The Greatest Showman: How Great Is It? (PART 1: MUSIC)

So I watched The Greatest Showman last week in theaters and I had VERY high expectations going into it. My choir teacher had been raving about it for weeks before, several of my friends were talking about how great the soundtrack was, and overall I had been hearing fantastic things about this movie. On top of that, I love musicals and overall I just love theatrics. I remember first seeing teaser trailers for The Greatest Showman and feeling absolutely invigorated. A movie about PT Barnum just seemed compelling and above all else, exciting. I saw the list of cast members and I was sold. A collection of actors I like in an original musical period piece? Yeah, I’m DEFINITELY there.

So, was it good?

Honestly, I don’t actually know how to answer that question. I simultaneously have so many good and so many bad things to say about this movie. I walked out of the theater exhilarated and wholly entertained, but there are so many issues I have about the writing and music regardless. Watching this movie feels like getting off of a roller coaster in which the seats were slightly uncomfortable and you got banged around a lot in the cart but you still walk off of the ride with the rush of adrenaline that roller coasters leave you.

Music

The first issue I noticed was with the music. Disclaimer: I’m not a huge fan myself of the style of music, but my own preferences definitely are not the only problem here. I am a musical theatre person to my very core. I love showtunes, and I consider acting and singing to be a VERY substantial part of my life, and so I feel like I have some justification in believing that The Greatest Showman was not a good musical. It was really hardly a musical. Yes, the characters sing. Yes, it has original music. But really, almost none of the songs felt right for the film. Every song was very clearly a Top-40s inspired Oscar Original Song grab, and all of the lyrics were written vaguely enough that they could be about almost anything.

A key part of musicals, in my opinion, is that the context is almost as crucial to the music as the music is crucial to the context. Music very clearly adds something to the story of the show/movie, and the plot in the show/movie gives the music added meaning. Characters speak to each other in song, they sing about very specific situations, they call each other by name in the songs. If I were to take almost every song out of the Greatest and shuffle them up, I would not be able to correctly guess where they fit. I’ll take that a step further and wager that almost any song could be switched chronologically with any other song, and the movie would not change much. I know this may not sound like that big of a deal, but when the songs feel irrelevant to whatever is happening on screen at the moment, it throws me out of the film. The anachronistic nature of the pop soundtrack and the historic setting already bothered me enough, but when each song felt more like it was putting the plot on hold than like it was expressing and furthering the characters and plot, I had trouble staying invested. There were few songs that I found interesting or worth listening to again.

On top of that, from a musical theatre stand point, I do not like the lead in to the songs. Normally in musicals, you know whenever a song is about to happen due to either maybe some background strings or piano, or the characters will start talking in a specific tone. The Greatest Showman gave no indication pointing towards the songs beginning. This may sound like a nitpicky thing (and you’re most likely right in believing that), but it’s something that really took me out of the movie experience.

 

TO BE CONTINUED: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE PLOT