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THE GREATEST SHOWMAN musical is coming | When is the Disney stage production heading to Broadway?
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Mickey Jo
Well, if you loved the Greatest Showman and you've been wondering to yourself why Disney Theatrical haven't brought that to the stage yet, then ladies and gents, this is quite literally the moment you've waited for. Oh my God. Hey. Welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you if you are listening on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre which is why I am sat here wearing a party shop top hat which has cogs on the side. I wore it to a steampunk festival once. Don't question it. All of this because news has finally broken about the Greatest Showman coming to the stage. This was teased at D23 a little while ago. I have spoken about this before on social media and in truth I had started hearing rumors about some of the details, which have now been confirmed in a Deadline article and exclusive by prolific entertainment journalist Baz Bamigboy, who loves to handle a scoop. Loves to handle a scoop like a child at an ice cream van. And so even though I wanted to go to the gym this afternoon, I am sat here dressed like this. Oh, what is my job? What is my life? To let you know everything that we now know and can also predict about the stage arrival of the Greatest Showman. Spoiler alert. It's not going straight to Broadway. It's also not going straight to the West End. But in today's theater news recap, we will be talking about the audiences who will be seeing it first. Now if you enjoy this one, make sure to subscribe to my theatre themed YouTube channel or follow me on podcast platforms or other social media platforms. For all the up to date theatre news both in the West End and on Broadway. And as always, let me know what you think about this as well. Are you excited for for the Greatest Showman to come to the stage? Will you be trying to get tickets to this, its world premiere production? And what else do you think we can anticipate about this stage version of the show? I'm very curious about what exactly this is going to look like. In the meantime, let's talk about it. Here is everything we know about the Greatest Showman on Stage. Now needless to say, before we even get into the details of this article from deadline.com from Baz, there has been huge anticipation for for the Greatest Showman on stage. After the film was released, it started to gain more and more momentum and it had real significant impact in the world of movie musicals. It kind of helped to revitalize the movie musical a little bit but it was also one of those rarities, a movie musical conceived entirely for the screen, which was never presented previously on stage. It wasn't an adaptation of an existing musical. All of which prompted the conversation. Does it make sense artistically to adapt this for the stage and, you know, allow fans to bask in the joy of the Greatest Showman in a live theatrical format? By which what I really mean is, do we have the opportunity to make a buttload of money? And over the past few years, rumors have been rife about workshops for the Greatest Showman. Was Joshua Henry attached to some version of it that was going to go to Broadway? Was it going to be the show that reopened the Palace Theatre after they lifted a few feet off of the ground in the name of capitalism? Was it going to open at the New Amsterdam? Were they going to move Aladdin? All of this conversation around the possibility of the Greatest Showman stage arrival, finally we know, and it's none of those things. So here is what we do know. The world premiere of the Greatest Showman stage musical with five new songs we'll get to it will open in the UK in 2026. That's not this year, but next year for those of you keeping count ahead of Disney Theatrical taking it to the West End and Broadway. So all of this is of course on the cards. It would have to be a property like the Greatest Showman. You know that this is going to happen. It's like when Stranger Things opened in London. You knew that it was eventually also going to be eyeing New York. Interesting though, that we are starting to see that happening more that way round with London. First, we'll talk more about why a little bit later. For now though, here are the details I have been keeping from you. So the stage adaptation of the musical movie the Greatest Showman, which starred Hugh Jackman, of course, portraying the early life of entertainer PT Barnum, who is, you know, depicted elsewhere on stage, will have its world premiere in the British west country city of Bristol around March 2026, ahead of its launch in the West End and on Broadway. So there you have it. This is of course going to be the Bristol Hippodrome, interestingly enough, the same regional theater where Mary Poppins the Musical had its world premiere production. This is one of our finest, grandest regional theatres here in the uk. It is immense. Let me tell you the actual capacity of this theatre. It has a capacity of just under 2000, 1951, in fact, it