Peter Viney's Blog

The Greatest Showman

Directed by Michael Gracey
Story by Jenny Bicks
Screenplay by Jenny Blicks & Bill Condon

Songs by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul
Score by John Debney & Joseph Trapanese

CAST
Hugh Jackman – P.T. Barnum
Michelle Williams – Charity Barnum
Zac Efron – Phillip Caryle
Zendaya – Anne Wheeler
Rebecca Ferguson – Jenny Lind
Austyn Johnson – Caroline Barnum
Cameron Seely – Helen Barnum
Keala Settle – Lettie Lutz (Bearded Lady)
Sam Humphrey – Tom Thumb
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II – W.D. Wheeler
Ellis Rub in – Young Barnum
Skylar Dunn – Young Charity
Paul Sparks – James Gordon Bennett (critic)

So you have the La La Land music team of Pasek & Paul. The very first song reminded me strongly of We Will Rock You as sung in The Knight’s Tale with the whole audience stomping away on the floorboards. That sets the tone. The songs and backing are modern, as in The Knight’s Tale and The Great Gatsby with no attempt to match the period portrayed on screen. It works a dream. There is great use of added sound … rhythmic hammers putting up posters, bottles, glasses.

The title takes me back to favourite circus movies, Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show On Earth (1952) with Charlton Heston; Trapeze (1956) with Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida; or Carny (1980) with Jody Foster, Gary Busey & Robbie Robertson. I loved circus movies, and we even had Circus Boy with Micky Dolenz (later a Monkee) as Corky on TV. The circus was supposedly so interesting then that our school French textbook had a continuing story about a circus over five years, though no one could make that French syllabus interesting. Enid Blyton books were full of circuses. Then it all went sour when Animal Rights kicked in. I recall taking my kids to the circus past a protesting friend who’d previously chained herself to the bars of the lion cage. I like circus, and cheerfully petted the cute baby tigers which were brought round. Now, largely, the animals have gone. We get the Moscow State Circus once a year, but it’s a few years since I’ve been. I’m a total sucker for the Cirque du Soleil though. Love it.

They avoid that animal rights area here. The theme of Barnum’s original New York show focuses on humans, so obviously reminds of Rod Browning’s 1932 classic, Freaks. Except that here Barnum’s obsession with, er, freaks, becomes in the words of the theatre critic James Gordon Bennett “a celebration of human diversity.” OK, that’s a mealy-mouthed ultra PC description, but in the film it really works as such.

A celebration of human diversity …

It’s rags-to-riches with some hiccups along the way, with a very strong musical score. We start out with poor boy Barnum working for his tailor father, and meeting rich girl Charity. They go off together as soon as they’re adults and Barnum manages through a touch of fraud to get first a ”Museum of Curiosities” under way which turns into a circus. He employs a playwright, Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron) to give the show some snob cred, not that it works. Carlyle’s romance with the beautiful African-America trapeze artist Anne Wheeler is the major subplot.

Rebecca Ferguson as Jenny Lind

In a bid for respectability, Barnum persuades Swedish opera singing star Jenny Lind to come to New York, and is entranced by her voice. Sensibly this opera star does a modern rock power ballad in front of the 1850 stuffed shirts who love it. Jenny Lind is played by Rebecca Ferguson, who is half Swedish and who lives in Sweden, so that is attention to detail! Barnum embarks on a major tour and is strangely attracted to Jenny Lind. You’d have to be made of ice not to be, but when she presents her luscious lips for a kiss he decides to flee home to his wife and kids, and in anger she quits the tour. Oh, dear. Huge financial loss. Back in New York, the local thugs and tearaways have taken high moral ground against the parade of freaks and the circus building is set alight. Ruination for Barnum, but he’s back happily with Charity. Fortunately the circus performers have Faith in him, and so there’s Hope. (Sorry, couldn’t resist it). Actually, Carlyle invests. They get a circus tent, and we finish with a splendid three ring circus scene complete with huge elephants and lions … I assume they’re superimposed SFX of some kind.

Keala Seely as the bearded lady

Throughout the choreography, the dance performances and singing is superb. High marks for Hugh Jackman (who was in musicals singing and dancing before he was Wolverine). Keala Seeley as the bearded lady is a phenomenal singer, and troupe leader in dances.  Her stirring proud-to-be-a-freak song “This Is Me” received the Golden Globes Award for Best Song. Zac Efron sings superbly, as does Zendaya as Anne. Rebecca Ferguson as Jenny Lind is totally credible as a superstar singer getting nightly ecstatic standing ovations.

The cinematography uses a brilliant colour palette. It looks and sounds tremendous, and the attention to each song shows Michael Gracey’s training in directing music videos. On balance, that’s positive. OK., the story’s lovey dovey. It’s hard to believe that Barnum made his excuses and left Jenny Lind’s hotel suite, it’s sentimental and sweet BUT just watch the love scene with trapeze ropes between Anne and Carlyle and only a hard heart would not be swept up by it.

Zac Efron as Carlyle and Zendaya as Anne: The trapeze scene

There has been criticism, and the film hits the UK screens along with the BBC TV documentary on “Jumbo,” the biggest African elephant, who died in Barnum’s care and got stuffed. I’d take it as a vibrant musical very loosely based on Barnum. It is not a biopic. Yes, I’d guess the real Barnum was an exploitative son-of-a-bitch with little regard for animals. However, there are other fascinating aspects of his life that are ignored. This is fiction. It’s fun. Jenny Lind, the real Swedish nightingale,  did tour with Barnum in 1850- 1851, but they parted amicably and she stayed touring. Far from bankrupting him as in the film, the real tour netted him 500,000 dollars (14 million today) and her 350,000 dollars, which she used to set up schools in Sweden, so no, that bit wasn’t true either. It does not matter.

So, don’t be like the snotty critic constantly confronting Barnum in the film (Paul Sparks as James Gordon Bennett), just take it a fabulous lively musical and enjoy it. My feet didn’t stop tapping.

We saw it near the end of its main theatrical run. On my Sky movies / DVD / Blu ray / 4K blu ray test, I’ll be buying the 4K blu ray when it appears, but it really is worth catching on a big screen while it’s still on one.

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