The Greatest Showman

you're like no one else was doing that no one else was kind of brave enough to do that so i think that managed to cut and they now kind of own that you can there are so many different ways you could play with that idea of of you know rubbish marketing or or marketing that goes wrong um i think it's like a really fruitful area so yeah i'm really impressed with them in terms of And then it just comes down to budgets.

I mean, some of the big musicals, I'll be fascinated to see what The Greatest Showman do, for example, because their budget, marketing-wise, because it's Disney, will be astronomical.

And as it should be, because they're in one of the biggest theatres in London, they've got plenty of seats to sell.

But they, because of their wallets, their budget, We'll be able to pull off some huge, huge stunts, I'm sure, taking over some sites in London that no other theatre show can really afford.

Now, I'll be honest with you, I don't see a lot of first preview performances.

I went to the first preview of Paddington, of The Greatest Showman.

Something has to be incredibly exciting and intriguing to get me to the very first public performance.

And as more and more information was being released about this brand-new West End revival of Rent, as they were revealing the casting and some of the creative choices, Erin, my partner, and I quickly realized, as huge fans of the show going back into our [laughs] teenage years, when it came to seeing this production, there really was no day but the very first day.

Thompson, the Academy Award-winning actor and screenwriter, is of course writing the book of the musical, which it goes on to say will open in London in summer 2027.

Expect this to be the big summer London opening, although when is The Greatest Showman arriving? Is that not going to be around a similar timeline? That's quite interesting.

It is also speculated online, and perhaps I have been hearing this for some time now, that the show will open in the same neighbourhood as The Greatest Showman at the Aldwych Theatre, which honestly I thought had been confirmed in this press release, but apparently it hasn't.

There you go.

That may change, but it's what I'm hearing.

And certainly it seems as though she hasn't been playing the role in the workshops that have been taking place for a little while now.

And I think, saddened though some may be by this news, and I have had the joy of seeing Emma Thompson on stage previously, she was a great Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd, it will probably do more to allow the show to be birthed anew for a new generation, for it to feel that little bit different from the films upon which it is based, and it's incredibly rare that that would actually happen.

Likewise, I don't expect Hugh Jackman to ever necessarily appear in The Greatest Showman on stage.

She just returned to Hercules.

Then she took a week, having finished The Greatest Showman.

Then she took a week off to go out to America to perform at that big Disney event.

Wow.

Then she's back in Hercules, performing that in night, whilst rehearsing for Hadestown in the day.

Oh, my God.

Because she's going in to play Hermes for like three or four months before she then goes into The Greatest Showman in the West End.

Wow.

I'm also thinking about some of their former leading ladies, Maya Boyd, who is now on the threshold of an exciting film career.

I'm thinking about Lorna Courtney, who has just been off Broadway in Heathers, who has been workshopping and developing The Greatest Showman in a principal role with Disney.

Really brilliantly talented young performers, and also as a West End musical theater fan and somebody from the London theater community, it has been joyous to see so many British performers have the opportunity to perform on Broadway, many of them making their debuts by reprising roles that they played here in the Broadway run of & Juliet.

Of course, a conversation about the show's legacy also means looking into the future.

I don't know if it's Disney or not.

But if it is, they're gonna have two big musicals in London, 'cause they've got The Greatest Showman opening up next year, and now they're gonna have Nanny McPhee.

Fucking hell.

Um, on the same vein as stage shows, uh, me and Corinne are off to see something which I think is gonna be amazing on stage.