Good times never seemed so good in the first trailer for “Song Sung Blue,” Craig Brewer‘s new inspiring romance drama starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as members of a Neil Diamond tribute band who fall in love. Best of all — other than Jackman’s long jet-black hair in tribute to Diamond — it’s based on a true story.
Brewer has charmed audiences in recent years with “Dolemite Is My Name” and “Coming 2 America,” though his first big breakout hit was the 2005 Oscar-winner “Hustle & Flow.” Stories about big personalities, often set in the world of entertainment, are his specialty, and he both writes and directs “Song Sung Blue.” The Focus Features release seems a prime candidate to be a crowdpleaser, and possible awards contender, when it releases December 25.
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What’s especially exciting about “Song Sung Blue” is that it’s a jukebox musical, playing many of the best hits from Diamond’s extraordinary catalogue of songs, but it also tells an original story. After all, Diamond fans already got a straightforward biopic of the singer-songwriter from the Broadway (and national touring) stage production of “A Beautiful Noise.” This goes in a different direction, to show how the power of an artist’s songbook can add to the lives of two people who admire it deeply. Think kind of like Gurinder Chadha’s tribute to Bruce Springsteen fandom, “Blinded by the Light.”
It’s also a welcome opportunity to hear Jackman sing onscreen, and bring to bear the showmanship that audiences have enjoyed from him on Broadway (most recently in “The Music Man”) as well as in movies like “The Greatest Showman.” Just don’t call Jackman’s character “a Neil Diamond impersonator.” As Hudson’s character puts it, he’s more of a “Neil Diamond interpreter.” They’re joined in the cast by Michael Imperioli, Ella Anderson, King Princess, Mustafa Shakir, and Hudson Hensley, with Fisher Stevens and Jim Belushi.
Hey, if just this description has you singing “play it now! / play it now! / play it now!/ play it now!” like any Diamond fan, well, go ahead, play it now and watch the trailer below.
Focus Features will release “Song Sung Blue” in theaters nationwide on December 25.
