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Mickey-Jo saw the 1st preview of THE GREATEST SHOWMAN | everything you need to know about the stage musical
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Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic)
People have been asking me. I got a lot of texts this evening saying you know what my immediate reaction is and the word I keep coming back to is awestruck. Ladies and gents and everyone else watching this video or listening on podcast platforms, this is the moment you've waited for. A few hours ago I saw the very first preview performance of the world premiere production of the Greatest Showman at the Bristol Hippodrome here in the uk. Finally on on stage as a full musical production. And as promised, I'm about to tell you all about it. We're going to talk about how this has been brought to the stage. We're going to talk about the five new songs that have been added to the existing score from the Motion Picture, as well as subtle changes to the storytelling and slightly more pronounced shifts in character. Plus, things you may want to know about the overall theatre going experience, including my thoughts on the merchandise, some of which I'm wearing right now, and my updated understanding of what the next steps might be for the Greatest Showman on stage. Is this still planning to transfer speedily to the West West End or is it heading straight to Broadway? Stay tuned to find out my thoughts on all of the above. But first, an introduction. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back. My name is Mickey Jo and I'm obsessed with all things theatre. I'm a theatre critic and content creator here on social media and this evening I headed to the Bristol Hippodrome to go and see the Greatest Showman. Truly One of the most exciting new arrivals in UK theatre this year. However, this premiere engagement is only a limited run. It's only going to be in Bristol for for about two months with no further plans or dates as yet confirmed at this time. The entire run has sold out, but you are still able to snap up the occasional return ticket should you be particularly eager to. In any case though, if you are expecting to see a review from me of the Greatest Showman and whether or not I enjoyed it, thought it was a great musical, star rating, all that jazz, that is not what you are going to be experiencing today. I'm still going to tell you everything that I can about the show, but I am not reviewing it because A this was a first preview performance and B the entire run is sort of developmental. This is at no point during this whole run going to be reviewed by major theatrical outlets or critics. However, because of the size of the theatre, thousands of people are going to see it, so it makes little sense for us to not talk about it at all. Plus, you know, a little bit of conversation is good and healthy for any developing new musical. Now previously when I've done videos like this, I have done them in a sort of a vlog style. I did the same thing for the first preview of the Hunger Games. Also Paddington the Musical at the Savoy this time and we'll talk more about this in just a moment. We little stickers to put over our phone cameras. There you go. Which had a very cute little design there and an urge to keep it under our hats as it was as with the long running play the Mousetrap in the West End. So I will not be telling you in this video who the murderer is in the Greatest Sherman. And as it happens, I don't use my phone to film vlog content, but I figured if they're covering up the phone camera, they probably don't want me whipping out a little vlogging camera. So my descriptions of the evening are going to have to suffice. Of course, if you would like to help me out and you, by the time you are arriving here, have also seen the Greatest Showman on stage at the Bristol Hippodrome, feel free to comment and share all of your thoughts and feelings down below. Plus, if anyone has any questions that I don't address or answer this time around, feel free to ask those and I will do my best to let you know. For now though, let's talk about it. Here is everything that I can tell you about the Greatest Showman the Musical. So for the benefit of those people who are going to see this, who don't necessarily want spoilers and there are going to be an evident amount of them in this conversation. Let's talk first about the overall theater going experience. If you've never visited the Bristol Hippodrome before, it's a gorgeous venue. It's one of the UK's larger regional venues. All of the biggest tours tend to go there. It's not the first time that they have premiered a new Disney musical. It's where Mary Poppins first flew onto the stage. I believe the advice that has been given to ticket holders is to arrive at the venue around 6:30. You can arrive from that time. It makes little sense to arrive before because that seemed to be when the doors opened. Don't be panicked if there's a long queue extending around the corner. It moved fairly fast. It was while we were in this queue and this may vary depending on staffing and how they choose to do it, that they came around with the little stickers that they put themselves over the camera on my phone with