Barnum
11th - 15th April 2006

Music by Cy Coleman - Lyrics by Michael Stewart - Book by Mark Bramble

Originally produced on the Broadway Stage by Judy Gordon, Cy Coleman, Maurice and Lois F. Rosenfeld in association with Irwin Feld and Kenneth Feld

The show 'Barnum' is suggested by the life of P. T. Barnum, but as always there are differences between reality and humbug! 

The real P. T. Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut in 1810.  He started work very young running a store in Bethel.  At the age of 19 he married Charity Hallett in a secret ceremony in New York.  Barnum held several jobs before becoming the editor of a small country newspaper where his forthright manner earned him 60 in jail for libel.  It was said to be his awe at the crowd scene which greeted him on release that prompted him to go into show business.

In 1835 he made his first successful foray into show business when he bought a blind black slave called Joyce Heth, in reality around the age of 80.  Barnum advertised her as being 161 years old and the nurse of George Washington!  From 1841 to 1868 he ran the American Museum with attractions such as 'The Fiji Mermaid' and General Tom Thumb. In 1850 Barnum sent his agent to Europe, where he secured a contract to promote singer Jenny Lind, whose subsequent tour of America was enormously successful.

In his later career, after Charity's death,  Barnum ran a circus, merging with his competitor James Bailey in 1881.  Barnum died in 1891.  There is a museum dedicated to his memory in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

This spectacular and flamboyant show first opened on Broadway in 1980 before beginning a lengthy run at the London Palladium just over one year later.  Despite Jim Dale staking a claim to being the definitive stage 'P T Barnum' - possibly the World's Finest Showman - it is perhaps the performance of Michael Crawford which most people remember.

Directed and choreographed
by Michele Larkin

Musical Direction
by Ivan Garford

Cast

Backstage Photos