Special Reports
The WTFs: Remember That Time Hugh Jackman, T.I., and LL Cool J Rapped The Music Man?
This actually happened during the 2014 Tony Awards and we have gifs to prove it.
As 2014 draws to a close, TheaterMania looks back on some of the most jaw-dropping stories of the year with the 2014 WTFs.
Every theater geek knows that Meredith Willson was the original gangsta rapper. The Broadway composer and lyricist opened his classic musical The Music Man with one of the earliest rap songs ever to be presented onstage, "Rock Island," where a bunch of traveling salesman talk-sing along with the rhythms of a train.
Hugh Jackman (The River) took this factoid to heart and let the entire world in on the secret during this year's Tony Awards, where he performed the tune alongside professional rappers T.I. and LL Cool J. It was a delightful, albeit a tad bizarre, experience:
Lauren Worsham (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder) and her husband, musician Kyle Jarrow, bopping along:
James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin), also rapping:
Andy Karl (Rocky) bewitched, Idina Menzel (If/Then) bemused, Jason Robert Brown (Honeymoon in Vegas) bewildered:
Watch the moment in full here:
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