How best to describe “The Greatest Showman”? “Thrilling” comes to mind. And “foot-tapping fun,” but mostly “winning.”
The musical certainly has enough award-winners in its ranks: Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the songwriting duo behind the Broadway sensation “Dear Evan Hansen” and last year’s almost Academy Award-winner for Best Film, “La La Land,” have Tonys and an Oscar in their trophy case (they won the Oscar for Best Original Song for “City of Stars” from “La La Land”); multi-talented Hugh Jackman also has a Tony or two, several Oscar nominations, a Golden Globe and even an Emmy; Michelle Williams has yet to win an Oscar but has several nominations to her credit; and Zac Efron won two MTV Movie Awards for Best Shirtless Performance(!).
Efron keeps his shirt on for this one, but there’s no denying his talents. The guy — who’s spent the last few years duding it up in “Neighbors” and its sequel — can sing and dance, in case you’d forgotten (remember “High School Musical” and its follow-ups, not to mention 2007’s “Hairspray”?). And he has chemistry to spare with Jackman’s P.T. Barnum.
But the sparks really fly when Efron, who plays Phillip Carlyle, a rich, bored theater producer sucked into Barnum’s orbit, meets Zendaya’s Anne Wheeler, a trapeze artist. What those two can do with an exchange of glances is devastating, and their duet, “Rewrite the Stars,” is spellbinding as they fly around the ring, together and solo. It’s truly something to behold.
All the songs and dances are something to behold. There isn’t a weak link in the bunch, but the showstopper, the anthemic “This Is Me,” sung by Keala Settle as bearded lady Lettie Lutz, will resonate with anyone who has ever felt marginalized. It’s a rousing cry for self-acceptance (“I’m not scared to be seen / I make no apologies / This is me”) and acceptance in general.
First-time director Michael Gracey wanted the music to have a contemporary feel, despite the time in which the movie is set, the mid-1800s. Gracey isn’t the first to do this. In Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 musical “Moulin Rouge!,” Nicole Kidman and Ewan MacGregor sing modern tunes, such as Elton John and Bernie Taupman’s “Your Song,” in a movie that’s supposed to take place in 1899. Songs for “The Greatest Showman” are originals, however, and they provide a timelessness the film wouldn’t otherwise have if the tunes had been period specific.
And just for the record, “The Greatest Showman” isn’t based on the 1980 Broadway musical “Barnum.” It’s not a biopic, either, in the strict sense of the term. P.T. Barnum was a real person who trafficked in “freak” shows and hoaxes and eventually created a circus, but his life is more of a jumping off point than the reason for the movie. In “The Greatest Showman,” P.T. Barnum is a character.
The real Barnum is alleged to have said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” If so, I’m a sucker for this movie.
