How a musical derided by snobbish critics became the blockbuster feelgood film of the year
. . . and wouldn’t P. T. Barnum – the great showman it celebrates – relish the irony!
NO DISCERNIBLE plot. Twodimensional characters. Politically incorrect, utterly cringeworthy and precariously cobbled together with a collection of irritatingly catchy songs.
Or so scoffed the critics. When The Greatest Showman, a musical based on the real-life story of 19th century circus promoter P.T. Barnum, was released last December the reviews weren’t exactly glowing. Initial box office takings were disappointing and the film — starring Hugh Jackman as Barnum and Michelle Williams as his wife, Charity — appeared destined for the cinematic scrapheap.
But then something extraordinary happened. On the second weekend of its release, its cinema takings doubled — a statistical anomaly virtually unheard of in an industry that expects profits to fall by as much as 50 per cent after its opening weekend.
While experts weren’t impressed with the story of working-class Barnum, who conned a bank into lending him money to make his name by assembling an eclectic troupe of human ‘curiosities’ that included a three-legged man, a sword swallower and Siamese twins, it appeared the paying public was.
And with every week, and every word-of-mouth recommendation, the film’s popularity grew. And grew. So much so that for 12 consecutive weeks it raked in over £1 million every weekend at the UK box office — a feat not achieved for more than 20 years.
Adored by fans aged from four to 94, it has grossed an astonishing £41 million in the UK so far, and with no end to its appeal in sight, is set to become one of only a handful of films ever to be released on DVD while still being screened at the cinema this month.
Its soundtrack, meanwhile, is one of just two records in the past 30 years to spend 11 consecutive weeks at No1 (the other is Adele’s CD, 21).
So what on earth is the secret of its astonishing success?
From the leading man who refused to let go to a bearded lady whose voice brought everyone to tears, via a sea of Swarovski crystals and a doctor whose orders nearly derailed the whole project, here’s how the film defied all expectations and swept a nation off its circusbound feet.
HUGH JACKMAN TURNED DOWN BOND FOR BARNUM
HAVING made his name playing action hero Wolverine in the X Men film series, Hugh Jackman became obsessed with Barnum’s tough childhood and the way the entrepreneur ‘created this world no one had even thought possible’.
After turning down the opportunity to replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond (ironically because he said the scripts were ‘so unbelievable and crazy’) Jackman, 49, touted his proposal to convert Barnum’s life to the big screen to studio executives and read 37 books on the eccentric circus owner to fully research his subject.
Nonetheless, the Australian actor, married to actress Deborra-Lee Furness, with whom he has two children, knew a musical untested in Broadway theatres was a risky proposition, admitting it had less than a 50 per cent chance of even making it onto the big screen, but that he was compelled to at least try.
‘A bad musical stinks to high heaven, but when a musical works, there’s nothing like it,’ he said
CANCER SCARE COULD HAVE MEANT CURTAINS
SEVEN years into developing his project, Jackman had set up a crucial read-through performance in front of potential producer 20th Century Fox and its financers in the hope of getting the go-ahead.
But after eight months of elaborate diary co-ordinating, there was an unforeseen and potentially catastrophic problem — Jackman, initially diagnosed with skin cancer in 2013, had seen the disease return and had gone to the doctor to have a basal cell carcinoma (an area of cancer) removed from his nose 24 hours earlier.
His surgery was a success, but his doctor said that singing so soon afterwards risked him splitting his 80 stitches, developing an infection and ending up disfigured. Yet Jackman flouted his doctors’ orders and burst into song at the read-through.
‘It was a euphoric moment,’ recalls director Michael Gracey. ‘The man that everyone had come to hear sing was finally singing. That’s when we got the green light.’
The film was designated a £62million budget and an unapologetic Jackman rushed back to the doctor to get his nose re-stitched.
MILLENNIALS WHO MADE IT A SUCCESSS
BY CONTROVERSIALLY glossing over the inequalities of 19th century life and portraying Barnum as a champion of marginalised minorities, the film cannily appealed to the liberal idealism of today’s twentysomethings.
The casting of mixed-race former Disney Channel star Zendaya, 21 (who doesn’t use her surname, Coleman) — an actress who is frequently pictured without make-up and wore her hair in dreadlocks to the 2015 Oscars — as pink-haired trapeze artist Anne Wheeler further attracted a generation of cinemagoers fed up with Hollywood’s homogenic standards of perfection.