the wording being that no filming or photography is to take place. I think they said inside the building, but explicitly they really mean inside the auditorium. Which means at this time, unless it changes for a future performance, because I saw the very first preview, no curtain call footage, no photos of the stage even outside of the performance itself. So no pre show or post show photos either. And as with cabaret at the KitKat Club, another show that implements the same kind of strategy, that is not an invitation to use your selfie camera. Now, like I said, the entire run is basically sold out at this point, save for the occasional returned ticket. So me giving you any advice when it comes to seating might be a little bit moot. But for the benefit of any ongoing life, for this production, at this venue at least, I think the front row may be a little bit challenging because of the height of the stage and the highest height of the theater, as well as the most extreme side seats may miss certain ELE that are played on the upper level of a multi level set. And that is all I will say about that for now. One thing that I do think is beneficial for you to know is the running time of the first preview performance. There were signs put up inside the auditorium that were suggesting act one was going to be 73 minutes long. That's one hour and 13 minutes followed by a 20 minute interval. And then I think they said an hour and five second act which would put the entire thing at an aspirational 2 hours and 37 minutes. Our performance, which was incredibly slick, by the way, just about as slick as the first preview of Paddington was a couple of months ago, actually seemed to come down closer to 2 hours 50 in the end. And I dare say there will be things that will be trimmed from that, but not an extraordinary amount because they can't cut out that many entire scenes and songs without leaving major holes in the storytelling. Almost everything sort of props, something else up. But just so you know, I saw it on a Sunday evening and the last train was minutes away by the time the curtain was coming down, so I got a taxi home. Now there is one more important theater going aspect that we need to talk about and that is the merchandise. They had an extensive range of merchandise from the very first public performance, which is very exciting. I don't know that I am the biggest fan of its aesthetic. If I have any notes for the show going forward, I think the easiest thing for them to change is the design of some of this merch. And it's all recognizable for some reason or another, but I feel like very little of it fits into this branding that has been established with the show artwork. For one thing, almost none of it is red. They have this giant mug in the shape of a red top hat, which I think is both novel and on brand. But so much of the rest of it feels more like the kind of Greatest showman inspired merchandise that an independent creator would sell on an Etsy website. Like, you had like an embroidered this is Me lyric T shirt and you had a sort of epaulette style jacket like this one, but in denim, which was admittedly quite cute. There was a whole range of this is Me merchandise which was like black with bold white sort of beard stripes and a big red mouth. It looked more like it was for a production of Taboo than anything else. There was also a bear, which obviously I have bought. Shout out to the audience member who was sat in front of me who suggested the brilliant name P.T. barnum. He's sort of covered in constellations and is themed to Rewrite the Stars. There were a couple of Rewrite the Stars products and, you know, everything ties into something, but none of felt like obviously the greatest showman and merch designers could almost never win because if it's too obvious, then I complain that it's basic and, you know, if it's too niche, then it feels a little bit unusual. There were so many different products on offer. I think they could honestly find a decent middle ground by just putting out a few more. Even like generic Obvious Greatest Showman merchandise items like give us a basic T shirt and a basic baseball cap and I feel like then everybody's happy. Sometimes you do just want an enamel pin that is simply the logo of the show rather than some kind of adjective message. Oh, I couldn't film inside of the theatre, but I can show you there's like an image of the merchandise on offer here. There you go, There you go. Now you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, those are my thoughts on the theatre going experience. Let's talk now about the storyline. So the plot of this musical adaptation of the film is by and large the same as the plot of the film, with a couple of what I would describe as subtle differences. The first thing to really be aware of about this story in a theatrical context is that it has a new framing device. And the film, from what I can remember, begins similarly with Whoa. Coming out of the darkness. And then the performance of the song the Greatest show, which we will hear again at the end. So too does the musical. But then Barnum introduces himself, the performer playing adult PT Barnum, and tells the audience that they are going to see the story of his life. I sort