THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

[jo]

With filming, they usually shoot out of sequence so it is hard to tell

Not so sure that the fire scene is the end-scene of the movie -- that would seem like a downer -- I would expect a big production number will be the final scene in the musical. The finale number was the one during the Feb 2016 reading where Hugh was supposed to have disobeyed doctor's orders and started singing over Jeremy Jordan's voice.

I am waiting for producer Hugh to give us an update on the project

The songs from LalaLand were only partly composed by Pasek and Paul -- they did the lyrics and the melodies were composed by Justin Hurvitz. For SHOWMAN, they will do the entire musical score. One Broadway actor who was part of the February reading in 2016 said that most of the numbers reminded him of the finale of Sister Act -- probably rousing and entertaining! Btw, have you seen the clip of THIS IS ME -- the song attributed to the so-called circus freaks. It will be sung by Broadway actress Keala Settle as the Bearded Lady. I saw her Instagram post where she showed the flowers that awaited her in her dressing room (a Thank You from The Producers) for her inspiring performance the day before when they filmed This Is Me! Broadway singers can really give very rousing performances, so this must be quite special!

Have you seen Hugh in Oklahoma! -- you can see it on the internet ( I think someone uploaded the entire show) and you can see how Hugh handles songs as a stage actor! I will look for the links.

Les Miserables singing was different because the focus was primarily on the acting, with the songs complementing the acting choices.


Jo

[jo]

Okay, here is the Oklahoma! filmed stage musical with Hugh Jackman, in case you have not seen it --




It is long - 3 hours - so maybe you can stagger watching it.


Jo

[jo]

Qwerty --

I will share something with you -- Lea, our Lea Salonga, once told the story that while they were rehearsing for that birthday tribute concert for Cameron Mackintosh, I think it must have been Isay Alvarez ( original for Miss Saigon with Lea and Monique) told her to see a rehearsal that was going on. She and British actress Maria Friedman both went to see it -- and they both sighed and sighed when this man started singing --

[qwerty]

Mar 26, 2017 9:56:58 GMT -5 jo said:

With filming, they usually shoot out sequence so it is hard to tell

Not so sure that the fire scene is the end-scene of the movie -- that would seem like a downer -- I would expect a big production number will be the final scene in the musical. The finale number was the one during the Feb 2016 reading where Hugh was supposed to have disobeyed doctor's orders and started singing over Jeremy Jordan's voice.

I am waiting for producer Hugh to give us an update on the project

The songs from LalaLand were only partly composed by Pasek and Paul -- they did the lyrics and the melodies were composed by Justin Hurvitz. For SHOWMAN, they will do the entire musical score. One Broadway actor who was part of the February reading in 2016 said that most of the numbers reminded him of the finale of Sister Act -- probably rousing and entertaining! Btw, have you seen the clip of THIS IS ME -- the song attributed to the so-called circus freaks. It will be sung by Broadway actress Keala Settle as the Bearded Lady. I saw her Instagram post where she showed the flowers that awaited her in her dressing room (a Thank You from The Producers) for her inspiring performance the day before when they filmed This Is Me! Broadway singers can really give very rousing performances, so this must be quite special!

Have you seen Hugh in Oklahoma! -- you can see it on the internet ( I think someone uploaded the entire show) and you can see how Hugh handles songs as a stage actor! I will look for the links.

Les Miserables singing was different because the focus was primarily on the acting, with the songs complementing the acting choices.


Jo

Yes I saw! At least we get to hear a preview of the song for TGS. I can't wait knowinf Paul and Pasek did all of the musical score. If TGS is successful, they might be the next Rogers and Hammerstein of this generation.

[qwerty]

Mar 26, 2017 10:01:01 GMT -5 jo said:

Okay, here is the Oklahoma! filmed stage musical with Hugh Jackman, in case you have not seen it --




It is long - 3 hours - so maybe you can stagger watching it.


Jo

Ah I will check this out later hehe

[qwerty]

Mar 26, 2017 10:05:55 GMT -5 jo said:

Qwerty --

I will share something with you -- Lea, our Lea Salonga, once told the story that while they were rehearsing for that birthday tribute concert for Cameron Mackintosh, I think it must have been Isay Alvarez ( original for Miss Saigon with Lea and Monique) told her to see a rehearsal that was going on. She and British actress Maria Friedman both went to see it -- and they both sighed and sighed when this man started singing --

Gosh, Hugh can sing so well. I bet he's gonna do even better at TGS 😊 its hard for an actor to be that good especially on broadway so kudos to him!

