Let me begin this by explaining one thing about myself. I am a theater geek, particularly for “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Lestat.” I’m friends with actors, I used to go to the Broadway Annual Flea Market each year when I lived in NJ, I’ve seen “Phantom” about six times on Broadway. I’m a geek.
So when I say “The Greatest Showman” is amazing, I mean it. Once I heard it was a musical, I needed to see it. I was slightly skeptical, because I was so far from a fan of Hugh Jackman’s performance in “Les Miserables.” I hated his performance. Still, I needed to see the movie.
I did not get the chance to see it in theaters, which bummed me out, but it takes time and money to go to the movies, and I don’t like to go out a lot. So my first exposure to the movie was hearing the songs play on Adele’s Pandora station (of all places). The first song I heard was “This Is Me,” which I thought was okay. I mean, now that I’ve heard it more I love it, but at the time it was not my favorite (which could also be attributed to the fact that I listen to Adele Pandora at work, so I couldn’t hear the whole song). Then someone on Facebook posted a video clip of “Never Enough,” and I was hooked.
That’s one thing you can certainly say about the movie’s soundtrack. It digs into your brain and sticks. I have had “Rewrite the Stars” in my head for over a week. I absolutely love the music, and am excited whenever one of the songs comes on at work.
The story was a very good one. Everyone loves a good underdog story, but P.T. Barnum didn’t seem to be an underdog to me. He was always determined to fulfill his dreams, and he did. I loved the love story between he and his wife Charity. She loved him despite the fact he was not her equal in rank and standing. She always made it clear that she would support and love him in anything he chose to do, no matter what. We need more love stories like that.
The main threat to their love story is Jenny Lind. At one point, Jenny kisses Barnum, though it was not reciprocated. The story gets back to Charity. When Barnum talks to her about it, she stated that she wasn’t upset at the kiss, she was upset that he didn’t trust her with a business dealing that led to them losing their house. I absolutely loved this, because she trusted her husband with a beautiful singer, but faltered when he hid the truth. Too often we see couples in movies broken up by kisses, even if the one party did not consent.
The actors were all superb. As I stated, I was worried about Jackman, since he seemed to sacrifice his singing for his acting in “Les Mis,” but that’s not so in “The Greatest Showman.” His singing is as good as his acting, and he did not sacrifice one for the other. I was pleasantly surprised by Zac Efron. I know he’s done musicals before, but they were all juvenile. He was definitely perfect for his role. All of the others performed as well as I had hoped they would. I was slightly saddened that Rebecca Fergusen did not do her own singing as Jenny Lind, but the woman who they picked to dub over was phenomenal.
I can’t really say anything bad about this movie. I loved the story, the acting, and the music. It has to be one of my favorite musicals. I’m absolutely addicted, and you will be too.
You can get “The Greatest Showman” here.
