"Smartly, the filmmakers — who include screenwriters Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon (the latter directed the live-action Beauty and the Beast and Dreamgirls and wrote the film version of Chicago) — also know how to keep a four-quadrant family musical from sinking into Chitty territory by employing devices that also will please the Broadway crowd, particularly the Bob Fosse-like opening number as well as sensational choreography throughout. Also a big plus is avoiding the politically incorrect use of a lot of live circus animals in favor of limited CGI versions.
Although we haven’t seen a big circus-based movie musical since, well, Doris Day in 1962’s Jumbo (or at least one that I can fondly recall), this is thankfully a fun one that fires on all cylinders without being cynical or pretentious. Jackman was born to play this role, and he knows it. It is worth catching if you care about original movie musicals at all. No, it is not La La Land, but it is not meant to be and it fits the bill nicely for 2017. Barnum himself would have loved the tribute. Producers are Laurence Mark, Peter Chernin, and Jenno Topping. 20th Century Fox releases the film today."
"There was just one catch. Twenty-four hours before the presentation, Jackman had gone to the doctor to have a basal cell carcinoma removed from his nose.
“‘Michael, I have some good news and some bad news,’” Jackman said on the phone to Gracey. “The operation was a huge success; that’s no problem. But I’m in the surgeon’s office, and he’s not letting me leave until I call you and say there’s no way I can sing tomorrow.”
Gracey’s heart sank.
Fearful that people wouldn’t make the trek across country if they found out their leading man would need an understudy, the two men conspired to wait to share the bad news until everyone was seated. At the run-through, “Newsies” star Jeremy Jordan did the singing for Jackman while the actor mimed the stage directions. Concerned that if he burst into song, he would split his stitches, cause an infection and possibly disfigure a face that has sold millions of movie tickets, Jackman tried to stay silent. But at one key moment, when a power ballad titled “From Now On” was to be sung, Jackman strode to center stage, spread his arms wide and held forth with his burly, rafters-shaking baritone.
“Everyone jumped up on top of their seats,” recalls Gracey. “It was a euphoric moment. The man that everyone had come to hear sing was finally singing. That’s when we got the greenlight.”
On Dec. 20, the movie that Jackman willed into being and ignored doctor’s orders to deliver finally hits theaters. The actor’s $84 million passion project represents a big risk for Fox, which will spend more than $100 million to market and release the film worldwide. It arrives without having been road tested on Broadway, and with the rare, modern-day exception of “La La Land,” original movie musicals like “I’ll Do Anything” or “One From the Heart” have wilted on the big screen. Moreover, “The Greatest Showman” is unabashedly nostalgic. Whereas “La La Land” was grounded in a darker realism, this film is bright and ebullient, infused with a let’s-put-on-a-show spirit that’s been largely missing from cinema since the days of Judy Garland and Gene Kelly.
“It’s a risky proposition,” admits Stacey Snider, chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox. “But I do believe it’s the antidote to these tough times. It was our goal to anticipate the zeitgeist and speak to the turbulence of our era by offering something that was joyful and optimistic at the holidays.”
On a blustery late-summer day, Jackman walks into Perry St, a posh SoHo eatery overlooking the Hudson. Even dressed down in a gray T-shirt and cargo pants, the six-foot-three actor with the gleaming smile and jet-black hair is every inch the movie star. He cuts a figure so dazzling that even here, a gathering spot for 1 percenters, patrons will glance over at the corner table where Jackman parks himself, hoping to catch a glimpse of the actor in an unguarded moment."
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