[jo]

If you know CAROUSEL, Hugh did a concert version with a famous Broadway actress Audra McDonald in 2002. Many years later, in his one-man show ( Back on Broadway), he reprised the song from CAROUSEL. This is the famous SOLILOQUY of Billy Bigelow! I saw his performance on BACK ON BROADWAY and this newer version was standing ovation-worthy! Stunning!


Jo

[jo]

I teared up some when I saw this -- Hugh's note of thanks!

www.imgrum.org/media/1479108909486466717_201316995






It was attached to a message of thanks from a cast member ( check out the link).

Her message included this : "Thank you @thehughjackman for bring THEE MOST GENUINE AND LOVING HUMAN ever!"



On a personal or probably on a group basis among many of us here -- I felt a kinship to the project because we took the journey with Hugh together for the last 7 years, as we watched from the sidelines, hoping that each little bit of news would bring better and more hopeful news for Hugh's passion project!

I was also lucky to have had relative contact with someone involved in the project who shared with me bits of news on what was not an easy journey for the project! It was the same person who told me about the way Hugh fought for and worked so hard for his special project! The same person narrated the stunning incident of how Hugh, ignoring doctor's orders, stood up and started singing over Jeremy Jordan's vocal efforts -- and how "it tore down the house!". That effort was probably the most heartfelt and most manifested regard by Hugh for this passion piece! There were a lot of other details which I cannot share but it is why the note of Hugh thanking his co-cast and crew and creatives touched a chord with me!

Hope to see the project completed as a beautiful and truly entertaining piece of art in the film world!


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

Oops, I hear final filming has not really wrapped yet! It was all the musical/production numbers which wrapped!
Maybe another week to finish things up?

But still very excited that after all these years that we might eventually see Hugh's dream project finally coming home!

Hopefully, we can get a glimpse of our musical sometime soon! Very soon, please!


Jo

[jo]

Bill Condon ( who has had great success with musicals either as director or screenwriter - Beauty and the Beast/Dreamgirls/Chicago) offers some advice on writing and directing for movies, with special insights on musicals. Bill had once taken over the screenwriting for THE GREATEST SHOWMAN but he eventually dropped out of the project ( may have been close to the time that he was offered to direct BaTB?), to be succeeded by another Oscar winner Michael Arndt on the screenplay --

filmschoolrejects.com/filmmaking-tips-bill-condon-91546bd45de5#.sz2kqobzt

Excerpts re Musicals --

Musicals Need to Keep Moving

With a lot of musicals, the numbers kind of stop the show, interrupting the narrative for a bit of song and dance and then picking things back up afterward. Condon is a believer in musicals that keep moving. He told the South China Morning Post in 2015 after he wrapped on the Beauty and the Beast shoot:

I think in movies, the secret is that you can never stop. You can never let a song just settle in; it’s got to push the story forward. You have to be somewhere different at the end of a song than when you started.
He thinks this sort of movement keeps people who don’t usually like musicals and get bored during most numbers interested. He similarly says, “The basic rule becomes the characters should wind up at a different place from where they began.” in a 2006 Baltimore Sun article on him reinventing the musical film.

Then in 2007, he told Charlie Rose:

You know, I always quiz people, those unfortunate souls who don’t like musicals and ask them what is it about them? And one thing they always say is that, oh, God, you know, here comes another song and we have to wait for two minutes now until the story, you know, picks up again. And I think one of the — one of the things that, you know, I tried to do here is keep the story going through the songs, you know. So it becomes this seamless thing. And you’re sort of not aware of when the music starts and stops.

Musicals Are All About Transitions

Also in the Charlie Rose interview, and very closely related to the last piece of advice, he says the most important thing he learned about directing musicals from Chicago director Rob Marshall is how the “transitions in and out of songs are almost as important as what happens within them.”

Interestingly enough, on the audio commentary for the movie he does with Marshall, he says it differently as: “Musicals are all about transitions. How you get in and out of numbers is more important than what happens inside of them.”