of assumed that this might be where we are going with it. Only he isn't the only one to address us in this moment, as he is joined on stage by his wife, Charity. At this time, PT Barnum is being played by West End leading man Oliver Thompsett, and Charity, his wife, by West End leading lady and established Disney leading lady Samantha Barks. And from this immediate interaction between the two of them, which is a little familiar of Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway in the musical and Juliet, it is clear that their relationship dynamic is going to be very different in the stage musical than how it was on film. There is much more of a sense of shared power between these two characters. And we end up seeing that throughout the show. Not only is Charity and the musical significantly more participatory in his dreams and his plans and eventually his show, but also she holds him to account more and she takes him to task both within the framing device and then in the story as it's being told. Familiar a little, I will say, of their dynamic in the musical. Barnum, a different earlier musical based on the same historic figure. Now, from the introduction, everything sort of continues as we are expecting. We get this montage of his early life. We see him portrayed by a young performer encountering a young version of his wife for the first time. And then we sort of accelerate towards adulthood while he is working As a laborer, he comes across a condemned theater that he purchases in order to achieve his dream of building a legitimate life for himself as a showman, as an entertainer. The way in which he goes about building this show and recruiting the fascinating and extraordinary individuals who will make up its cast is a little bit different to how it is on screen. For one thing, we don't see him seeking out a handful of specific individuals. First he puts out this open casting call, and they have another montage in which he meets a whole bunch of them with a bunch of different skills. And critically, it is skills here rather than disabilities. There are no performers of short stature. The character of General Tom Thug has been excised from this version of the story. It is more about their abilities than their disabilities. We also encounter neither Leti Lutz, the Bearded lady, nor Anne Wheeler until a little bit later. Neither of them are present at this initial casting call. And those characters have a couple of differences of their own. Letty is not initially brought in as a songstress. He doesn't find out that she can sing until later on in the story. And then he's like, why didn't you tell me? It's very Cher and Christina Aguilera in burlesque, actually. And Wheeler, the character played by Zendaya on screen, screen, when she arrives, no longer is part of a double act with her brother. She doesn't have a brother in the stage version. What she has instead is a scar on her face that she talks about immediately, and she says she doesn't allow it to define her. If this seems a little puzzling initially, we soon enough find out why it's there. She does, however, arrive with a posse and delivers an opening number, but we'll talk about the new songs in just a moment. The key detail of her characterization is that she undeniably knows her words, and on screen, her arc is about this forbidden love with Zac Efron's character, who becomes Barnum's co producer, as he does in the stage musical. This is the character of Philip Carlisle, and the two characters immediately connect romantically on stage, with somewhat less reluctance to begin an initial relationship, only realizing later on that their romance is going to encounter challenges. But not for the same reasons in the film, because it is heavily implied on screen that theirs is a forbidden in love on the basis of the racial prejudices of the time. There's being an interracial romance on stage. For all intents and purposes, Ann Wheeler as a character need not be played by a black actress or an actress of color, because the only objections overtly brought against the relationship by his parents as well as wider polite society are her allegedly tawdry past, which the scar on her face is symbolic of. And in the same way, you know, it's a detail about her appearance that she isn't able to change or escape from, and something that she has to embrace about herself and accept. And initially I had very mixed feelings about sort of removing the racial component from the story. However, there were rumors for a very long time that this was being workshopped with Joshua Henry in the lead. And it occurs to me that if removing the racial component of the story allows what could go on to be a very long running musical to be cast in a way that is colorblind, then that ultimately is probably a better thing, rather than restricting non white performers to a handful of specific smaller roles because we're talking about racism when we don't necessarily need to. And true enough, in this production, in terms of the understudies for principal roles, there are various configurations of the cast that you could have where bringing racism into the conversation would render the whole thing a little bit confusing. Now, the character of Ann Wheeler is played by Broadway