is one of many theatres designed by the architect Frank Matcham. And it's it's very exciting. This is not a subtle world premiere. We've seen a handful of shows like the Devil Wears Prada having little tryout runs down in Plymouth to tinker with the thing. And I think this is also going to be a work in progress given that it's a world premiere of such a huge show. But this is not a secretive location for them to go to. And you know, it's silly for me to say that about Plymouth, but for whatever reason that is the case. They didn't get a lot of London press attention by being just a couple hours down the coast. Bristol is a lot more conspicuous. But then this is going to be a big production. They're going to need a big space. And they also want to make a big impact because for Disney, it's also about visibility. They don't want to go and hide somewhere for the world premiere of the Greatest Showman. That wouldn't work. And they're going to need a big old theater. So this allegedly ahead of its launch in the West End and on Broadway. Talk about it. But a little bit of background on the film, obviously. I assume most of us have seen the Greatest Showman full of exotic beasts, bearded ladies, strapping giant strong men and daredevil acrobats. I remember only a handful of those details, I'll be honest. Along with the likes of Zendaya, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson and zac Efron, the 20th century film grossed $459 million worldwide. But Baz points out it's fair to say that audiences went giddy over the songs and the film's embrace of its disparate characters who bonded as a family ish rather than its storyline. I mean, that was definitely a subplot of the film. For the most part it was about Hugh Jackman having an existential crisis about an affair. But I think the less said about that the better. I think certainly he's hit the nail on the head when he says that audiences went giddy over the songs. This was the real thing about the Greatest Showman. You had like encore sing along screenings and the music has really, really endured and not just the most obvious ones. There is still a lot of ongoing love for like the Other side and rewrite the Stars as well as of course the big hit this Is Me probably being the biggest song from the film from now on. The Greatest show itself and the nodule inducing power ballad that is never enough. Never enough. Now since we're talking about songs, let's have that conversation. So songwriting duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who won a Golden Globe and a Grammy and received an Oscar nomination for the 2017 films Pop Classic this Is Me, the aforementioned song, have written an additional five new songs to augment the hits they penned for the picture originally directed Michael Gracie. Which is interesting because I think the film actually has a pretty extensive score. But obviously, in adapting films to the stage, there are certain changes that you have to make. And that's encouraging because I think some of the worst adaptations have, in both directions, actually have tried too hard to simply replicate the thing that was originally successful in one medium and not understood that changes have to be made for it to succeed in the other. For one thing, one of the biggest issues that any film to stage or stage to film has is trying to figure out how to make it work with an interval, because that's present in most stage productions, but it is not present in most films. You need not only a big, splashy Act 1 finale for which the Greatest Showman could utilize some of its existing songs, but you need, and this is always the very challenging part, a song to bring back the energy at the top of Act 2 and carry us forward and push us forwards, in fact. And a lot of shows don't know how to write a second act opening. That's often the hardest song to conceive. A little more information here, though. The numbers in the show will include all the ones you love. That's a quote from Anne Quart, Disney Theatrical Group's executive producer. The Greatest Show, A Million Dreams Come Alive, the Other side, Rewrite the Stars, Tightrope and From now is that not all the songs? That just feels like it's all the songs. I mean, they've even got Tightrope. Tightrope was the one I was prepared to do battle for because, you know, not one of the big hits, but an underrated gem. Now I need to go to the Greatest Showman album and see which songs haven't been included on that list. Did they say Never Enough? Surely they said Never Enough. They didn't say Never Enough. That has to have been in oversight. They must be doing Never. And how could they not be doing Never Enough? Wow, I'm a little bit shook right now. I mean, they also didn't say this is me, but I feel like that's implied because how could they not? But those are literally the only songs that weren't mentioned other than, like, the reprises. My goodness. Now we actually do have the title of a new song, one of the new Pascan Paul songs, which Baz has listened to Lucky Baz. Always getting to do that is a rousing rallying anthem called Show Goes on, which will bring