THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

The Greatest Showman (2017)

Rating: 6.5/10

STARRING: Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya and Keala Settle; with Austyn Johnson and Cameron Seely as P.T. Barnum’s Daughters

RATED PG

If you like movie musicals, you’ll love The Greatest Showman.

While there’s no question that Showman is corny in that musicals way – the lip-synching is at-times painfully obvious, and the narrative is nothing to write home about – the soundtrack created by the Oscar-winning songwriters of last year’s La La Land (Benji Pasek and Justin Paul) and the hit Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen is absolutely phenomenal. Add a typically uplifting rags-to-riches tale, a 100% committed cast, and some spectacular choreography, and it makes for a sweet, uplifting, toe-tapping package.

The musical is loosely based on the life of P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman, played as a preteen by Ellis Rubin), who grew up the poor son of a tailor. Smitten early on with the richer Charity (Michelle Williams, played as a preteen by Skylar Dunn), Barnum joins the railroad to make something of himself. But even once he’s married, he’s barely making ends meet, and he decides to make a better, more fulfilling life for himself, his wife, and their two girls (Austyn Johnson and Cameron Seely). While his first attempt at a major attraction – a macabre wax museum – doesn’t catch on, he soon has the idea to build a live performing show based around people with unusual or bizarre appearances or abilities. Partly financed by a rich young showbiz heir (Zac Efron), Barnum’s circus is soon a highly lucrative spectacle, with a whole troupe of performers included a bearded woman (Keala Settle), a dwarf (Sam Humphrey) and a dazzling trapeze artist (Zendaya). In time, Barnum’s circus is big enough to gain the attention and talents of a famous European opera singer (Rebecca Ferguson). The money and attention pour in, but the ambitious Barnum soon begins to lose sight of what gave him the motivation to try in the first place.

Like I said, the narrative is nothing amazing. It’s standard stuff – the rise and fall of celebrity life – and it’s oft-interrupted by songs. In fact, there are moments when you wish the actors would not sing and would actually speak their lines, as it would add weight and seriousness to a few key emotional encounters. But then again, who's here for "weight" and "seriousness"? And also...what songs! If you haven’t checked out the soundtrack to The Greatest Showman, you need to. Pasek and Paul, who won their Oscar back in February for the very mellow number “City of Stars”, have penned two instant classics (“The Greatest Show” and “This is Me”), and a handful of additional showstoppers (“The Other Side”, “Rewrite the Stars”, “Never Enough”, “From Now On”). If you can’t tell, I’m passionate about this soundtrack. Really, all eleven tracks are worth listening to on Spotify or wherever you want to check it out. And if the music is what you come to The Greatest Showman for, you’ll be the better for it, because the songs leap off the screen, complemented by bright colors and dazzling choreography.

The songs supersede even the actors—unsurprising for a musical—but the cast members acquit themselves well. Jackman seems much more comfortable here than he did singing live in a tough part in 2012’s Les Miserables, and he sounds great on the soundtrack. Efron, who burst into the spotlight with High School Musical and Hairspray, hasn’t lost a step and sounds great as well. Williams and Zendaya perform admirably in supportive spouse-type roles, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation standout Rebecca Ferguson does not sing but does perhaps the movie’s best and most convincing lip-synching during a key power ballad, and Broadway star Keala Settle absolutely slays, her mind-boggling soprano the driving force behind all the group numbers, particularly the Golden Globe-nominated “This Is Me”.

In Summary

If you like movie musicals, you’ll love The Greatest Showman. I’d say it’s better than this year’s other live-action musical, The Beauty and the Beast, though it’s stylistically closer to Moulin Rouge or Hairspray. Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Zendaya, and the rest of the cast are great in front of the camera, but it’s the work they’ve done in the studio with La La Land Oscar-winning songwriters Benji Pasek and Justin Paul that’s worth writing home about. The soundtrack is phenomenal. If you like show-tunes, look it up. There are eleven songs, and more than half of them are incredible, get-stuck-in-your-head-type numbers. The music is the main (only) reason to see the movie, as the narrative plot is pretty cliché stuff. Still, this was overall a fun, feel-good time with some strong performers and incredible music.

The Greatest Showman (2017)

Directed by Michael Gracey

Screenplay by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon

Story by Jenny Bicks

Rated PG

Length: 1 hour, 45 minutes