star Lorna Courtney. Philip is played by the rising West End talent Ben Joyce, who feels quite different the characterization created by Zac Efron. On screen, he feels a little more uptight, a little more professional, still dissatisfied with his career thus far, but more just kind of bored than anything else. Certainly he is very charming and boyish. Once he arrives at this infatuation, the two of them have a lovely chemistry and she is effortlessly able to manipulate him into doing things that she wants him to do, like sticking around and like helping them to gain access to important rooms. In terms of the structure of the narrative and the order in which things happen, it is broadly the same, other than, you know, taking a screen story and adapting it into two acts. And it may surprise you to learn we're going to talk about the songs next, that the Act 1 finale is a new song you haven't heard before. You may be thinking, is it like Come Alive? Is it this Is Me? None of the above. Brand new number, this Is Me, possibly the most anticipated song in the show, actually ends up falling a little later than it would have done on screen. And all of the Jenny Lind subplot, her arrival, her performance of Never Enough, the culmination of that storyline, all takes place in the second act. Though interestingly, the song Tightrope is first heard way earlier in a moment of private reflection for Mrs. Barnum, she does reprise it a couple of times, though in varying lengths. It's really the only solo song that she sings. It's a reflection and a notion that she returns to and reconsiders at a couple of key points in the show. The only other thing that I don't necessarily remember from the film, and perhaps it was always there, is how specifically Barnum is motivated by the memory of his father and this one message that he left with him, that he ought to use his talent and his skill in order to lead a legitimate life. And this is kind of his raison d' etre as he attempts to be taken seriously both by his wealthy father in law who frowns on his entire existence, and his marriage to his daughter, as well as by one notoriously grumpy theater critic. And as with the film, most of the sources of tension arrive into the second act. There is still still protesting and push back against Barnum and his show. Not necessarily as prominently in the film. We don't see it come to a head until the theater goes up in flames. There's also the Almost affair with Jenny Lind, which is even less of an almost affair this time around. It's really only a sort of somewhat indecent proposal on her part and as much as anything else, just kind of a misunderstanding between the two of them. There's no scandalous kiss caught on camera. It is, as you are presumably expecting, by and large, the same show. Biggest differences come in the Score like I said, five new songs. Let me tell you all
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Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic)
all about them. Now. Back in March 2025, there was a quote in a Deadline piece about this show saying that audiences need not worry all your favorite songs from the film were going to be in the stage adaptation. And they then listed a bunch of different songs, including, you know, almost all of them except for this Is Me and Never Enough. And for the remaining months I have been deeply worried. But fear not, those along with every other song from the film have made it into the stage musical, along with five completely new additions. And all of these five are entire full length songs. There was a moment where I thought, oh, it's just kind of like an introductory, but then it picked back up after a bit of a scene and it continued. The order of the songs is largely the same, other than I think Never Enough maybe moves a little bit later. Tightrope definitely moves earlier and gets reprised. There is the occasional difference in terms of arrangement. The first version of the Greatest show that we hear, as well as possibly Come Alive includes something of a snazzier ending. The ending of this Is Me is a little different. The beginning of this Is Me is a little different. There are sometimes key changes in unexpected places. A few songs seem to be in exactly the same key as the film, and I think we maybe could have a little bit more flexibility because you forget just how low some of them sit. To begin with, both Tightrope and from now on begin perilously low. Never Enough as well, because they almost all have the quirk of like leaping up an entire octave subsequently. But what we want to talk about are these five new songs. The first is a sort of a working song sung by Barnum and the other laborers as he is trying to keep himself motivated to chase his dreams in the face of, you know, very unpleasant work. Look, it's a song called Dust and the Dirt. It's one of my favorites of the new numbers. And the earliest moments of it reminded me a little. I don't know if it's just because it's them writing for a bunch of masculine voices together, but it reminded me of a much earlier Pasek and Paul score, the one they wrote for Dogfight, which is some of my favorite work of theirs. I've talked a lot on here about the way in which they have really shaped and