Barnum

Pleasure Folks latest production was the musical “Barnum”, based on the life of Showman and circus impresario Phineas Taylor Barnum, covering a period of his life from 1835 to 1880. The story is from a book by Mark Bramble, with lyrics by Michael Stewart, and music by Cy Coleman. P T Barnum was not only an outrageous showman and hustler but also a politician and at one time did try to run for office. He would say he was the peddler of the American dream, and creator of spectacle and introduce his circus acts while proclaiming "There is a sucker born every minute”. “Barnum” was first produced on Broadway in 1980 starring Jim Dale as Barnum, then in 1981 the show opened at the London Palladium with Michael Crawford in the lead. Pleasure folk originally planned to perform “Barnum” as a celebration of their 50th anniversary as a society. However due to the pandemic they had to postpone the show until this year, but what a celebration it was, they had worked very hard and had gone the extra mile for this production, even while the audience waited for the show to begin we were entertained by acrobats and clowns on the stage and all the front of house staff were dressed in bright coloured sparkly outfits which made a lovely party atmosphere and all this hard work paid off as this was a very entertaining  enjoyable show. This production needed dedication and vision and Director Gemma Briscoe stepped up to mark and did an excellent job as usual.  However, the success of this show also relies heavily on the actor playing the demanding role of P.T Barnum himself as he is on stage throughout the show and has long soliloquies, speaking and singing to the audience on his own, so the relationship between the actor and audience is very important. This responsibility fell to Mark Charnock who produced an outstanding performance with lots of energy while owning and working the stage with confidence, he also had an excellent rapport with the audience and even managed a small tightrope walk. Charity Barnum his wife was played by Jean Aspinall, Charity was a rather a puritanical character wanting her husband to take a job in a factory and give up on all his showmanship and speculative plans and schemes, but when he refuses, she decides to support him with love and devotion. Jean produced a lovely, serene character, which was in contrast but complemented Mark and fit the bill very well. Jamie Mather as Barnum’s business partner and master of ceremonies James Bailey brought a wonderful flamboyance and showmanship to the role and Ciara McEntee also gave a very nice performance singing well as the opera singer Jenny Lind who went to America at the invitation of  Barnum. There were also a number cameo roles which included, Liz Wainwright who produced a very entertaining dance routine as the worlds oldest women Joyce Heth and then we had Miles Gardner as Tom Thumb and Becky Coghlan as the Blues Singer performing their musical numbers very well. In other cameo roles we had Steve Coghlan as Amos Scudder, Jim Briscoe as Sherwood Stratton, Dorothy Prothero as Mrs. Stratton, Alex Procter as Julius Goldschmidt and Slim Lockhart as Chester Lyman.
The chorus worked very hard to support the principal cast and you could see they were thoroughly enjoying themselves,while performing the effective up beat choreography by Liz Wainwright who was assisted by Beth McClelland, while also singing the musical numbers with gusto, everyone seamed well rehearsed, no one seamed out of step or out of place. The younger members of the chorus also made up the entertaining acrobats and stilt walkers which they performed with great skill.
The band led by Musical Director David Chapman played and supported the cast expertly and with there position on stage they did not overpower the singers and added to the performance and atmosphere.
There was only one set which gave you the impression you were in a big top with a theatre box at the side, the band was in the centre at the back which I thought was great as it made them part of the action. Lighting and sound were excellent and complemented the action on stage brilliantly. I must highlight a technical achievement which my friend and I found very interesting, on the wall at one side of the stage there was information and original posters projected onto the wall appertaining to Barnum and his life matching up with the subject and timeline on stage which was innovative. Well done to all the stage crew lighting sound, and technical assistants. Costumes were very colourful and looked very good on stage there must have been a great deal of thought and hard work making and getting these lovely costumes together, my friend was very impressed with them.
Congratulations to everyone involved with bringing this very entertaining extravaganza to the stage, it was a great celebration. Thank you very much for inviting us we had an enjoyable friendly evening. Hope to see you again soon.

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