E.W. Gives First Peek At P.T.Barnum Film Musical
Bridgeport's P.T. Barnum Museum should be thrilled with the attention it is surer to receiver when "The Greatest Showman," the original film musical starring Hugh Jackman will open at Christmastime. The music is by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the team who recveibved an Oscar for their lyrics to "La La Land," and who might get a Tony Award for their music to "Dear Evan Hansen" next month. Paul grew up in Westport and his father is a pastor in Hartford.
Below is Entertainment Weekly's sneak peeek:
"Walking the trapeze is a breeze compared with getting an original musical about P.T. Barnum off the ground. But after seven years of development, planning, and production, The Greatest Showman — starring Hugh Jackman as the godfather of the modern circus and Michelle Williams as his wife, Charity — will finally hit screens on Christmas Day.
“Up until La La Land, everyone was saying there hasn’t been an original musical in 23 years,” Jackman says. “So the prevailing thought in Hollywood was, unless you have a brand people know, it’s not a done thing. So it just took a long time.”
Showman, helmed by commercial director Michael Gracey, tracks Barnum’s rise from poverty-stricken childhood to the launch of his first circus in New York. Efron is Barnum’s business partner, who falls in love with a trapeze artist played by Zendaya. “This was also a time in America where puritans kind of ruled and the circus was the equivalent of some dark-alley-strip-show kind of thing,” Jackman says.