come to define the current moment of contemporary musical theatre that we are in with this sort of Christian rock adjacent sound, which I think was at its. Its peak circa Dear Evan Hansen, but particularly circa the Greatest Showman. And two of the new songs that they've added into this show feel like classic. That just like quintessential Pasek and Paul, everything that's been added sits very nicely alongside the existing score. I don't know if we get a moment like with the addition of Monster, for example, to the Frozen score, where it feels like, oh, that could almost be like, you know, a standout song as great as the others. Everything just sort of. Sort of sits nicely side by side, which is fine. You know, there were already showstopping fantastic bangers in the Greatest Showman score. And it's a hell of a thing to be compared to. One of those songs is the Act 1 finale. It's called the Show Goes On. It begins as a moment of sort of angsty contemplation for Phineas Taylor Barnum. And it turns into a company number when they are presenting the performance. I really thought that this was maybe going to be this is Me. But then I understood saving that for the second. Second act. It's the one that people are most anticipating. There's another song that sort of takes us through various different scenes in the second act called Undeniable. This is a second song sung by Jenny Lind. So she gets to do Never Enough. She doesn't do the sad sort of teary reprise that we see on screen that audiences really ought to ask for a refund. For the fictional audiences inside the story, that is not the people at Bristol Hippodrome. They're very happy. But yes, she sings this song called Undeniable that I think he then sings with her. And it transitions up us from the two of them touring around the country together, him producing her in the us to their arrival back in New York at this fancy gala where she is to be joined by the rest of his company at the last minute. He gets reluctant about letting them in the room. And from there, this is. This is them, as it were. Now, there are two other songs that are a little different. There's a song that Barnum's company perform for Queen Victoria in England when they are taken to meet her. And it's a little more sort of classic vaudeville sounding than the rest of this score. And there's a lyrical idea that also reminded me a little of the musical Barnum, because they're singing about color emerging from black and white and their own vibrant lives and personalities. It's all just a little bit more pastiche, a little more old timey. The final new song is in the first act when Lorna Courtney as Ann Wheeler eventually does arrive at the exact moment when Philip is getting concerned, having been brought to come and see the show in rehearsals and has decided that, you know, too much is at stake for him and he's going to quit. Anne then arrives, delivers this showstopper of a number, and surprise, surprise, Philip decides to stay. The song that she performs is one called Skybound. She tells them that she flies around in the air and she performs a trapeze routine to a song which I will say is suspiciously familiar of if anyone remembers this. The song Silent or Sun Silenced. It's the song that Jasmine sings in the live action version of Aladdin, the Will Smith version of Aladdin. And she sings like, oh, no. I think it's called Speechless Silence. All I know is I won't go on Speechless, whatever that may be. Skybound is kind of a little similar to that in the chorus. But, you know, if I'm having to go to that kind of a length to explain to you what this original song was, maybe they can just reuse it. Andrew Lloyd Webber has truly done it enough times. Generally speaking, though, of the music, it all lands really, really well. And I already suspected that it would because I had seen Come Alive the Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular. And a huge selling point of that is how much people love these songs and are excited to hear them in any kind of a theatrical context. Add in the emotional performance, the world class vocals from this exceptionally talented cast cast and the weight of the whole thing and it got a really big audience response. So many of these numbers just got really rousing applause afterwards. Another huge part of that is the way in which it was staged. Let me tell you more about what all of this Looks like. So first of all, let me try and explain to you the set on which all of this is happening. And it's a little familiar of the set of the. The more well known musical version of the Great Great Gatsby, the one currently playing still on Broadway, because they do utilize screens. There is a curvature to the stage and it sort of looks a little art deco as well. It's a two level semicircular set with spiral staircases at the front ends on either side of the stage. On the floor we have a series of revolves, but they also lift up and down and different parts of them can lift up and down separately. There are are automated set pieces that arise from the floor. There's like a doorway that comes up, there's a larger thing that comes up. There are occasional bits of set, certainly lots of props that get brought forwards. There are things that drop down