A Modern Theatre Review presented by www.stagebeauty.net

Barnum

Musical by Cy Coleman, Michael Stewart & Mark Bramble

Presented by Cameron Mackintosh Ltd & Michael Harrison Entertainment

Directed by Jean-Pierre Van Der Spuy

Alhambra Theatre, Bradford.

Date of Performance: Friday 28th November, 2014.

Duration: 2 hours 15 mins (one interval 20 mins).

Review by Don Gillan, www.stagebeauty.net

Synopsis


Programme

A musical telling of the life of P.T.Barnum, devoted husband, consummate showman and from his early days running a freak show to his association with Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind and touring with the "Greatest Show on Earth!"

Show Detailed Synopsis (WARNING - SPOILER!!!)

WARNING SPOILER!!! - Click here for Short Synopsis (Teaser)

ACT ONE

P.T. (Phineas Taylor) Barnum is a self-made man who loves spectacle and excitement (Overture / Come Follow the Band). He has built a successful circus and freak-show using hype and "humbug" to bamboozle his audiences, secure in the belief that "There is a Sucker Born Ev'ry Minute". He is devoted to his wife, Charity (Chairy), who does not agree with his humbugging ways but is equally devoted to him and aims to limit his excesses. Barnum adds two new exhibits to his freakshow, a mermaid and Joice Hesketh - claiming to be one hundred and sixty years old and the oldest woman alive and George Washington's nursemaid! (Thank God I'm Old). Signing up more new acts, Barnum needs somewhere to house them and risks all in buying a partnership in the American museum. With two daughters to raise, Charity urges Barnum to buy a partnership in a clock works and settle down to a simpler life but showbiz is too deeply ingrained in him (The Colours of My Life [Pt 1]). Charity accepts that her lot is to support her husband in his dreams (The Colours of My Life [Pt 2.]). Barnum begins rebuilding the American Museum (The Brick Chase) but loses confidence when he begins to feel he has bitten off more than he can chew. Charity restores his confidence and together they resolve to rebuild the museum "One Brick at a Time". The museum duly re-opens (The Museum Song) charging one dollar a head and is an instant success. A year goes by, and Barnum buys Charity a beautiful pearl necklace to celebrate the anniversary, leading them to reflect on their lives together (I Like Your Style). The celebration is interrupted when a messenger arrives with the bad news that the museum has been completely destroyed in a fire, leaving Barnum despondent. Again Charity helps to rebuild his confidence, reminding him that there is a whole world of opportunites out there - the clock works for example! Indeed Barnum is inspired by her words, though not in the way she intended. He resolves to build a travelling show to take his brand of humbug across America. He recruits a new act to headline his new show, General Tom Thumb (Bigger is Better), and begins to rebuild his empire. Barnum meats Julius Goldsmith, an impressario, and learns that Goldsmith is planning to travel to England to sign up Swedish singing sensation Jenny Lind. Barnum determines to beat him to it and rushes off to England to sign her himself, leaving Charity run the travelling show. Barnum succeeds in signing Miss Lind and brings her back to America (Love Makes Such Fools of Us All). Barnum becomes infatuated with Miss Lind and, leaving Charity in charge of the circus show, takes Miss Lind on tour (Out There).

ACT TWO

Charity continues to run the travelling show while Barnum accompanies Miss Lind on tour. Eventually they arrive in Washington, met by a marching band (Come Follow the Band). Although all is going well for Barnum he misses Charity and longs to be with her again. Although an attraction has grown between himself and Miss Lind he determines to break ties with her (Love Makes Such Fools of Us All [reprise]) and return home. He sells Jenny's contract to Julius Goldsmith and is preparing to return home when Charity appears. Re-united he promises to live the more sedate life she has always wanted (So Little Time). Barnum turns to politics and promises Charity not to resort to 'humbug'. His election campaign goes badly, however, prompting Charity to agree to him putting some colour into his campaign. His beloved Charity dies suddenly and Barnum is abandoned by his political backers leaving him heartbroken and his political career in tatters (Barnum's Lament). James Anthony Bailey comes to see Barnum and offers to go into partnership with Barnum back in the circus business. At first Barnum refuses but eventually comes around (Join the Circus) and they form the world-famous Barnum and Bailey's. Barnum is back where he belongs (Finale / Epilogue).

