‘Ladies and gents, this is the moment you’ve waited for!” Nine years after Hugh Jackman first purred those opening words, silhouetted against a foot-stomping crowd, the inevitable has happened: The Greatest Showman is now a Disney stage musical. Despite derisive reviews, the 2017 film was a sleeper hit, powered by an anthem-packed soundtrack that included the Oscar-nominated paean to self-realisation and resilience This Is Me. It seemed written in the stars that those bangers would be rolled out in a live circus-theatre spectacular, and the production adds new songs by the original composers, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, whose musical Dear Evan Hansen made the opposite (but ill-fated) journey, from stage to screen.
Rather than launching in London or on Broadway as might be expected, The Greatest Showman is premiering in Bristol with an eight-week, sold-out run treated as a tryout. Its future is unconfirmed but it is worth noting that Theatre Royal Drury Lane, former London home to the mighty Frozen, will soon be vacant because Disney’s Hercules is closing in September.