from below, curtains and such. The immediate preset that we see going in feels very much like a marriage between the Great Gatsby and Water for Elephants, because there is a little sort of revolving light lampshade thing on the floor which then gets mentioned in, in the show. But it's conjuring images across the stage and across the floor and in fact across the auditorium as well. One of which is the one and only Disney Easter egg that I managed to spot. Because one of these shapes does look suspiciously like the Disney Castle. And if anyone is concerned by the notion of screens in a set like this, they are used very subtly. If you saw a show like the Great Gatsby or even Paddington currently in the West End, the way in which they are married to the actual set piece is as subtle here as it is in either of those shows. And I think it's done quite well. Oh, I'm getting dangerously close to reviewing this thing rather than just describing it. I can't keep giving you adjectives. Stop. Stop tempting me. Right? We're talking about staging. And there is an extent to which the storytelling language of the entire thing is circus. There are a lot of moments that are imagined, whether they are like someone's inner thoughts and emotions as they are singing a solo song to themselves. And there's a little bit of circus acrobatics happening, happening behind them. Whether there is a moment of, you know, real jeopardy and peril and someone is leaping from a burning building. And that is realized with circus acrobatic choreography. There is throughout the whole thing, just this through line of circus as a visual storytelling language. There's also plenty of circus awe I audibly reacted a few times to really surprising and legitimately thrilling moments. We see see swords swallowing, we see flames, we see someone spinning around in one of those big sort of hula hoop things. We see a lot of tumbling, we see acrobatics, we see a heck of a lot of trapeze. Rewrite the Stars is a great moment for this. If you're thinking they're never going to be able to recreate the kind of trapeze choreography they do in the film on stage. Just you wait for Rewrite the Stars. I would say if you have seen circus inclusive shows like, I mean it's not Cirque du Soleil in terms of the extent of circus choreography. It's not even like doing stuff that feels as death defying as water for elephant did. It's not achieving quite the same scale of stunt that come alive the Greatest Showman Spectacular does. But it's. It's a nice blend of musical theatre, dance, circus, acrobatics and dramatic storytelling. One coming together of all of these ideas is the first performance performance of Tightrope by Samantha Barks in which she is moving across this plank that is being tilted against a stool on top of something else. And she walks up it at an incline and then it's lifted and then it is slid across the thing and she stays on it and then she is rotated round. It's all incredibly steady and elegant. She's walking from the shoulder of one ensemble member to the next. Very impressive to do that while you're singing. And if I were Samantha Barks and had already once been pulled to the floor by my head while dressed as Elsa because of a malfunctioning quick change, I'm not sure I would sign up for any of this, but clearly she's more game than I am. Going back to the very beginning. The entire opening is full of revelation. And what we see in this first flash and then darkness and then we see something else in another flash and then darkness. And every time something more is revealed. And the final punch of this is, I don't want to spoil it for you. It is so awe inspiring. People have been asking me. I got a lot of texts this evening saying, you know what my immediate reaction is? And the word I keep coming back to is awestruck. Because there are so many moments, especially in that opening number that are just going to bowl you over. They are designed to wow. And they do reveals and slick split second reveals and disappearances and appearances very, very well. I would say there are more reveals than a Drag Race, Lip Sync, Lollapalooza after the initial opening opening, we have the sequence with A Million Dreams, which is mostly done using shadow puppetry. And I can't even do justice to the way in which this is achieved because it's mostly performers holding specific props but creating shadow puppetry spaces collaboratively with their bodies as an ensemble, creating carriages and horses and plants and flowers growing through the floor, while Young Barnum and Young Charity are performing behind this cloth, also silhouetted alongside them. We encounter Young Barnum repeatedly throughout the story. He doesn't just appear at the beginning, he recurs as this sort of emotional anchor for Barnum to remember his inner child and the dream that has been driving him this entire time. And at the risk of beginning to review the thing and telling you how I felt about it, which I promise I am not going to do, let's talk a little bit about what the future might might be for the greatest showman, whether it is going to be the West End or Broadway first after this Bristol run ends, as well as a couple of notes that I have that if a creative team member is watching, they can implement for free. Only 2 though 3 and I become an unofficial dramat
