THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

[jo]

A live show based on THE GREATEST SHOWMAN movie and music -- in Morocco.

[jo]

It looks like USA audiences are also enjoying summer screenings.

[jo]

Fun Fact --

More than 6 months after the USA release on December 20, 2017, THE GREATEST SHOWMAN is still open in 21 cinemas/theaters in the USA!

www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=daily&id=greatestshowman.htm

[hughmanity]

The Greatest Showman wins best action/adventure film at Saturn awards!  Hugh's stellar performance in Logan loses to Mark Hamill in The Last Jedi (really?). Black Panther wins over Logan (ugh). Patrick Stewart does pick up supporting actor.

variety.com/2018/film/news/saturn-awards-2018-black-panther-better-call-saul-twin-peaks-1202860077/

[jo]

*Rolleyes**rolleyes*rolleyes*

They played politics and spread out the honors!

Thanks for the update, hughmanity.


Jo

[jo]

It seemed the movie itself may not have been submitted for Oscar consideration, save for Best Original Song. No movie screeners were released, no special screening with Q&A were held for Oscar honors, no FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION ADS were seen ( including Best Picture/Acting Honors/Creatives). It was only for THIS IS ME that a clip and songsheet were released and intensive promo by Keala were seen.

Kris Tapley, one of the more well-known movie press members ( now with Variety) wrote this before the movie was released, presumably sharing the consensus from the movie press or as picked up from their interaction with studio people --

Fox’s contribution, meanwhile, will be “The Greatest Showman,” inspired by the life of P.T. Barnum. But a nomination for star Hugh Jackman might be easier to come by than one for best picture; the film is being positioned more as a holiday family movie than a serious awards play.

Maybe FOX was unsure of the movie given the lengthy and seemingly complicated post-production? The deadline for submitting entries to the AMPAS was on December 1 2017 before any press/critic screenings.

www.oscars.org/news/submission-deadlines-2017-oscars-approaching




Jo

[jo]

I don't remember coming across this article on Michael Gracey --

www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2017/december/1512046800/darryn-king/ringmaster-steps-spotlight

It includes a little bit of detail of when he first heard Hugh performing

The first time Gracey saw Hugh Jackman was from the orchestra pit, during a rehearsal for Sunset Boulevard; its musical director, Guy Noble, was staying with the Graceys at the time. The experience left an indelible impression. “It was a peek behind the curtain, you know? Sitting in an orchestra pit, hearing this beautiful Andrew Lloyd Webber music being played.

That was in 1996, if I remember correctly.


Jo

[jo]

[njr]

Jul 4, 2018 23:37:23 GMT -5 jo said:

I don't remember coming across this article on Michael Gracey --

www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2017/december/1512046800/darryn-king/ringmaster-steps-spotlight

It includes a little bit of detail of when he first heard Hugh performing

The first time Gracey saw Hugh Jackman was from the orchestra pit, during a rehearsal for Sunset Boulevard; its musical director, Guy Noble, was staying with the Graceys at the time. The experience left an indelible impression. “It was a peek behind the curtain, you know? Sitting in an orchestra pit, hearing this beautiful Andrew Lloyd Webber music being played.

That was in 1996, if I remember correctly.


Jo

Yes.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Boulevard_(musical)

[njr]

Jul 5, 2018 6:17:00 GMT -5 jo said:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._T._Barnum

[jo]

The Greatest Showman's success revived interest in Les Miserables, Oklahoma!...and even The Boy from Oz! All are getting new airings!

[hughmanity]

I like how this guy discusses the "Never Enough" scene and praises Hugh's performance during it.

[jo]

Great example of Hugh acting with his eyes!

[jo]

It has practically become an industry by itself --

*New professional shows based on the movie

*Party themes ( costumes, tents, party food)

*School events ( graduation, leavers, special days)

*Special celebrations ( 4th of July/ weddings, etc)

*Numerous covers by professional and aspiring artists


And now a song and dance camp --

[jo]

Remember this -- the Crosswalk Musical featuring The Greatest Showman ?