Wheeler’s love interest Phillip Carlyle, the wealthy playwright who becomes Barnum’s business partner, is portrayed by another former Disney Channel star, Zac Efron, 30.
Both actors — who between them have a studio-pleasing 70 million followers on social media platform Instagram — are fashionably teetotal.
Zendaya doesn’t drink because ‘this industry is way too nuts for me not to be in control of myself’ and teenage heartthrob Efron abstains after the pressures of ‘going through life in Hollywood’ led him to seek treatment for alcohol abuse aged 25.
SINGALONGS FOR SERIAL VIEWERS
THE soundtrack went straight to the top of the charts in 75 countries and has shifted an astonishing half a million copies since.
After spending 11 weeks at No1 in the UK, it was finally knocked off last month — only to return to the top spot a week later for a two-week encore.
Composed by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul — who masterminded many of Hollywood musical La La Land’s
tracks — all 11 songs are impossibly catchy.
Quick to cash in, 550 cinemas across Britain have introduced ‘singalong screenings’ featuring on-screen lyrics and dancing in the aisles.
They are said to have added over £1.2 million to takings, with many set to continue throughout the summer. ‘We have customers who have seen it more than 20 times. One has even watched it 25 times,’ says Stuart Crane, head of film at the Cineworld chain.
TWELVE HOURS OF DAILY DANCING
The film didn’t just require its cast to dance across rooftops, do backflips, high kicks and wave jazz hands — they had to sing, too.
The actors prepared with ten weeks of rehearsals, and a gruelling 12 hours of dancing a day.
Zendaya was determined to use her stunt double as little as possible as she flew through the air on her trapeze, without a net to catch her, while actress Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who plays Barnum’s Chinese blade-specialist Deng Yan, has a Taekwondo black belt.
Rebecca Ferguson, 34, who plays Jennie Lind, the Swedish opera singer promoted by Barnum, doesn’t sing on the film — her vocals are provided by singer Loren Allred, who reached the finals of the U.S. version of reality TV series The Voice in 2012.
Scenes featuring Sam humphrey, 24, who plays Barnum’s 2ft 7in performer Charles Stratton — aka General Tom Thumb — riding on his horse had to be created with computer-generated imagery while the actor — whose voice was digitally altered to sound deeper — filmed all his other scenes on his knees because at 4ft 2in he was taller than the real Tom Thumb.
‘It was quite exhausting,’ admits humphrey, a New Zealander who was born with acrodysplasia, a rare condition that affects bone growth, and spotted by the film’s producers while making a guest appearance in the Australian soap Neighbours.
SILK AND SWAROVSKI, BUT NOT ACCURACY
TASKED with designing 321 outfits for a whirlwind 16-week shoot, costume designer ellen Mirojnick had her work cut out.
She had to dress a circus audience of 400 and performers including a three-legged man and 7ft 5in giant. With absolute attention to historic detail — the film is set in the late 1800s — deemed unnecessary, period garments such as corsets and hooped skirts were abandoned for some 60,000 Swarovski crystals which, combined with custom-made silk dresses, gold bullion trim and embroidery create a contemporary sense of glamour.
For Barnum’s fabled jacket, she found a garment made of ‘fabulous red lush silken wool that reflected the light’ and that, when Jackman tried it on, heralded such a transformation it sent ‘a bolt of electricity’ through the room.
AND THE PARTY’S ONLY JUST STARTED
NO LONGER confined to cinemas, a lucrative cottage industry has built up around the brand.
Tiger Tiger, a Newcastle nightclub, has thrown a ‘Greatest Showman’-themed night, replete with fire breathers, magicians and popcorn ‘so you’ll feel like you’re in Barnum’s circus!’ while the hotel chain holiday Inn is already advertising a £40-a-head ‘Showman’s Greatest Christmas Party’ at its branch in Wembley, North London, where guests can be transported ‘into the world of the famous showman’.
And all manner of Showman merchandise is available online, from notebooks and pencil cases to leggings and cushions, many emblazoned with Barnum’s famous saying, used to close the film and one that perhaps sums up its extraordinary success: ‘The noblest art is that of making others happy.’