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- [33:05]
Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic)
And while there are definitely other things that I have to say, these two are just really easy, quick little fixes. There is a moment when Barnum goes to find Letty after she has left feeling upset about the way that people have responded to her. And she is singing on the pier and she is vocalizing. It's a little foreshadowing of the ensemble melody sung in this is Me. You know the one. It's, oh, oh. Anyway, they have a speech, and he's trying to persuade her to come back. And there's something that he says to her, like, we're being called ridiculous. It's not exactly that, but it's something to that effect. And it stops her in her tracks, and she turns around. Only that's not news to her. She knew that already. That was the exact fear that was prompting her to want to flee in the first place. Place. So it has to be something else. It has to be something that would genuinely surprise her and force her to stop, turn around, and reconsider. Meanwhile, later on, when Barnum is doing something of an apology tour after everything has gone a little bit wrong. If you've seen the film, if you know his story, then you know what's happening here amidst the singing of the song. From now on, everything is going quite well. Everyone is singing together and doing the very stampy choreography. And then he has a line which is some variation of like, oh, there's someone else I need to tell this to, as well as in, there's someone else I need to go and apologize to for my heinous, heinous behavior. And he then runs to his wife while we continue to hear the song like we do in the film, only the O of it all, the shock of it all, as he's having this nice time at the bar, reconnecting with all of his friends, makes it feel like in that moment, he's going, oh, damn, I forgot I have a wife. And so rather than saying, oh, there's someone else I need to tell that message to, it should just be like, now, if you'll excuse me, there's someone else who needs to hear this. Or like, there's someone else very important or the most important something to convey, like it hadn't slipped his mind, he's come to talk to them, but there's always somewhere else that he was going to go next. Not like, oh, well, you know, come to think of it. Anyway, those are my two notes for free. I'm not going to add anything else because, like I said, not a review. Review I may have the chance to review, hopefully when the show gets a further life. So let's talk about when and where that might be, because the prevailing rumor for some time, which I may or may not have instigated. I definitely did not start this rumor unless I possibly did. The prevailing thought was that this was going to be heading to Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and that Hercules was only playing there. Another Disney theatrical production, in order to basically keep the stage warm. Now, as the timeline goes, I believed firmly in that until I began to hear from sources very, very close to director Casey Nicholaw that that may have no longer been the plan and that Hercules was doing surprisingly well and that Disney Theatrical hadn't predicted that it would because they consistently underestimate the millennial market for their shows. Anyway, what I heard was instead going to happen was that Hercules would continue at Theatre Aldru Lane and the Greatest Showman, instead of transferring to the West End after its Bristol run, would head straight to Broadway. And I am eager to see the Greatest Showman on Broadway because I would like to see Disney really score a win on Broadway. It's been a long time since they've opened a new production in New York and Aladdin has done very, very well at the New Amsterdam Theatre. It has run there for more than a decade. I do think that what the Greatest Showman offers audiences is more modern and more exciting. I think the film's popularity has grown over time and that this is something Broadway audiences would enjoy. There aren't that many offerings for families in terms of Broadway shows. Disney will always be a reliable provider of that. But more than anything else, I want this to go to the New Amsterdam Theatre because it's this gorgeous, grand former Follies house and the Greatest Showman makes so much sense there. Don't get me wrong, it could also work at a venue like the Palace. I would just like to see Broadway just revitalized that little bit. However, if you are paying close attention, you will notice. Notice that what I had heard was that Hercules would continue at Drury Lane and greater Showman would go from Bristol to Broadway. At this point, what we now know is that Hercules is definitely not continuing because they have announced that the run is going to come to an end. At which point, understandably, everyone has been saying, well, we know why Hercules is closing. It's to make way for the arrival of the Greatest Showman. Only the timing doesn't really work because it would imply that the Greatest Showman is going to transfer almost immediately to London after their Bristol run. With no time whatsoever to consider the