In the January 2007 issue of Vanity Fair, he said it this way:

Chicago was like a crash course in getting inside a musical. Just things that now seem obvious that you don’t really know until you’re in it. One of them is that musicals are all about transitions: how you get in and out of numbers is more important than what happens inside of them. In 
Dreamgirls, for example, the first time Eddie Murphy sings, you have him teaching the song to his three new backup singers, and suddenly he takes one step back and a curtain comes in behind him and then you swoop around and you’ve made a transition to him on the stage. You could do it in a cut, but there’s something about taking you from one place to another with theatrical devices that’s really thrilling.

[jo]

To which I would like to add --

Other than the director using theatrical devices to transition the actor ( see his above example with Eddie Murphy) -- the actor must also be able to segue from dialog to song to dialog flawlessly, as Richard Rodgers composer grandson Adam Guettel once said of Hugh Jackman :

Yet Guettel said that the best piece of musical theater he's ever seen was Trevor Nunn's 1998 London production of Oklahoma!. He praised Hugh Jackman's ability in the role of Curly to transition naturally between dialogue and song, helping the audience to believe a person can legitimately express themselves through music as well as speech.

Also, since Pasek and Paul trained in musical theatre ( formal and experience), the awareness that songs must advance the story must be ingrained!


Jo

[jo]

Keala Settle shares her last day of filming --


scontent.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/s480x480/e35/17494293_1160522230725830_5832452136406876160_n.jpg?ig_cache_key=MTQ3OTU2MDQ2ODkzNDA1NjQ2Mw%3D%3D.2

@kealasettle
All of these faces and more...you made me feel like a queen in that ring. I am forever changed for the better. #thegreatestshowman  #Repost  @nichols14 ・・・ This weekend we wrapped on a 6 month, life changing dream job. I can't put into words how blessed I am to have been a part of this special project filled with so many special humans. We danced, we sang, and we laughed...a lot. I'm leaving so much better than how I came! God has a way of outdoing himself and consistently reminding me of how great he is. My last day on what I already thought was amazing, I was shown overwhelming love and shared praise reports, I did what I love with people I love, anddddd THE @annieleibovitz_ photobombed me and @thehughjackman (Waitttt....whheeettttt?!?! ♥️) My heart is so full and my dreams have again come true. My spirit is smiling and I can't wait for everyone to see what we've been working on. Love love love to all parties involved. You have all made me a better human. ♥️🙏🏾 #TGS 

Hey, Annie Leibovitz is handling the publicity photos! Wow!


Jo

[qwerty]

It took them 7 years to make this project become a reality 😱 that's true dedication.

Now we all just need to sit back and relax. I'm hoping we will get exclusive photos around August or September. I'm predicting we will get the trailer around October

[jo]

If we're lucky, maybe a teaser could come much, much earlier than fall ? How about soon??


Impatient Jo

[qwerty]

www.movieinsider.com/m6192/greatest-showman-on-earth#plot

I was reading this and it seems like the old TGS script is much more different. Plus, it was Mika (a British singer) who was in negotions before to write and compose the songs

[qwerty]

Mar 27, 2017 11:33:13 GMT -5 jo said:

If we're lucky, maybe a teaser could come much, much earlier than fall ? How about soon??


Impatient Jo

I really hope so Jo, but I think we will get some exclusive photos first before the trailer itself. Hopefully some of the crew of TGS teases us during editing haha

[jo]

If Annie Leibovitz is doing a pictorial spread ( Loved her VOGUE coverage of AUSTRALIA and LES MISERABLES!) for the usual magazines, hope it comes out in the late fall issues!

She also did the single image of Hugh with her RIVER co-stars on VOGUE for his last Broadway stint!

And Hugh usually gets coverage from Anna Wintour's VOGUE ( the first one was the multi-page article for THE BOY FROM OZ... and another one is the article that accompanies my avatar  shown here, to promote A STEADY RAIN  :





With the spectacle involved in GREATEST SHOWMAN plus its intended holiday season release date. a multi-page spread will be very appealing!

