On Saturday night, the Hollywood Bowl inaugurated its 2025 season with a night of characteristic heart, star power, and sweeping orchestral grandeur. An Evening With Hugh Jackman served as a cinematic catalysis to a summer of sound, wonder, nostalgia, joy. Backed by Thomas Wilkins and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra—with a luminous cameo by YOLA (Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles)—Jackman lent the audience a few glorious hours of Broadway bravado.
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The evening opened in cinematic fashion, with Thomas Wilkins leading Hollywood Bowl Orchestra through Prokofiev’s March in B-flat and a vibrant Music Man suite. A poignant video introducing the YOLA program set the stage for eighteen young students to perform A Troupe’s Cadence, their presence a reminder of what the evening—and the bowl's programming itself—is was truly in service of: access, artistry, and  optimism. YOLA, now nearly two decades strong, is just one testament to that servitude in action.

Radiating magnetism, the Tony and Emmy-award-winning Jackman moved through a curated setlist that hit all the right notes—selections from some of his most beloved works, such as The Greatest Showman, The Boy From Oz, and The Music Man alongside velvet turns through Neil Diamond, Peter Allen, and Sinatra. Beyond a performance, Jackman delivered a grandiose, theatrical love letter to his mulitiduinous homes: The Stage, The Screen, and, in a witty twist on the John Denver classic, Australia ("Thank God I'm an Aussie Boy!")

With over 10,000 in attendance in the audience—equal parts Hollywood heavyweights, civic leaders, and longtime Angelenos—the event raised over $2.6 million dollars in support of the LA Phil’s Learning and community programs. The night balanced spectacle with substance, placing community impact at the crux of the celebration. The focus was not on fanfare, but continuity—the kind that music, and Los Angeles, insists upon.

As the Bowl’s season begins its run through September 28, Jackman’s opener sets a high bar: one of generosity, grandeur, and deep-rooted love—for music, for performance, and for the city that makes both feel possible. Los Angeles is a city that runs on reinvention and reverie, and this night reminded us that the dream still sings.