lessons learned from this out of town tryout. And more to the point, that isn't what I had heard was happening. I am now beginning to hear a couple of different productions being touted for Theatre Royal Drury Lane, not Disney theatrical productions. And while it is still possible that the Greatest Showman could arrive there at a later date, Perhaps in spring 2027, there is no guarantee that London audiences are going to get to see it for a little while. Which I know for UK theatre goers, especially those who didn't get tickets to see it at the Bristol Hippodrome, is not welcome news. And I could be wrong. I hope that I am wrong. But it also wouldn't necessarily surprise me if the Bristol run wasn't happening in the UK because it's going to the West End first, but instead was just happening because they want somewhere, you know, somewhat private and removed from the Broadway ecosystem by way of the Atlantic Ocean in order to really develop and fix the show. They are essentially workshopping it for a paying audience on a very large, fully performed scale. I mean, they've done an awful lot of private workshops over the years for the Greatest Showman. And at a certain point with a show like this, you do just need to have a lot of people in the room. Meanwhile, there is another Greatest Showman show, one that I've mentioned a couple of times. Come Alive, the Circus Spectacular still running in live London. I wonder if it's going to be a sort of canary in the mine style warning if we get a closing notice for that. Because, you know, while I think Disney is confident enough about the Greatest Showman that they wouldn't necessarily need that to close in order to run this, I think having now seen both, you probably don't want that to continue to be open because it would invite a comparison of the circus skills, which obviously the specific circus show is going to do more and bigger. But if I were producing the Greatest Showman, I would want this to be the only Greatest Showman in town, which ironically it currently isn't because Barnum is literally touring the UK right now. Also, not for nothing, the UK is a significantly cheaper place in which to workshop and build and produce a show while you're getting it ready for Broadway or for the West End. And Disney have learned from shows like Frozen that really became the best version of itself on its post Broadway US national tour and then subsequently in London, the production that ended up being filmed for Disney plus that perhaps it is better to really get the thing right first before you take it to some of the world's most important stages. For now though, that is everything that I have to tell you about the Greatest Showman, the musical on stage and this world premiere production Like I said, if you have any further questions questions, please let me know in the comments section down below and I will do my best to answer them. In the meantime, thank you so much for listening to this. I hope that you enjoyed I hope that as many of you as possible get the chance to go and see it at the Bristol Hippodrome. If you would like to let me know if you managed to get tickets, let me know of course what you thought of the show. If you've seen it already, if anyone else was at the first preview, what did you think? Just because I can't review doesn't mean that you can't share your thoughts. Finally, if you would like to hear about the shows that I can review this year, make sure to subscribe here on YouTube or follow me on podcast podcast platforms. If you want to stay up to date with everything that I see and talk about in the week, then the easiest way to do that is to sign up to my free weekly substack email newsletter at the link in the Description I have been Mickey Joe and as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theater. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe
- [41:19]
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Casual Conversationalist
Are you alright?
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Person Experiencing Stomach Issues
And keep having stomach issues after eating? Eating like diarrhea, gas and bloating, abdominal pain and sometimes oily stools.
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Creon Medication Informant
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Creon Medication Warning Announcer
Creon may increase your chance of fibrosing colonopathy, a rare bowel disorder. Tell your doctor if you have a history of intestinal blockage or scarring or thickening of your bowel wall. If you are allergic to port or if you have gout, kidney problems or worsening of painful swollen Jo. Call your doctor if you have any unusual or severe gastrointestinal symptoms or allergic reactions. Take Creon as directed by your doctor and always with food. Do not chew capsules as this may cause mouth irritation. Other side effects may include blood sugar changes, gas, dizziness, sore throat and cough. These are not all the side effects of Creon. Call 800-633-9110 or visit creoninfo.com to learn more. That's creoninfo.com I'm asking my doctor about
- [42:33]
Person Experiencing Stomach Issues
EPI and if Creon could help.
- [42:37]
Mickey Jo (Theatre Critic)
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