The 2014 Tony Awards boasted few if any surprise winners. But no one expected host Hugh Jackman to team with legendary rapper LL Cool J and three-time Grammy winner T.I. on a rap version of "Rock Island," the opening number of The Music Man.
Jackman related that at age 14 he prepared for his first high school theater audition by learning all eight parts to "Rock Island." He then proved he still remembers them by treating viewers to a bit of the number, starting in a hokey "legit" mode but morphing it into a rap tonality. "Broadway composer Meredith Willson," he explained, "might have actually created one of the very first rap songs ever, back in 1957."
Whereupon he, LL Cool J, and T.I. dug in for real.
Nearly every production number on any Tony Awards broadcast is a "commercial" for a current or upcoming show. But there's no known Music Man revival in the works for Broadway, with or without rapping. So was this bizarre number just for fun?
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