Anyone familiar with Barnum?

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:01pm

The obc cast recoding I purchased didn't have a plot sypnosis.. just an essay. Anyone care to tell me the plot? I know it's about PT Barnum's life, but I'd like to know about charectors and such.

thanks!

[Phanfare]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:05pm

which recording to you have? I only have the London DVD with Michael Crawford...do you have that or the Broadway one? And the plot basically does just follow Barnum's life from his early startings, through him and Baily actually starting the circus...what exactly wud you like to know, I'll try answering it lol

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:06pm

Well, you know the "oldest woman"... 'thank god I'm old' charector? What exactly is she like?

I was so curious because the song was wonderful

[Phanfare]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:15pm

It's one of my faves as well...when Barnum is first starting out, trying to get a couple of acts together, Joyce Hepth (really dont think that name is spelled right) is the first act he purchases. Barnum gets told that she's the oldest woman alive and that everyone came by the thousands to see her. Well no one comes to see her when Barnum has her so he gets this bright idea and declares that she was the nanny of George Washington...that then starts the song and because people are being told that she was the nanny, they come to see her.

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:18pm

thanks soo much!

[Phanfare]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:20pm

no problem :) It's nice to be able to respond to somebody who actually knows Barnum cuz not many people I talk to do

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:22pm

Ya, I know! Not alot of people know it.. actually, when I was little, my mother bought me a cassette that was broadway songs, and the first song was "Come Follow the Band". And now a local theater company is going to do it next summer. So ya, it's still alive, I guess!

Updated On: 9/5/04 at 08:22 PM

[Jon]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:24pm

Joice Heth is supposed to be black. The whole point is that she was a slave.

Of course, she wasn't REALLY Washington's nurse, and she isn't really 109 years old. She's a total fake. The actress who played it on Broadway was about 35, and wore a white wig. In the second act, she sang the solo on the "Black and White" number. Her dance partner in the number was the Ringmaster, who was white. Black and white - get it?

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:25pm

Heh.. I wondered why she sang that song on the cd.

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:26pm

Aw, I love Barnum. I got into it during my big Michael Crawford phase a few years back. I like the DVD, though a lot of people don't.

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:28pm

Would you suggest buying it (the DvD)?

[Eponine]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:28pm

Is that the show with the song "Come follow the band"? It's a really catchy song.

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:30pm

Well, I got mine as a gift, but, yeah, I would. If you like the music. I would rather watch the movie than listen to the recording. And MC's a great actor, I don't care what anyone says. It made me cry.

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:36pm

Yup, "Come Follow the Band" is from Barnum. I remember singing it all the time when I first heard it. Certainly is catchy!

[Sally]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 8:39pm

It *is* the show with "Come Follow the Band." I like most of the music in the show, especially "The Museum Song," which Barnum sings, enumerating the exhibits in his Broadway museum. Other characters are Charity, Barnum's wife (good song, "The Colors of My Life); Tom Thumb, who also has a song; and Jenny Lind, a singer Barnum promoted in real life and had an affair with in the show. It's a good, lively score, for the most part, and wish I had been able to see it on stage.

Buy the DVD unless you are one of those who hate everything Michael Crawford has done.

[MusicMan]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 9:38pm

I was affiliated with the show for 2 years on Broadway. It presented a general account of Barnum's life in the manner of highly stylized circus acts. Brilliantly staged by Joe Layton and wonderfully played by Jim Dale, Glenn Close and a supporting cast of multi-talented players, the show was, in fact, a most entertaining concept musical, though it was never truly given its due as such and was not a little influence on THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES a few years later.

[Mr. Tuttle]

Posted: 9/5/04 at 11:47pm

It was Terrance Mann's first Broadway show