Barnum was written in 1980 by Cy Coleman (music), Michael Stewart (lyrics) and Mark Bramble (book), based very loosely on the real life of master showman PT Barnum.
The first two actors to assume the role were Jim Dale on Broadway and Michael Crawford in the West End – both known for their comedy prowess and for throwing themselves into the stunts and tricks the show required. The last production I saw of this show was at the Menier in 2018.
Now, this latest revival from the Watermill Theatre is an actor-musician production, with live music on ‘over 150 instruments’. Director Jonathan O’Boyle and choreographer Oti Mabuse offer a glimpse into the big top.
PT Barnum was known for elaborate hoaxes (what he called ‘humbug’) relating to his performers, and great spectacles. Here he is played by Matt Rawle – a more serious portrayal as things happen around him rather than with him at the centre.
The structure of Bramble’s rather thin book demands significant breaking of the fourth wall, and suggests Barnum’s life plays out like acts on a variety bill. We watch as he presents Joice Heth, a ‘160-year-old woman’ and ‘General Tom Thumb’, a little person purchased from his parents.
A museum venture is built, and fails. A stint as an opera impresario promoting Jenny Lind, the ‘Swedish Nightingale’, gets wrapped up in infatuation. A foray into politics is only successful with a bit of colour in the mix.
Barnum is essentially a great charlatan who tells us “There Is A Sucker Born Every Minute” in his first song. His long-suffering wife, Charity (Monique Young) both supports and challenges him. His business associates fade under his garish light. He’s very unlikeable, and in Rawle’s take, not that memorable.
Known for its reflective ballad, “Colours of My Life” and two brash emsemble numbers in Act Two, “Come Follow The Band” and “Join The Circus”, Barnum is an unrepentantly old-fashioned show.
This production adds real circus performers for feats such as aerial work and fire-eating, allowing a constant feeling of fakery within Barnum’s world. In the cast, Dominique Planter (Joice), Fergus Rattigan (Tom Thumb), and Penny Ashmore (Jenny Lind) stand out.
The songs written for Joice (“Thank God I’m Old”) and Tom (“Bigger Isn’t Better”) are surface crowdpleasers, but hint at the exploitation below. A deep dive into these stories would make a much darker thread to the show.
Lind is pretty, selfish, and destructive, with her demands for Barnum’s attention and her lack of empathy for anyone else. Ashmore – who also plays the knee harp beautifully – can handle both the singing and the acting here.
The relationship between Rawle’s Barnum and Young’s Charity didn’t always convince. That duet was marred by a lack of chemistry, and despite Young’s clear dedication to the tale of the clever but wounded wife, Rawle’s diction in the patter number “Museum Song” wasn’t as comprehensible as it could have been.
Overall, this is a perfectly good revival. The circus acts are excellent. That playing of so many instruments by the cast is staggering. There’s a puppet elephant we’ve seen before in Circus 1903.
I’m giving it 3.5 stars. The second half is shorter and tighter, and with a stronger lead it might have scored a little bit more.
Barnum is at New Wimbledon Theatre until 3 Oct then continues to Edinburgh, Belfast, Eastbourne, and Malvern.
Photo credit: Pamela Raith