Barnum
★★★☆☆ Glitzy flim-flam
Festival Theatre: Tue 6 – Sat 10 Oct 2026
Review by Rebecca Mahar
The Watermill Theatre’s touring revival of Barnum: The Circus Musical kicks off at the Festival Theatre with blinding light, plenty of sparkle, and a host of actor-musician-acrobats bringing unrivalled energy to the stage.
Mark Bramble’s book, itself, has tarnished since show’s 1980 premiere, though, lending an overall air of humbug to this tale of the Prince of Humbugs, produced on this tour by Bill Kenwright Ltd, with direction from the Watermill’s Jonathan O’Boyle and choreographed by Oti Mabuse.
A scene from Barnum. Pic: Pamela Raith Photography.
Opening circa 1835, Barnum picks up the history of P.T. Barnum (Matt Rawle), the American showman, on the precipice of his first major success: exhibiting Joice Heth (Dominique Planter) as George Washington’s 160 year old former nurse.
The success of this allows him to purchase the building he would transform into Barnum’s American Museum. There he houses performers with physical differences (commonly referred to as a “freak show”), a wax museum, a white whale, and many other strange and captivating things to which the public flocks— and pays to see.
Barnum suffers a setback when the museum burns down, but moves on to new ventures, such as Charles Stratton (Fergus Rattigan), exhibited as General Tom Thumb, and organising the American tour of Swedish opera sensation Jenny Lind (Penny Ashmore).
feats of circus acrobatics
The production’s hop-skipping through history is driven by a series of relentlessly upbeat musical numbers by Cy Coleman with lyrics by Michael Stewart – the music itself performed by the 20-strong ensemble on over 150 instruments. These numbers incorporate various feats of circus acrobatics and artistry, which while not narratively linked to anything in particular, add excellent and thematic visual splendour to proceedings.
The hop-skipping nature of the script, however, creates a fragmented story which bulldozes its way through Barnum’s life in an exceptionally ahistorical fashion.
A scene from Barnum. Pic: Pamela Raith Photography.
No one should go into a historical musical expecting perfect adherence to reality, but Barnum’s departures are particularly egregious, as are its failures to reckon with any of the difficult aspects of its protagonist’s existence.
It ignores Joice Heth’s enslavement and Barnum’s exploitation of all the persons he exhibits, and invents a fictional affair with Jenny Lind (painting her as the seductress) while ignoring Barnum’s re-marriage to a woman forty years his junior mere months after the death of his wife Charity (Monique Young).
These are only a few examples of the historical sins in which the show engages while flying through Barnum’s past with a very loose relationship to time and the dates at which events actually occurred.
vocal power
That said, the performances throughout are outstanding, with every member of the ensemble bringing full circus star-power to bear. Anchoring the show from the beginning with vocal power, storytelling, and comedy chops is Planter as Joice Heth, setting the bar with her brilliant rendition of Thank God I’m Old.
A scene from Barnum. Pic: Pamela Raith Photography.
Ashmore’s Jenny Lind is a standout both for a vocal performance worthy of the Swedish Nightingale and her excellent comic timing. As Charity, Young makes the most of the exasperated-but-supportive-wife role given to her, her songs and their emotional resonance a welcome relief from an otherwise raucous score.
Rawle brings brash, bigger than life energy to the role that Barnum requires, projecting the indefatigable belief that his next trick will be the best one yet. Outside of his patter song Museum Song, during which he is virtually unintelligible, Rawle’s performance is spectacular throughout.
visually, vocally, and musically outstanding
He can hardly be blamed for the fact that the character is given no personal journey to speak of, and a lightning-fast redemption arc via Charity’s death in a production which makes Barnum a hero not in need of redemption to begin with.
Big, bold, and brash are choice words to describe Barnum in a production which is visually, vocally, and musically outstanding. Taken at face value, as a dose of the Greatest Showman’s signature glitzy flim-flam, it has the potential to be an exciting night out.
Running time: Two hours and 20 minutes (including one interval).
Festival Theatre, 13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT.
Tuesday 6 – Saturday 10 October 2026.
Evenings: 7.30pm, Wed, Sat mat: 2pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Access performances:
Captioned: Wednesday 7 October.
Audio described, BSL interpreted, touch tour: Friday 9 October.
A scene from Barnum. Pic: Pamela Raith Photography.
ENDS
