Review: BARNUM, King’s Theatre Portsmouth - Tour

Pamela Raith

With a history dating back so far as 1980 when Barnum first officially premiered at the St James Theatre on Broadway, this show is one that has become no stranger to our stages. Transferring to London for its West End debut in June 1981, later seeing multiple tours and revivals of the show, including a run at Chichester’s Festival Theatre, the Menier Chocolate Factory and most recently, The Watermill Theatre in 2024. 

Currently on a UK tour, we caught up with the current production as Bill Kenwright Ltd presents The Watermill Theatre production of Barnum at the King’s Theatre in Portsmouth. The theatre itself is currently undergoing some major restoration work on its grade II listed building but is still able to deliver as a high scale performance space. 

Unlike the more modern, fictionalised musical film The Greatest Showman, Barnum sticks more authentically to its biographical storytelling. With music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Michael Stewart and a book by Mark Bramble. The plot follows the life and career of the 19th century American showman, P.T. Barnum. It simultaneously follows the relationship with his wife Charity as she seeks a more conventional existence. At the same time, also trying to manage the tension caused by Barnum’s ambitious nature and continuous ‘humbug’ as he bends the truth to promote the success of his often risky business propositions. 

The script is good and a long standing favourite among many but we can’t help feeling like there is a slight lack of depth. There is one singular mention, for example, of Charity raising two girls, which no further reference is made to throughout. The narrative is fast paced, covering multiple factors of Barnum’s life and career, but without prior knowledge, some of these episodes feel a bit shallow in depth and moved on from rather rapidly and are therefore more difficult to connect with emotionally. 

The strength of this piece, however, undoubtedly has to be the casting. The show itself is not shy to a big name or two historically, having seen the likes of Michael Crawford and Brian Conley take on the role of P.T. Barnum. This tour itself promotes Lee Mead as a strong attraction. The performance that we viewed yesterday evening, however, was absent of Lee which seemed to split the room in terms of audience reaction to this announcement. However, utmost admiration and sincere congratulations to Mead’s understudy Tom Sterling who donned the top hat for his debut as Barnum. Sterling performed with conviction and gave an outstanding vocal delivery alongside a charismatic stage presence. The absence of the star certainly did not detract from the performance delivered at all and as Sterling completed his final step across the high wire successfully, the whole room was behind him. 

Sterling was supported by Monique Young in her continuing role as Charity. She delivers a seamless performance in terms of character, vocal ability and musicianship. Other returning cast members include Fergus Rattigan as General Tom Thumb, Penny Ashmore as Jenny Lind and multiple members of the ensemble and circus performers blended with some new cast names and faces. 

Many of the cast here are also highly skilled actor-musicians who perform all music live on over 50 instruments, with the majority of this being done on stage as part of the action. Completing the cast are an incredibly talented collection of circus performers who have clearly trained to hone their craft. Delivering a combination of technically difficult acrobatic, hoop and ariel skills, alongside more standard circus juggling routines, they are definitely a core strength when considering the success of this production, with circus direction by Amy Panter. 

An appropriate ambiance is given upon entry to the auditorium with circus themed music playing as the audience enter and also during the interval. The soundtrack itself, especially as it is delivered by live instruments, feels bright and theatrical, blended with brass marches and upbeat rhythms. Also featured are some more sentimental ballads, most poignantly, ‘The Colours of My Life’. More well known and loved classics such as ‘There is a Sucker Born Every Minute’, ‘One Brick at a Time’, ‘Come Follow the Band’ and of course ‘Join the Circus’ leave their rhythms in your head much after the performance has finished. 

Direction by Jonathan O’Boyle combined with choreography by Oti Mabuse is clean and intentional. The set remains as a fixed backdrop with scene changes made as an obvious interjection live on stage in full view but done with intent and this works well here. The circus spectacular is lit well and spotlighting is used throughout for prominence and focus. The back of the stage seems to be more dimly lit, but this alongside the costume design does lean into dating the piece and creating the sense of it being set in a previous period. 

In terms of structure, it does feel a little imbalanced with Act 1 running considerably longer at around 70 minutes in comparison to the rather short second act running around 35 minutes. The interval does, however, fall at a place suitable for the plot, almost directly after Barnum takes on his live, unaided tightrope walk, which is potentially a safety net if any problems are to occur during this scene. Last night, there was a minor false restart delay when returning from the interval but such is the nature of the beast in a production of this scale and this was rectified quickly. 

Finally, we couldn’t not give a mention to the appearance of Jumbo. This life size giant elephant, impeccably controlled, also bringing the element of large scale puppetry into the piece. 

A show definitely worth watching, with great potential. 

*** Three stars

Reviewed by: Claire Baker

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