To be honest, at that time, we were a bit nervous as to how the movie would be received

Little did we know that it would become a huge ( aka Hugh) success worldwide...and that someday, hopefully, it will become a true Broadway musical!


This episode has drawn more than 10 million hits to-date!


Jo

[jo]

A tribute show from the BBC on the success of THE GREATEST SHOWMAN!

[jo]

Summer screening right in the heart of central London -- at Hyde Park!

[jo]

Rebecca Ferguson shares insights on her persona... and some of her unexpected experience after The Greatest Showman was released --


www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/19/rebecca-ferguson-mission-impossible-fallout-tom-cruise-the-snowman

Excerpts --

Her stillness and composure are a gift to the franchise. Most of the stunts, fights and chases end up playing second fiddle to her bone structure or her wry, unimpressed stare. Did this knack for minimalism come from the modelling she did in her teens? “No, I hated all that. They took us into the audition with little number plates in front of us – cattling us into a prison of prettiness,” she says of her very first modelling job. “After the first shoot, I turned down every job. Even now, I hate being photographed. I laugh my way along the red carpet. Posing makes me stiff and uncomfortable. I look like Bambi on ice.”

The modelling was partly down to her mother, an adventurous sort with a try-anything attitude. “She once hitchhiked with Sean Connery. He could’ve been my dad! Not that I’m unhappy with my real one.” Her mother is a bit eccentric. “Like a calm version of Edina from Ab Fab. I was more like Saffie. I wish I’d been Patsy.” There’s still time, I say. “You think this is tea?” she replies, raising her cup and slurring her words.

She credits McQuarrie with encouraging her to embrace stillness. “I sometimes find I want to overexplain in my acting. I work a lot with my thought process and I’m always wondering if it’s visible to the viewer. Chris told me a few times: ‘Pull back.’ In one scene, I asked him: ‘What do I think about here?’ He said: ‘Make a goddam lasagne,’ and walked away. So that’s what I did. It was a great way to stop myself overanalysing.”

Understatement doesn’t work in every context. It would have looked perverse amid the kitsch excesses of The Greatest Showman, where Ferguson played the opera singer Jenny Lind. (Her big number, Never Enough, was sung by Loren Allred while Ferguson valiantly lip-synced.) When the bad reviews started coming in for that film at the end of last year, she thought to herself: “Oh, that’s too bad.” She’d had a ball making it. “I never liked musicals before. I always wanted to slap the actors whenever they started singing. Seeing it from the other side changed me.” And she loved working with Hugh Jackman. But these things happen. Films get panned. You move on.

She first realised that wasn’t the end of the story when she heard Zac Efron’s duet with Zendaya from the film in a supermarket in New York. “That’s our music,” she said to herself. The next time it happened, she was back home in the tiny Swedish fishing town of Simrishamn, and they were playing her tune. “That’s when it struck me, the incredible turn this was taking.” Isac, her 11-year-old son, is obsessed with the soundtrack. “He plays it all the time in the car. It’s got to the point where I have imposed a No Greatest Showman month. He’s saying: ‘I want to sing Never Enough,’ and I’m telling him: ‘I can’t take it any more! Enough of Never Enough.’”



She knows about the sing-along screenings of the film, but didn’t realise they were a regular occurrence at the Prince Charles Cinema in London, 10 minutes from where we are sitting. “No! They’re not still showing it?” A devilish glint flashes in her eye. “I want to go. I’ll sneak in. What if I can’t get tickets? What do they do, stand up and sing? They have costumes? This is too exciting. You know when I take a breath before that line: ‘I’m trying to hold my breath’? Do you think they take a breath, too? But I should go in disguise, right?” She has got herself into quite the tizzy.