the curtain down at the end of act one. There you go. They have written a new act one finale and I think they're probably going to have to write an act to opening in some capacity as well, because none of the songs that I'm thinking of from this list would really work for that. Unless it's some kind of a repurposed version of Come Alive divorced from its original context. I wonder where in the narrative they are putting the Act 1 finale. I can't brilliantly remember the structure of the film. Do a rewatch I suppose, but feel free to share your thoughts about this in the comments down below. Where do you think we are going to have the act break in the Greatest Showman Story? Especially if it's with a song called Show Goes On. The show must go on, not that one different song now we have some creative team details here. Lauder director Casey Nicholaw, who won Tony Awards for his direction of the Book of Mormon and for his choreography recently on Some Like It Hot, has been given the task by Disney Theatrical Group led by Managing Director Andrew Flatt Court and Chief Creative Officer Thomas Schumacher to inject his renowned show stopping Brio into the heart of the greatest Sherman. He will direct and choreograph as he so often does. And we're burying the lead a little bit here, which is that he has also an ongoing relationship with Disney Theatrical. He brought Aladdin to the stage and he is also the director currently bringing Hercules to the stage. He has directed the German production in Hamburg. He did not direct the initial New York production at the Delacorte nor the New Jersey production. Casey Nicholaw was brought on to try and fix the show when they took it to Europe prior to the West End. Now the West End production of Hercules will be opening at Theatre Royal Drury Lane later this year. That is currently where much of Casey Nicholaw's focus presumably is. We will talk more about that a little later on in this piece, but it's definitely relevant. I'm just suddenly remembering, was there a rumor at some point that getting the Greatest Showman job was a condition of Casey Nicholaw agreeing to do Hercules? They obviously were struggling with Hercules. It was not working at paper mill in New Jersey. They needed someone to come on and fix it. They wanted a reliable pair of hands. They looked back to their recent long running success, Aladdin, which has just celebrated a decade on Broadway. They asked Casey Nicholaw, and from what I hear, he agreed to do Aladdin on the proviso that he would get the job directing the Greatest Showman, but of course, I don't think that's ever been said officially. The show is being produced, of course, by Disney Theatrical and the Selig Group, a producer of the movie. It's the first 20th century title to be adapted by Disney for the stage. Interesting. The creatives have spent months fine tuning the material. They held an extensive workshop in London last fall. And don't hate me, but I did know that this was happening. I also heard several names who are attached to the workshop, which I don't think I want to spoil for you. Now, if performers want to come forward and reveal that they were in the workshop, if they're not under furious NDAs with pictures of a mouse all over them, which I assume that they are, then fine for them to do. So what I will say is that if you think about the greatest vocalists right now in the West End, they were all in this, an absurd amount of them. So many that you think, oh, I guess that person's playing that part. But then that person could also play the same. But there's like five of those people who could all play that one part. And sometimes that's the glory of a workshop, is that you have a wildly talented cast because they're available for that period, or they're excited to workshop the show, or they have daytime availability while they're doing another contract, whatever it may be. In fact, the sort of. The workshop rehearsals and the presentation of the original film before it was filmed also included Jeremy Jordan and Cynthia Erivo, who didn't end up being in the film. Worth saying as well. Every cast member I was made aware of who was participating in the London workshop was also a British performer. It was not Jeremy Jordan, it was not Hugh Jackman. But we will get to that. There's a little statement here about the workshop, which is from Disney Theatrical, that says it was one of those spaces where you felt that thing you feel when something has. Special has happened. Hold on, let me try and read that sentence again. It was one of those spaces where you felt that thing you feel when something special has happened. Okay. And it was very much an indicator for us that certainly we have endless notes and work to do. Endless notes and work to do. My, my. And cutting a song and removing a scene and all the things. But the bones are right and the structure's good. So we're feeling very hopeful, which is always a good Sign. I am hoping against hope that when they talk about cutting a scene or maybe even pre workshop, they got rid of the scene when it's on fire. I mean, I guess it's important dramaturgically