[jo]

Back in August 2009, this was how the project was first reported ( by VARIETY ) --

Hugh Jackman to star in ‘Showman’
Michael Fleming
Film Editor, Deadline Hollywood
@deadlinemike

August 3, 2009 | 08:30PM PT

Actor to play P.T. Barnum in Fox musical


Twentieth Century Fox has attached Hugh Jackman to play American showman P.T. Barnum in “The Greatest Showman on Earth,” an original contemporary musical to be scripted by Jenny Bicks (“Sex and the City”).
The film will be produced by Laurence Mark (“Dreamgirls”), Jackman and his Seed partner John Palermo. It is an outgrowth of their work together on the 81st Academy Awards, on which Jackman was host, Mark was exec producer, and Bicks was part of the Emmy-nominated writing team.

Jackman will play the showman with a penchant for hoaxing a gullible public as he creates the three-ring circus that made him famous. The musical also focuses on his infatuation with singer Jenny Lind — the so-called Swedish Nightingale.

Pic will have a contemporary musical score, and the studio is in talks with British singer-songwriter Mika to write music and lyrics.

The musical follows the old Hollywood tradition in which tuners were scripted with specific actors in mind. The Lind role is being scripted for Anne Hathaway, who teamed with Jackman in his opening Oscars number.
Jackman, who won the Tony Award for “The Boy From Oz,” is determined to make several screen musicals, and the Barnum film adds another to the properties he and Palermo are putting together at Fox.

Those efforts include a David Magee-scripted “Carousel” remake at Fox 2000. Jackman also wants Hathaway as his female lead in the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic.

[jo]

Another cast member savors her memories --

@gold__badu
Nothing like this family 💛 The Greatest Showman 💛

[jo]

Another cast member posts the end of filming of the big production/musical numbers!

I'd like to hear that declaration from Michael Gracey

[jo]

This week, USA CinemaCon in Las Vegas ( formerly known as ShoWest), Fox will have a presentation of its forthcoming slate on the last day -- please scroll down :

cinemacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/2017-SCHEDULE-OF-EVENTS-CinemaCon-01-28-2017.pdf

Will there be something from THE GREATEST SHOWMAN?

In the last one held in Barcelona for CineEurope, Michael Gracey presented the concept for THE GREATEST SHOWMAN but with no footage, as filming had not started then. But he did share the story of how Hugh ignored doctor's orders and sang in the last song for the final reading for FOX execs. Will he bring some film rushes with him this time, or even better, a more cohesive presentation now that the film is about to wrap?

Will Hugh join him ?

FOX top brass are expected to be there as Stacey Snider, FOX FILMS Chairman/CEO, and James Murdoch ( CEO of 21st Century Fox Corp -- the parent company) are keen advocates of the new wave for film distribution,


Jo

[qwerty]

Mar 27, 2017 21:25:28 GMT -5 jo said:

This week, USA CinemaCon in Las Vegas ( formerly known as ShoWest), Fox will have a presentation of its forthcoming slate on the last day -- please scroll down :

cinemacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/2017-SCHEDULE-OF-EVENTS-CinemaCon-01-28-2017.pdf

Will there be something from THE GREATEST SHOWMAN?

In the last one held in Barcelona for CineEurope, Michael Gracey presented the concept for THE GREATEST SHOWMAN but with no footage, as filming had not started then. But he did share the story of how Hugh ignored doctor's orders and sang in the last song for the final reading for FOX execs. Will he bring some film rushes with him this time, or even better, a more cohesive presentation now that the film is about to wrap?

Will Hugh join him ?

FOX top brass are expected to be there as Stacey Snider, FOX FILMS Chairman/CEO, and James Murdoch ( CEO of 21st Century Fox Corp -- the parent company) are keen advocates of the new wave for film distribution,


Jo

If so, I really can't wait to see what Michael Gracey to showcase some tidbits. I think it would be amazing to show some BTS of TGS, this will arouse the excitement of audiences

[jo]

Not sure if audiences will have access to anything that Michael Gracey may be bringing with him. The convention is for theater exhibitors, although I have no idea how exclusive attendance can be monitored.

Jo

[qwerty]

I must say, I love the current script and screenplay compared to the 2009 one. I felt like if they followed the 2009 route, it would look like a romantic musical. I feel like having to talk about the history of Barnum and Bailey circus is a much better option. And they did not made a wrong decision for choosing Paul and Pasek for the musical score