Early into his show, Hugh Jackman tells us he always had a thing for numbers – he wasn’t good at sums, but numbers stuck firmly in his memory. His first home phone number. The license plate number of the family car from his childhood in Turramurra. Later, he says a figure so casually you might not register how staggering it is – 15,000: the number of audience members in Qudos Bank Arena for The Man. The Music. The Show, Hugh Jackman’s touring juggernaut.

There are multiple, similarly attended dates in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. He has successfully lapped the UK already. In October he’ll play the United States and Mexico.

Who are all these people going to see Hugh Jackman – a Sydney boy turned international movie star – sing and dance and chat for two affable hours? Even Jackman himself isn’t sure. Upfront, he pre-emptively forgives the audience members who’ll be checking their phones for updates on the cricket. He even promises us to tell us when he’s two songs from the end, just in case we’re the kind of people who like to leave early to beat the traffic.

It’s easy to understand Jackman’s international appeal, with massive movies like The Greatest Showman and The X-Men franchise under his belt. But Australia seems to love him so fervently, this man out of time, singing Sinatra and tap-dancing to AC/DC.

Hugh Jackman’s message is clear: follow your dreams, no matter what others might say. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for HJ

Jackman is comfortable as himself. He dances freely and without cringe, even as he recreates the choreography from his turn as Gaston in Beauty and the Beast in 1996 at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre. He tells us his brother calling him a sissy prevented him from taking dance lessons; he dances joyously now, secure in himself and his interests. The message is clear: follow your dreams, no matter what others might say.

He shows himself as a loving husband and father – he descends into the audience to waltz with Deborra-Lee Furness, his wife of 23 years – but he immediately jokes about making all the other husbands look bad. He’s your mate. He plays piano onstage and immediately makes a self-deprecating joke about thinking he’s somehow qualified to play a piano at an arena show (with specific apologies to Billy Joel).

He brings out two children’s choirs to sing You Will Be Found from Dear Evan Hansen, the reigning hit musical for sensitive teens, written by The Greatest Showman’s songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. He casually says the musical will be coming to Australia next year; behind me, young women screamed in delight.

Jackman knows he pushes the boundaries of acceptable bloke behaviour; he encourages you to let him. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for HJ

And then Jackman begins the second act in character as Peter Allen, reprising his Tony award-winning turn as the Australian entertainer in The Boy From Oz. A woman is pulled from the audience to dance with him; she clings in delight. Jackman shakes his hips and moves like Allen, a little queerness in every step. Later, he mugs in Wolverine poses, joking that the X-Men fans in the audience must have been suffering all night. He knows he pushes the boundaries of acceptable bloke behaviour; he encourages you to let him.

His audience is, typically, entranced. They cheer when the band plays the 20th Century Fox theme as Jackman describes his love for movie musicals. They even cheer at his take on Valjean’s Soliloquy and One Day More from Les Misérables. Jackman’s voice, which has always been more about charm and power than technique, serves him well in this enormous space. But when his special guest, The Greatest Showman’s Keala Settle, emerges to sing generic-outsider anthem This is Me, her stunning voice brings people around me to tears. Jackman made space for her to shine.

Later in the second act, he gives the stage over to Walmatjarri and Bunuba blues singer Olive Knight who, with son Clifton Bieundurry and didgeridoo players Paul Boon and Nathan Mundraby, performs a number in Walmatjarri. After Jackman joins them for a rendition of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow, he speaks movingly about living in “an increasingly divided world” and wanting to spread “the idea of reconciliation through art, through music, through culture”. He hands Knight the microphone to translate her words into English, so we do not miss them: “The land is crying for its people. The people are crying for the land. Do not be silent. Speak up for her.”

The Man. The Music. The Show is a strange mix of earnest performance, a variety show for the heartfelt and easy-pushed buttons of popular entertainment. But popular entertainment is popular for a reason and it’s easy to get caught up in the spectacle.

When I told my ride-share driver why I was going to the Qudos Bank Arena, he brightened. He loves Hugh Jackman like he loves former world No 1 tennis player Pat Rafter, he said, because “they show Australia’s face to the world”.

Jackman, perhaps, shows the world who we wish we were: a nation that has attempted to heal the genocide and systemic racism that haunts and hurts us; a nation where men don’t routinely and violently kill women; a nation where gendered expectations are out the window. Where love and respect are the guiding tenets of our communities.

And if that’s who we wish we were, maybe there’s hope for us yet.

• Hugh Jackman: The Man, The Music, The Show is touring Australia until 3 September