and you know historically that there was a fire, but the way that it's navigated on the film. I think it was Jenny Nicholson who made the joke in her review about like character A being like where's character B? And running in to go and save character B. And then character C is like where's character A? And like this whole convoluted I'll save you from the fire. Not if I save you from the fire first sequence that we did not need and is going to be mind bogglingly difficult to portray on stage. But then a lot of this is going to be quite difficult to portray on stage, even come alive. The Greatest Showman show running right now in London, which we'll talk about momentarily, because now it is time for us to talk about the production details at Bristol and beyond, as Buzz Lightyear would say. So the Greatest Showman will rehearse from late December or very early January and then head to the Bristol Hippodrome, a favorite tryout venue for Disney Theatrical Adventures, where it will have its world premiere in March. Ish. No official date has been set, but if we look at the programming for Bristol Hippodrome, have they released what's on that far into the future? I'm being a little bit naughty by trying to uncover these details, but you know, I'm curious and I'm wearing a top hat, so I'm committed to this already. So right now all we know is that Jack and the Beanstalk, their pantomime will be playing until the 4th of January 2026. So we have learned nothing. But here is the headline news. And I'd been hearing Bristol for a little while. I'd also been hearing this next detail. Baz reports I have it on the authority of Android Webber. Everyone take a drink. Whose LW Theatres group controls the Theatre Royal Drury Lane that there's an agreement in place for the Greatest Showman to go there after its Bristol tryout. In other words, it's going to have a tryout in Bristol and then it's going to transfer to the West End and it's going to play the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Of course, it is that vast stage, the huge theatre, the columns out front. It's obvious that that is the kind of theatre that the Greatest Showman will go to. Unless of course, Hercules does wildly and unexpectedly well. But even then, the Greatest Showman doesn't have that many other options of theatres it could consider in London for the kind of scale it would be hoping for. I think is going to be a really hot ticket and a really big sell. This is going to appeal to families. It's going to have a lot of nostalgia from the film. I think everyone's going to want to go and see the Greatest Showman on stage. The only other place I could see this going, another Disney favorite, the Prince Edward Theatre, where Mary Poppins was recently where Aladdin has been before. Maybe what we see happen is that Hercules moves from Drury Lane to allow Greatest Showman to go there as planned. And Hercules ends up in the Prince Edward if it wants to run a little longer in London. But certainly this does seem to indicate that Hercules might be considered a finite West End run. And for Disney, they're going to put Hercules in there just to kind of hold the space, as Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande would say, and retain whatever lease agreement they have. I don't know the exact details of this, but obviously they were there before with Frozen until such a time as they can bring in the show that they really want there, potentially ongoingly. The Greatest Showman. Maybe Hercules just tours after its West End run. And you might be surprised to hear that Hercules is only eyeing being in the West End for a year and not for a really long time like other Disney shows before it. I'm a little less surprised because I. I've seen the thing already, but we'll talk about that in June. And hey, maybe they fixed it. I mean, miracles happen. Carrying on. Let's talk now about casting. Casting for principal roles is well underway. Jackman, for starters, will not be reprising his screen role as Barnum. Nobody is surprised. You know what I think? Ironically, Hugh Jackman would actually be better at on stage than P.T. barnum in The Greatest Showman. Is P.T. barnum in Barnum? I think that's a much more Hugh Jackman show and a much more Hugh Jackman score than the Greatest Showman Ever was. And he did a great job in the Greatest Greatest Showman on film. But I think. I don't know. He's a man constantly forced to make blockbusters when he just wants to tap dance. And this allowed him to be a little bit more of the singing, dancing entertainer that he wanted to be, obviously. But I do think that he'd just have a lovely time doing Barnum. Let him do Barnum with Sutton Foster. That would sell tickets I'd buy tickets to that. I would get on a plane. But I also think he's kind of aged out of Barnum in the Greatest Showman just a little bit, and I wasn't anticipating seeing him do it on stage. Very few, almost no examples I can think of of film stars reprising their performances in stage adaptations. But Baz writes that he was curious about Keala Settle, who will forever be associated with the mammoth