Number one on the Billboard album chart, winner of one of three nominations for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song “This Is Me,” and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, the film has been a success since its release on December 20. The film, an original musical drama, is directed by Michael Gracey, and the original songs were written by the award-winning duo of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. The two are most known for composing musical theater and film Dear Evan Hansen , winning six Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Musical Theater Album, and for La La Land, winning the 2017 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

“I thought the music was crazy good! I would definitely recommend it to anyone,” said junior Harrison Glassman.

The film consists of many famous, both award-winning, and up-and-coming actors such as Hugh Jackman, Keala Settle, Zendaya, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams and Rebecca Fergeson. In a recent promotional video by 20th Century Fox for the film, Jackman states that The Greatest Showman has been about seven years in the making and that he had really pushed the studio to give the permission to go forth with the production. The film, as stated by the studios, seemed to be risky because of its musical attributes; obviously, it was the right call to go forward with the production, despite it being so unique.

Set in mid-1800 downtown Manhattan, P.T. Barnum (Jackman), married to Charity Barnum (Williams), began his successful, and at points failing, career in show business. Barnum, after losing his original job, created Barnum’s American Museum, but he quickly learned that sales were slow and that people may be attracted to entertainment rather than waxed figures in the museum. He then sets out to find a surplus of “freaks,” as he called them, to serve as performers and the main event of what he now called Barnum’s Circus. He changed the rules, left an impact, and saw the world of entertainment in a completely different way than most. Barnum eventually meets upperclass theater director Phillip Carlyle (Efron) who helps him create a bigger name and reputation for the circus. Through the duet between the two in the song “The Other Side,” they make a deal to become partners and run the show together. During a trip Carlyle arranged for Barnum and the rest of the “freaks” to meet Queen Victoria, Barnum meets Jenny Lind (Fergeson), a popular singer in England, whom he convinces to perform in America. Lind’s first performance was a success in New York through the song “Never Enough.”

“I liked the music a lot, and my favorite song was ‘Never Enough,’ However, I did not like the plot as much. I felt like it was all over the place, and they portrayed P.T. Barnum as a good person, but in reality he was not. I love Hugh Jackman though,” stated senior Melissa Braun.

While Barnum gains a great deal of popularity for putting the show together with Lind, he begins to distance himself from his original friends and “freaks” by refusing to socialize with them. Anyone would feel discriminated against after someone had shown that he or she had seen past his or her flaws and differences. The “freaks” decide to stand against their harassers and Barnum in the Award-winning song “This Is Me” led by the bearded lady (Settle). Barnum returns home from being on tour with Lind to find his circus on fire, caused by a fight between the protesters and the “freaks.” Everything is now taking a toll for Barnum; his circus is gone, his house has been foreclosed, and he has now spent most of his time at a local pub. Determined to not give up on the circus and their “home” Barnum has made for these “freaks,” they persuade him to rebuild the circus by reminding him of the real reasons for making it: his family and new friends. This was seen in the final song “From Now On.”

According to Keala Settle in an interview with 20th Century Fox, she states, “[The film] empowers people to just be themselves and not care what anyone else thinks… it marks how different everyone is and how we are meant to all be different.” The well-known song “This Is Me” has been a musical sensation since its release. Many are moved and touched by the meaning behind it and make renditions or artwork of the song itself; even LHS’s mixed chorus will be singing this for the Spring Gala Festival of the Arts this May. In the same interview as Settle, Director Michael Gracey states, “The things that make you different are the things you should celebrate.” The main themes that are prominent in the movie are inclusion and acceptance of one another. If you love doing something, do it. As the real P.T. Barnum stated, and the way the film ended, “No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else.”