Barnum was a musical which I never felt got enough attention. It opened on Broadway at the end of April in 1980 and stayed there for 854 performances, which was a pretty good run. I suspect one reason it isn't revived more often is that it requires a leading man who can sing difficult word patter songs, walk a tightrope, do other physical feats and be charming while being conniving. Also, circuses are not in great favor these days.
One person who filled the bill to play the title character was Michael Crawford, who starred in the London production. He worked hard to play the part and if you want to know how hard, watch the video at this link.
The London production was, fortunately for us, captured on video and released in many formats. It's now on YouTube but, alas, I cannot embed it here for technical reasons. Ah, but if you click on the image below, you will be transferred over to YouTube and you can watch it there…
