Hugh Jackman nominated for a Tony Award for his role in The Music Man

Australian superstar Hugh Jackman has been nominated for a Tony Award for his critically-acclaimed lead role in the smash hit Broadway show, The Music Man.

The Tony Awards are considered Broadway’s most prestigious prize – the American theatre’s version of the Oscars. 

In 2004, Hugh, 53, took home the same award – Best Leading acting – for playing the role of  Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz.

First staged in 1957, The Music Man has been nominated for six other Tony Award,  including Best Revival of a musical and Best Leading Actress for Hugh’s co-star  Sutton Foster.

Billy Crystal has also been nominated in Hugh’s category for his acclaimed role in Mr Saturday Night.

Other nominees competing in the category are Myles Frost, in MJ, Jaquel Spivey, in A Strange Loop and Rob McClure, in Mrs Doubtfire.

In the famous toe-tapping musical, which was made into a film in 1962, Hugh plays a cheerful, but unscrupulous con man Harold Hill.

Hill manages to persuade the little town of River City to buy musical instruments they do not know how to play. In return the charmer promises to keep River City free of ‘sin’.

Landing the role was a dream come true for the Wolverine star. 

Hugh said he first appeared in The Music Man in a high school production in 1983 while he was attending Knox Grammar in Sydney.

Even though he was only a member of the chorus, Hugh was bit by the theatre bug.

‘That was probably the moment when the magic of theatre was born in me,’ he recalled.

The Music Man and Hugh received raves when the curtain first went up back in February.

Respected U.S. trade paper Daily Variety called hunky Hugh ‘dazzling’ and capable of ‘acting up a storm’.

Tickets for the show cost as much as US $240 (AU $345) – some of the most expensive seats on Broadway.