll keep them glued to the screen for the three-hour spectacle that is to come? Thankfully, there was one Oscar ceremony that knew how to kick things off perfectly. Hugh Jackman’s hysterical opening musical number from the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009 was a thing to behold…and a masterwork of how to begin an Oscars’ ceremony just right!

What Was Hugh Jackman’s Oscar Opening Segment?

Given that Hugh Jackman is famous for his exploits in the world of live musical theater, it’s no surprise that he’d kick off his gig as a live entertainer at the Academy Awards with a song-and-dance routine. In an inspired move, though, the song that kicked off the 81st Academy Awards was informed by real-world tragedies happening outside the Kodak Theatre. The 2008 economic recession had hit America devastatingly hard in the months directly preceding this show. Jobs had been lost. Budgets were tighter than ever. Unemployment was skyrocketing. Done poorly, the 81st Academy Awards making jokes related to this economic crisis could’ve been tone-deaf and staggeringly miscalculated.

Shockingly, though, Jackman didn’t crumble under the pressure. Instead, he was at the center of an inspired musical number that saw him putting together cardboard props and raggedy sets under a “tight budget” inspired by the recession. The result was a set-piece that wasn’t ignorant of the hardships of reality but also didn’t trivialize them. Plus, the concept of a “low-budget” Oscars opening ceremony led to ingenious visual gags (like a series of crude dolls used to represent Benjamin Button at various stages of his life) that were unlike anything else in the history of the Oscars. This wasn’t a musical ditty that felt like it was retreading past ground, this was something fresh that could only have existed circa. January 2009.

The writing of the musical number was also incredibly solid, a trick accomplished by the murderer’s row of outstanding writers assembled for this piece (including Ben Schwartz and Dan Harmon!) Many award-show musical numbers are cute, but have lyrics that rarely rise above that level. Jackman’s song was actually hilarious, particularly the verse where he talks about how “I haven’t seen The Reader,” an inspired way to get around talking about such a dark movie in a bubbly musical number. Actual wit abounded in this tune on so many fronts and made it something you could hum and titter at in equal measures.

Best of all, it was a musical number that reflected a passion for the movies nominated that year. The cardboard props were meant to reflect the economic realities of early 2009, but they also reflected a ramshackle endearing love for cinema reminiscent of the “Sweded” movies in Be King Rewind or the “series finale” at the center of Brigsby Bear. When you don’t have infinite studio resources at your disposal, passion can carry a low-budget endeavor. That kind of passion came through at the opening of the 81st Academy Awards, which suggested that a love for movies would endure no matter what economic restrictions were in place. Having Jackman finish off the number by belting out passionate long notes about how he is, in many ways, all of these Oscar-nominated movies (aren’t we all?) was a great capper to the song that conveyed so much enthusiasm for the films this program was recognizing. Compare that to the detached Jo Koy or Ricky Gervais monologues that kicked off modern Golden Globes ceremonies, for instance, and it becomes clear which of these entertainers knows how to star in an award show.

Hugh Jackman’s 81st Academy Awards Opener Was Truly a Golden Moment

Subsequent Oscar ceremonies have inundated audiences with snark, and endless homages to past Oscar hosts. These negative qualities have often been so unpleasant to watch that they make one yearn for the Academy Awards to ditch hosts altogether!Hugh Jackman’s work kicking off the 81st Academy Awards, though, showed off how good an Oscar host can be. These figures can come into this award show and get the ball rolling with lots of razzle-dazzle, wit, and infectious love for movies that reminds us all why we tune into this ceremony year after year. The track record of post-2009 Oscar hosts suggests those qualities may be sparse in modern entertainers, but at least we all got to feel them once more when Jackman belted out his opening number.

Since this 2009 Oscars stint, Jackman’s gone on to play Wolverine a further six times (a seventh is on the way with Deadpool & Wolverine), headlined movies like Bad Education, and starred in various stage and movie musicals. He’s done a lot of interesting work, but this 81st Academy Awards opening number may be his greatest work as a performer in show business. Not only did Jackman have the chops and great writers to execute a winning opening musical number, but that year’s bevy of Oscar-nominated films provided ample material for great visual gags. It was the perfect confluence of events that resulted in an Oscar opening number like no other…and one we’re unlikely to see replicated in effectiveness anytime soon.

The 96th Academy Awards air March 10 on ABC, and will be available to stream online.

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