chart topping this Is Me, much to her regret. I remember her electrifying performance brought the house down at the Oscars. He points out that she often works in London and played Ms. Coddle in the Wicked movie. And he pressed Quart about whether Settle or anyone from the film would be in the show. Baz evidently has not heard what I have hear. Kiala Settle's troubled relationship with the Greatest Showman with the song this Is Me, to the extent, and I have interviewed her not too long ago, that journalists are asked specifically not to mention it in interviews. It is not a topic that she wants to speak about. She has made her feelings clear about it in concert. There is a lot of sort of negative mental health attached to that chapter. The song was very difficult for her. The role, I think, was very difficult for her. It's not a period of time that she wants to revisit, certainly not something we can expect to see her doing on the stage. So in response to this inquiry from Baz, Anquart replied that she felt this would be unlikely. Isn't it just? However, she clarified, we haven't finished casting, so it's hard. I can't say anything for sure, but it isn't our intention that anyone from the film will be in the musical. No one from the film. Zac Efron is not doing this. Zendaya is not doing this. I think we will get Zendaya on the stage at some point, but it's not going to be in a little supporting role. She could do better than this part. Rebecca Ferguson's sure as hell not singing the song on stage because Rebecca Ferguson didn't sing it on screen. Do you know what would actually be an interesting novelty is to have Lauren Allred, who was the voice of the song, Never Enough, do it on stage. I mean, that would be fun, wouldn't it? What they do say is that key casting has been ongoing for six months and it moves up a phase imminently, with open auditions kicking off this month and next in Dublin, Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Exeter, Newcastle and London. Good golly. They say that they're legitimately really looking for unexpected talent and people who perhaps maybe haven't been your musical theatre kid who've gone through the traditional format, but people who have a gift that they maybe only shared with their shower or their school choir or their church or something they're hoping to find really unique, extraordinary humans, which is interesting. I do think that behind that veiled statement is the reality of the difficult relationship that any P.T. barnum story has with the disabled community. Because this is a man who historically is open to a lot of very valid criticism about the way that he behaved and the way that he manipulated these individuals and utilized them. And there's a lot of darkness there there that the narrative in the Greatest Showman doesn't really contend with. I do think that that criticism is going to resurface and that some authentic, inclusive casting of very talented disabled performers would go a long way here. Now, Anne Court also says there are no brand new characters, but they may be presenting the characters from the film in a slightly different way, making sure, for instance, that Charity Barnum's wife, played in the film by Michelle Williams, has agency. Unlike the film where she was thinly sketched, the character in the stage production will have a proper arc. I am excited to see. Would like to see it. Interestingly enough, I think she has a much better arc and more agency in the musical Barnum. They've also ensured that the other key female character, Anne Wheeler, the young woman Zendaya played in the film, has real space and a story to tell. No mention of Jenny Lind and never enough. I assume that's just an oversight and she hasn't been cut from it. But they have described Ann Wheeler as the other key female character. More statement here. They say they're trying to build a musical that is very human and very much about found family and about losing yourself and coming back to yourself in the end. Court says, how do you tell the story of the myth of Barnum? This man who certainly is complicated. You can say that again. But in our musical, this man who has a drive and a passion to entertain people, but feels like he isn't entitled to have that kind of space in life and the more they divorce him from his complexities, I do think it does a little bit of a historical disservice. And as a lot of people said at the time, why don't they just make a non historical musical about a fictional character who bears some kind of resemblances to P.T. barnes Barnum, rather than kind of glorifying this, this complicated figure, they go on to say our only job right now is to make a great show. That is the only thing we have to do. Our first plan is to make it great. And then, of course, if we are able to succeed in that, we will eventually want it to be in the West End and we want it to be in New York and I hope in many, many other places. Could we expect to see Lion King levels of global domination? I mean, nothing's ever going to achieve. I don't think Lion King levels of global domination, but certainly, certainly I could see