What happened to The Greatest Showman – the public reclaiming a film trashed by critics – is the dream,

but she has seen the nightmare version, too. Put it this way: the Prince Charles Cinema will freeze over before it holds participatory screenings of The Snowman. Tomas Alfredson, the director of that beleaguered serial-killer movie, was frank about its shortcomings, confessing that 10-15% of the script was never even filmed...

[jo]

Wayman WRong-- sorry, Wayman Wong, posted this on BWW

www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.php?thread=1111011&dt=1

Here's the YouTube original --




I guess when one is a great success, a parody is a hallmark treatment ( I just wish the singers were more pitch perfect)

Meant to elicit much laughter --

But guess who is laughing on the way to the bank

Fox/maybe Hugh/Pasek and Paul!

[jo]

This young sister singing A MILLION DREAMS a cappella to his baby brother/sister is more pitch perfect than the singers in the parody!

[jo]

The Greatest Showman is getting all kinds of open-air summer screenings.

This is one is unique -- the huge screen will be set up on one of the beaches in Wales!


www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/film-news/greatest-showman-being-shown-giant-14933057

[jo]

In one of the reviews summarized by Entertainment Tonight on "Mamma Mia! :Here We Go Again", Scott Mendelson of Forbes is quoted partly, thus --

"Here We Go Again is a bright, cheerful, colorful, large-scale musical montage of gorgeous people singing and dancing to mostly happy tunes," Forbes' Scott Mendelson writes. "You might even say that it's everything you ever want, everything you ever need, right in front of you."

Mendelson, the repentant Forbes annotator of the box office success of THE GREATEST SHOWMAN --

Is either --

*Plagiarizing

*Playing Tribute to THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

Or...

*He can't get The Greatest Showman out of his mind, yet

[jo]

This explores movie musicals and ranks the top 10.

The Greatest Showman occupies the 10th spot!

whatculture.com/film/10-greatest-ever-musical-movies

Excerpts --

10 Greatest Ever Musical Movies
Movies whose praises ought to be sung...

Musicals and Hollywood glitz and glam go hand in hand. Whether its romance, tragedy, comedy or even horror you're after, there are plenty of adaptations and original movie musicals that have you covered. In a cinematic marketplace as the one we have these days, the movie musical is making a comeback that's more than welcome.

There's nothing quite like having a character tear themselves open with pure emotion by bursting into song, or seeing your leads fall in love with a smooth dance routine. Much like a tense underscore ramps up the tension in a heist movie, the movie musical uses its song and dance numbers (albeit in a slightly less subtle way) to motivate every part of the plot and inject emotion at every point.

With such a broad range of genres covered, some people are bound to be disappointed by a list of movie musicals, but you have to get the balance of must-see classics alongside more exciting, newer developments coming out of this musical movie renaissance we seem to be in!

10. The Greatest Showman

Fox
If you're used to your Hugh Jackman performances exclusively sporting adamantium claws, you might be surprised to know that he made his start in musical theatre. This is possibly what makes The Greatest Showman as entertaining as it is: you can tell that Jackman's passion has shone through.

The Greatest Showman does exactly what its inspiration, P. T. Barnum, tried to do: put on a show that would dazzle and attract audiences far and wide, even at the expense of either quality or treatment of his employees. Visually speaking, Showman oozes style, delivering vivid colour palettes, lively numbers and lavish costumes.

critics argued that the plot felt shallow, but that kind of feels like they're missing the point. The Greatest Showman tries to do exactly what Barnum himself would've done: focus on the performance. Jackman shines at the helm, and most of his cast of social outcasts gets their moment in the spotlight, and some of the key moments of Barnum's life are tenderly explored.

Looking for complexity in The Greatest Showman misses the point of the movie. If you sign up for spectacle and let yourself drink everything in, you're going to have a whale of a time.

Do check out the rest.


Only a few film adaptations of stage musicals are included such as THE SOUND OF MUSIC, GUYS AND DOLLS, and THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. The choices seem to be reflect more the personal taste of the blogger ( Rocky Horror? Little Shop of Horrors? Nightmare Before Christmas?). No mention of Oscar winners My Fair Lady and Chicago?

