Barnum at the Watermill Theatre review – a glorious, circus-infused spectacle

On the back of the Watermill’s programme for Barnum, powerful words highlight the venue’s commitment to “producing bold and ambitious theatre, to inspiring and igniting imaginations, investing in talent and bringing people together”. This Barnum ticks every box and then some!

From the moment you arrive at the theatre the festoons of red and yellow stripes herald circus so loudly and brightly that I felt like a child full of expectations for the excitement ahead. The theatre’s lawns are littered with booths and tables for outdoor refreshments and everyone is drawn to the stunning displays of acrobatics executed effortlessly by a smiling cast working together to lift each other, to leap impossibly high and with glorious grace. They are clad attractively – and practically – in cream cotton pantaloons, set off with lace and topped off with fetching conical clown headgear (set and costume design by Lee Newby).

What better way to lead us indoors to our seats, where we realise that the whole theatre has not only been transformed but grown to easily accommodate a ringed circus without losing any of its intimacy in Newby’s outstanding set design. It uses every level, continuing the scarlet and yellow circus theme to set up a show that is quirky and funny, graceful and workable all at the same time.

With the addition of circus performance to the skills set of the ridiculously talented cast of actor-musicians, they thrill with their mutually supportive and cooperative acrobatics and embrace their audience with their warm and inclusive smiles. They seem to be having as good a time as they are giving their audience.

Barnum is one of the most successful musicals of the last few decades. It premiered on Broadway in 1980, starring Jim Dale in the title role and Glenn Close as his wife Charity. Michael Crawford was Barnum in the show’s West End debut in 1981 and Deborah Grant, Charity.

Joyous and celebratory as it is, it also has some hard facts to share about the great circus entrepreneur and this production does not shirk from sharing them. He certainly exploited some of his lead performers, notably Joyce Heth (Tania Mathurin) an African-American woman whom he persuades to admit (falsely of course!) to being the oldest woman in the world – the 161-year-old nurse of George Washington (who famously is credited with saying “I can’t tell a lie” or words to that effect…), so that he can exhibit her.

And yet General Tom Thumb, the smallest man in the world, who is actually a boy, revels in his title and the reputation it brings him. He is a delight in Ferguson Rattigan‘s bouncy performance.

One of Barnum’s notable ‘clients’ was the legendary Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, whose tours all over the USA and the rest of the world he promoted. Penny Ashmore’s voice is stunning and an added delight is her performance accompanying herself on a miniature hand-held harp.

The range of musical instruments played by the cast is especially awesome and there are thrilling reveals of brass players in alcoves that adds yet another layer of depth to the set.

One of the most startling facts about Phineas Taylor Barnum is that he did not begin his 20-year career as a showman until he was 60 (he was born in 1810). Matt Rawle would make a pretty youthful sexagenarian but who’s quibbling? His performance is quixotic, and he may be exploitative but he is loveable with it. And there are checks and balances, above all his discreetly firm wife Charity, to whom he actually listens. Monique Young’s Charity is certainly a force to be reckoned with, but the joy of their relationship is that he does listen and the depth of their mutual affection is obvious.

Although he gets to sing “There Is a Sucker Born Ev’ry Minute”, his fabled dismissal of those who succumbed to his self-confessed ‘humbug’, the programme puts us right that there’s no evidence he ever said it…

But there are plenty of eye-opening facts about what he did achieve outside the circus arena. In politics, he was mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut and before that, a member of the State’s House of Representatives, and we do get to see him in action in these roles later in the show. And with a now topical note, he was a Democrat up to 1854, when he switched to the Republican Party.

We get a fine flavour of all these shenanigans – and above all of his business acumen and his ability to cooperate with his peers. The latter is exemplified by his relationship with James Bailey, his partner in Barnum and Bailey’s Circus (one of two roles played to the hilt by Josh Barnett, who also makes a terrific Ringmaster). He also acquired a Museum of Americana (where he perpetrated those hoaxes – even including a mermaid). And all this the audience gets to see to add to the portrait of the charming spoofer.

The whole glorious show is down to an extraordinary bunch of creatives, starting with the original writers – composer Cy Coleman, lyricist Michael Stewart and book writer Mark Bramble. Add to these the brilliantly inventive mis en scene, Jonathan O’Boyle’s original and inspired direction and choreography by Strictly legend Oti Mabuse; brilliant lighting by Jai Morjaria and sound by Tom Marshall – plus the vital input of circus director Amy Panter – and you have an unmissable production.