this doing very well in different international markets. Now, Court would not comment on the possibility of the Greatest Showman transferring to Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Certainly, I think they would be more eager to talk about that if it wasn't demonstrably stepping on the toes of Hercules, which is right now trying to build up buzz, trying to build up enthusiasm, and is not telling people that it's a strictly limited run in any kind of a capacity. What she did say is that we're not getting ahead over our skis in terms of making plans until we have landed the first plane, which is to make it great. Lies. Utter lies. There is for sure a conversation already happening about its West End destination and about its Broadway destination, not only because these theaters have to be agreed so far in advance with all of the demand coming in, but also because it's Disney and it's the Greatest Showman. You know that they are having these conversations. You know that they are getting the theaters that they want for this show. They are having these conversations far in advance. I do not believe for a second that they are not thinking about the long game here. They're not just trying to put on a good show in Bristol. This is a bunch of toddlers going out to their back garden and making a theater and performing for their parents. This is Disney Theatrical. This is the Greatest Showman. This has the possibility of being huge, long running, massively impactful. This could be one of the biggest stage musical arrivals in a long, long time. There is no doubt in my mind that Disney already know exactly where they are taking this show, both in the West End and on Broadway. And I. I think both theaters are probably already booked. Baz says that his calculation is that the Greatest Showman wouldn't be in the Drury Lane any earlier than the end of 2026. But there's also the slim possibility that it could go to Broadway first and then take over the Drury Lane. First of all, let's see how strong Hercules is, right? And as I mentioned, I've seen it twice before, so I already know the answer to that question, at least for now. I don't think it goes to Broadway first before the West End. Why take it to Bristol to then take it to Broadway? Unless something goes wrong. Unless they really don't want to close Hercules and you know, the right theatre suddenly becomes available on Broadway. But I think the plan seems to be London first, which like I mentioned with Stranger Things, seems to be happening more and more. I wonder if Disney looked at the fact that Frozen was, you know, a better version of itself in London because of changes that they made on the US tour with the US tour company, from what I hear. But certainly, and I was just talking to someone about this earlier today day. There are a lot of stage musicals based on films that are wildly more successful in London than in New York. For many of them it's because adjustments have been made after difficult first productions. I'm thinking about Doubtfire. I'm thinking about the Devil Wears Prada, but the likes of Pretty Woman, we've mentioned it several times here. Much more successful in London. And I think the environment and I think the audiences are a little more embracing of those very commercially minded film to stage adaptations here. So it seems like a more nurturing environment moment to open a show. And like I said, we already have come alive. The Greatest Showman show, which seems to be doing well. It is, from what I hear. I haven't seen it non narrative. It is more just circus. It is not in a traditional theatrical space. It's not in a West End theater. I wonder if there's some kind of a licensing agreement where it is allowed to run up until the Greatest Showman starts and then it has to close. Or if Disney thinks that the brand is huge enough that both can exist at the same time. That's very interesting to me. But I am going to conclude the speculation there because honestly, we could talk about this for a really long time. We could talk about the minutiae of how they are adapting this and what this might look like on stage and the casting that we might see. I am very excited for it, both to see it. I'm excited for it, both artistically but also for the industry. I think this could be a really seismic event. And as always, I would love to know what you think as well. As I said, are you excited for the Greatest Showman on stage? Will you be traveling to see it? Will you be trying to get tickets as and when it is officially announced with dates for the Bristol Hippotri Rome? What do you think is going to happen with the show thereafter. Share all of your thoughts and feelings in the comments section down below. And thank you for watching this theatre news recap. To stay up to date with all of the theatrical news happening both in the West End and on Broadway, make sure you are subscribed to me right here on YouTube with the notifications turned on so you don't miss any of my upcoming releases or following me on podcast platforms. Thank you for listening. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.