But it is good to see THE GREATEST SHOWMAN as part of the list.


Jo

[jo]

Fun contest!

Care to join - if not in the contest, maybe here on this board


My entry --

"Who Am I ?"

[jo]

I am reposting this article ( Movie Musicals) because Hugh's performance in THE GREATEST SHOWMAN ( and other musicals, presumably) is made a yardstick --

Jul 23, 2018 10:05:00 GMT -5 jo said:

Interesting discussion on why male actors are not very good singers in movies as a general rule, save for Hugh Jackman!

www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/23/mamma-mia-why-cant-male-actors-sing

The Lamest Showmen: why can’t male actors sing?

As the new Mamma Mia! hits cinemas, we explore why male actors hit the bum notes in modern movie musicals

Steve Rose
Mon 23 Jul 2018 10.00 BST


here are many reasons why the first Mamma Mia! movie was such a smash hit, but we can all agree Pierce Brosnan’s singing was not one of them. He sounded like a labrador trapped under a blanket. Undeterred, judging by a clip of Hugh Skinner singing Waterloo in a style best described as “posh geography teacher whose necktie is too tight”, forthcoming sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again looks set to be continue this tradition of masculine musical ineptitude.

The Mamma Mia! enterprise hinges on a rarely acknowledged truth of modern movies: when it comes to actors singing, women are better at it. Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried and Lily James can hold a tune pretty well. It was a similar case with the Pitch Perfect movies. They hired Anna Kendrick and Hailee Steinfeld, both of whom have had bona fide hit songs. In earlier times, when musicals were a Hollywood conveyor belt, singing ability was a route to success, and performers would have paid their dues on stage or in vaudeville. However, today’s movie musicals must either cast genuine singers with limited acting ability, or genuine actors with limited singing ability. In the latter department, it is the men who come off worst.


La La Land was a classic example. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling: fine actors, passable singers, but if you had to give one a recording contract, it would be Stone by a mile. Same with Enchanted: James Marsden does well; Amy Adams knocks it out of the park. The Jungle Book? Bill Murray belts out The Bare Necessities; Scarlett Johansson’s Trust in Me is velvety and sensuous. Richard Gere muddled through Chicago, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renée Zellweger pulled off their tunes with aplomb. Gerard Butler’s Phantom of the Opera sounded like a Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalist. Or look at Les Misérables: Anne Hathaway was fine; Russell Crowe sounded like a man giving himself a hernia.


Hugh Jackman is the exception that proves the rule. Jackman has anchored stage musicals and sell-out solo concerts, he’s that good. He really is The Greatest Showman, which isn’t saying much considering the competition.

Time and again, it seems, male actors almost revel in their vocal ineptitude. Looking back, you wonder how on earth Richard Harris’s transcendently cheesy MacArthur Park could have become a chart hit in 1968. Likewise Lee Marvin’s throat-infection rendition of Wandrin’ Star (from Paint Your Wagon), a No 1 single in 1970. It kept the Beatles’ Let It Be off the top spot! And Rex Harrison didn’t bother singing at all and simply spoke his lyrics, yet still led smash-hit musicals such as My Fair Lady and Doctor Doolittle. His Fair Lady, Audrey Hepburn, was dubbed by a professional singer – a solution that does not seem to have occurred to today’s performers. It can’t be that men are naturally worse singers. Perhaps it’s more to do with the selection process that favours certain stereotypically “masculine” attributes in male actors, attributes that only overlap with singing ability once in a Hugh Jackman. Or perhaps the men feel they can get away with simply “having a go”? To his credit, Pierce Brosnan gamely accepted criticism of his performance in the first Mamma Mia! (which earned him a Razzie for worst supporting actor). But that hasn’t put him off having another try in the sequel. So here we go again indeed, although this time at least, he has been taking extra singing lessons.