The Greatest Showman
The movie musical is a persistent form, and even today is sometimes successful. Witness the success of La La Land a couple of years ago. Like that movie, The Greatest Showman is an original movie musical. That is, the movie was written entirely for screen. It’s not adapted from the stage.
And it’s a biopic, after a fashion. Hugh Jackman plays P.T. Barnum, the mid-19th century American entertainment entrepreneur. Barnum’s name lived on, until recently, most prominently in the Barnum and Bailey circuses. As a real person, he was a mixed bag. The
