I'm on a lot of forums where folks discuss musical comedies and I hardly ever see anyone mention Barnum, which ran a not-unimpressive 854 performances on The Great White Way commencing in April of 1980. That's more than a lot of shows that people fondly remember. I didn't see it back there but I saw it at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood sometime between February 10, 1982 and April 4. Jim Dale — who played the title role in New York — came out here with a national touring company and he was replaced in N.Y. by Mike Burstyn.
During Mr. Dale's run on Broadway, he took one vacation and Tony Orlando filled in for a few weeks. That was not an easy thing to do because it's not a role into which just anyone could step. As the video below reveals, it took extensive physical training, along with things like acting and singing, to play Phineas Taylor Barnum.
Oh — and I should mention that the show had a book by Mark Bramble;, tunes by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Michael Stewart. Some of the lyrics were awfully clever.
I remember liking the show a lot — the songs especially but also the sheer radiant energy from the stage. Most of the performers also had to learn to do circus-style feats…or maybe some of them already knew how but had to learn to sing and dance. Whichever it was, they all deserved standing ovations just for being able to do the show at all, let alone eight shows a week. The basic story was slight but not uninteresting…and Dale's leading lady both in N.Y. and here was Glenn Close, who was sensational.
I can think of two reasons why the show is not revived more. One is that it takes a good-sized cast that can juggle, do balancing acts, turn cartwheels (etc.) and a leading man who can walk a tightrope and do other difficult stunts. Another is that circuses have fallen into some disfavor, especially due to their treatment of animals…and especially Barnum & Bailey Circuses.
Me, I always liked the idea and mystique of circuses but never cared for the few I actually attended. I remember them smelling bad and offering hideous, overpriced and over-iced refreshments. I remember that some of the acts were very short but had long, long introductions, trying to make you think you were about to see the most amazingly awesome thing you'd ever seen in your life. Then the actual performance would be brief and unremarkable, and it would be followed by the performers marching around and around, demanding five minutes of applause for the three-minute act.
And did I mention the smells? Yeah, I guess I did. They seemed impossible to get out of one's hair. I still apologize to people I'm near. I tell them, "That's not me. That's the elephants at the Ringling Brothers Circus when I was twelve."
But I did like Barnum…as a show but not as an infomercial for their brand of circuses. Back in the nineties, I was briefly in discussions with a studio that wanted to make a feature film of it…an animated feature film which would add a parallel storyline featuring the animals in Mr. Barnum's circus. It would basically have involved using most of the songs and some new ones telling a new story with some elements from the stage version. It sounded like a good idea in several meetings but then…well, I'm not sure if they couldn't acquire the rights to do it or couldn't acquire the rights to change it.
All I know is that suddenly there were no more meetings. That's how a lot of projects in Hollywood end without reaching the production phase. Suddenly, there are no more meetings.
All of this is an intro to the video you may be about to view. It's long but even a small segment of it will give you an idea of what the fine musical comedy performer Michael Crawford had to do to prepare to star in a London production of Barnum. I'm not going to link to a video of the actual musical as it was recorded professionally at a performance but you shouldn't have to look hard online to locate one. The show is very impressive and it's even more impressive what Mr. Crawford had to learn in order to play the title role and then what he had to do every night and twice on matinee days for audiences…