Plot(Spoiler Alert)
A musical about the story of P.T. Barnum and how he started the circus industry by taking in outcasts and bringing them together.
Blaine: Hugh Jackman had worked with director Michael Gracey on a commercial back in 2010 and he liked working with Michael so much that he thought they should do a movie together. Michael Gracey wasn’t completely sure about that at first because he never directed a film before. He’s only done commercials. But Hugh was serious about working with Michael on a film because he knew that Michael was a man with talent. Then the script for “The Greatest Showman” came along and Hugh Jackman wanted to do it. Hugh sent Michael the script and he thought that something like “The Greatest Showman” should be a musical.
After it was decided that “The Greatest Showman” would be a musical, the main goal was to find great songwriters to write the songs. It was challenging developing “The Greatest Showman” as a musical because the questions were how those songs were going to sound and who could think of original songs? Justin Paul and Benj Paser were still in college at the time Hugh Jackman and Michael Gracey met them. They weren’t huge yet, but they loved writing songs and creating music. They won a few Tony Awards for writing songs for “A Christmas Story” and they were doing well with themselves. Then they won Oscars for original song for their work on “La La Land” and it wasn’t till then that Hugh Jackman and Michael Gracey felt really lucky that they found Justin and Benj. They were able to write really good and original songs for “The Greatest Showman”.
“The Greatest Showman” needed a unique style to it. Hugh Jackman had known Nathan Crowley since 2006 when they did Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige” and he really wanted him to be the production designer for “The Greatest Showman". Nathan wanted a lot of color for this film. They built this miniature model for the overhead shot during the song “A Million Dreams”. All of it was designed on computer first, then a machine sculpts them and artists add color to them.
For the song “Rewrite the Stars”, Zendaya and Zac Efron do a duet while gliding through the air on ropes. The stunt team taught Zac and Zendaya how to do it all and they did their own stunts most of the time. It was a challenge for Zendaya and she pushed herself to do her best at acrobatics for this movie. She was up high on ropes and wires a lot of the time and the more she did it the more she conquered her fear of heights. It all cumulates in their most complex moment: a tight shot of them spinning and singing together above the ground and it cuts to different angles as they sing.
All of the dancing was like a workout for the actors because it involved sliding, leaping, spinning and lifting one up in the air. The duet Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams do during the song “A Million Dreams” is really something. The way they were able to move at a fast pace while dancing on the roof. During the scene two trains pass Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams from above. The trains spew steam as they pass and it creates a blue fog and Hugh and Michelle are in a silhouette. Another shot I like of them is when they are standing in front of the ocean, they kiss in the sunset and Michelle’s blue scarf blows in the wind.
My rating on “The Greatest Showman” is five out of five stars.
Music
Song: The Greatest Show
Sung by Hugh Jackman, Keala Settle, Zac Efron, Zendaya and The Greatest Showman Ensemble
Song: A Million Ways
Sung by Ziv Zaifman, Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams
Blaine: One of my favorite songs
Song: Come Alive
Sung by Hugh Jackman, Keala Settle, Daniel Everidge, Zendaya and The Greatest Showman Ensemble
Song: Never Enough
Sung by Loren Allred
Blaine: Another one of my favorite songs
Song: This is Me
Sung by Keala Settle and The Greatest Showman
Song: Rewrite the Stars
Sung by Zac Efron and Zendaya
Song: Tightrope
Sung by Michelle Williams
Blaine: Another one of my favorite songs
Song: From Now On
Sung by Hugh Jackman and The Greatest Showman Ensemble
