BARNUM is a good easy-going summer show that combines seemingly ever popular circus skills with plenty of razzamataz and the personality of showman Brian Conley.
The evening is packed with songs but I am not familiar with any of them which is surprising. Those Cy Coleman’s songs, such as I Like Your Style, The Colors Of My Life and Join the Circus, are all easy on the ear and catchy enough although none are real big hitters. Perhaps this is why the show is possibly better known as a circus extravaganza rather than as a musical.
Brian Conley as PT Barnum
The production is also a vehicle for a showman rather than a singer-dancer in the leading role. Yes, the lead does have to sing but his songs are not wildly demanding. They require more charm and personality than vocal range. Perhaps for this reason it is difficult to work whether the “hero” of the work is Phineas T Barnum, legendary 19th century showman and entrepreneur or Conley.
The latter is the face of the show and highlights for the enthusiastic audience, who gave the performance a standing ovation, included Conley’s displays of those circus skills including walking the tightrope, fire eating and stilt-walking.
The former was the creator of Barnum’s American Museum and Barnum and Bailey’s Circus which was given the slogan “The greatest show on Earth”. It tells his rise and occasional stumbles, his long happy marriage to a long-suffering wife Chairy, played with lots of heart by Linzi Hateley, an affair with the legendary songstress Jenny Lind, dabbles into politics all underpinned but his need to entertain. His theme song “There is a sucker born ev’ry minute” is the mantra for the whole story which is about how to use half-truths (and downright lies), a lot of hype and double-speak, to make deals, shmooze the public and keep the dollars rolling in.
The star of the evening is, of course, cheeky-chappie Conley and we have just enough of his own cheeky charm, little bits of flirtatious banter with the audience, his captivating toothy grin and enough of a singing voice to be a warm and endearing central figure.
But there have been lots of Barnums over the years (since Jim Dale created the role when the 1980s biomusical show opened in New York) and the success of the musical is as dependent (well, more really) on the ensemble cast who are in the auditorium as the audience enters and who chat to us as we take our seats and show off such skills as hand walking, hoola-hoop rolling, and clambering over the seats; all dressed in Victorian vaudeville cabaret show costume.
Linzi Hateley and Brian Conley
The evening takes the form of a production narrated by a ring master, merging the Barnum domestic story so we have scenes where the married couple share their highs and lows, interspersed with some of the acts (or freak shows) that made Barnum famous including a 160-year-old woman, Tom Thumb and Jumbo, the world’s biggest elephant. As Joice Heth (the 160 year old woman) Landi Oshinowi was full of personality while Mikey Jay-Heath was a bundle of fun as Tom Thumb and his routine with Jumbo was the most fun of the evening. Kimberly Blake sang and acted a lovely Jenny Lind and her performance of Love Makes Such Fools of Us All was delightful.
Cy Coleman’s score lacks any really knock-out songs that the audience whistle as they leave the theatre. Rather they are very much pleasant tunes that take the story along and bright cameos for characters such as the 160 year old woman, Tom Thumb and Jenny Lind.
In the end this was a performance that one showman, Cameron Mackintosh, has moulded for another showman to play (in this case the seasoned trouper, Brian Conley) with a well-choreographed, athletic, big smiling and talented, hard-working juggling, acrobatic, circus skilled chorus. There are enough glitzy costumes, lights and glitter, Conley grins and twinkle in his humour to make this a heart-warming family show.
The show runs at Wales Millennium Centre until August 15.