Impressions/Performances

Premiered on Broadway in 1980 and London's West End the following year, "Barnum" is a kind of "42nd Street" meets the Ringling Brothers Circus in a musical biography of larger than life circus impressario Phineas Taylor Barnum. With an intro like that you'd be correct to surmise that there's certainly plenty of potential for this to be a real cracker of a show, but unfortunately the reality here is that whilst it is undoubtedly a good show, greatness passes it by by a country mile. On the plus side it's full of glitz, razamatazz and high octane energy delivered by a multi-talented and hard working cast. On the negative side the main problem is that the story of the greatest conman/showman on earth, in this telling at least, is actually a bit dull. The main events, a fire, a quasi/semi-platonic love affair with Jenny Lind, the death of Barnum's devoted wife Charity, the double-cross that ended his political ambitions, and the partnership with Bailey that set him back on the route to the top should have provided plenty for any writer to get their teeth into, but instead are largely glossed over. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, so the saying goes, but you can, apparently, in Mark Bramble's book, do the reverse! It's not that the book is actually all that bad per se, its just deplorably lacking in detail and, in particular, misses out on so many opportunities to show us more of Barnum the man. Barnum's four daughters by his first wife, Charity, for example, not only do not figure as characters in the story but rate so brief a mention that their very existence could easily be missed altogether. Similarly, his second marriage to Nancy Fish, a woman barely a third his age (and younger than any of his own daughters), which came only three months after Charity's death, fails to rate any mention in the story at all!

Perhaps this jejune treatment of the story was deliberate to allow more time and scope for those visual circus elements, but given the relatively short overall running time of the finished product there seems no reason not to have been able to pursue the story in greater depth to create a production that might then have scored on multiple levels. That being said, however, whilst the insubstantial story is a definite disappoinment the production still has a lot going in it's favour. Cy Coleman's exuberant score is well matched by Michael Stewart's meaningful lyrics, but it's Andrew Wright's choreography backed up by some brilliant individual performances that really raise this production above the mediocre. Even before the curtain rises the ensemble cast are mixing with the audience, playing pranks and showing off their circus skills. And once the action begins on stage they pull off the copious amount of circus work required of them with arrant grace and boundless energy. Whether juggling, tumbling, hula-hooping, hanging from silks or pulling out countless other acrobatic feats they are as hard working a bunch as you could possibly ask for. Back to the music and it's lively enough with one or two touching numbers, particularly, in the latter category, the haunting 'Colours of My Life', but overall is much more of the serviceable variety than the particularly memorable.

Brian Conley, for anyone limited to haing previously seen only his TV appearances, is something of a revelation as the titular character. Best known, of course, as a funny man, that is clearly only one of his talents. Not only is he clearly equally adept at acting and singing, but can even turn his hand to fire-eating and tightrope-walking. The first step for actor in selling a part is to sell it to him/her self, and Conley has clearly done that. Conley, of course, has a huge personality himself which certainly serves him well in this part. Whether wisecracking with the audience at the start of the show or hugging the lady signing the dialog (for the deaf) from the side of the stage for rhythmically keeping up with his patter song he never for one moment slips out of character in a real tour de force of a performance. Linzi Hately is equally well cast as Barnum's sensible but permissive wife, Charity, trying hard to keep her husband's feet on the ground but without ever clipping his wings. The two make a beleivable couple and feed off one another to great effect in the comic elements of the dialogue. Kimberley Blake's voice is sorely underused as the 'Swedish Nightingale' Jenny Lind. She really does have an operatic voice beautiful enough to match that of her character and I would have loved for her to have been given a true operatic aria as part of her 'on tour' segment.

The overall result is a show which even Barnum himself would have difficulty in humbugging as "the greatest show on earth", and which, as a study of his life falls sadly wide of the mark. Put any such expectations aside, however, and go to the see the show expecting nothing more than a lively, undemanding, blend of circus and theatre and you won't be disappointed.

Verdict

A woefully inadequate book is compensated by a strong score and dazzling choreography in a flawed but enervating stage spectacular.

Don Gillan - www.stagebeauty.net


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