Barnum – Alhambra Theatre, Bradford

Director: Jonathan O’Boyle

Music: Cy Coleman

Lyrics: Michael Stewart

Book: Mark Bramble

Mere weeks after the Bristol opening of similarly themed The Greatest Showman, a musical adaptation of the film, Bradford welcomes the 2026 tour of the original flimflam musical, Barnum. Treading roughly the same path as the perhaps better-known film but first performed in 1980, Barnum presents the life story of famous American showman Phineas Taylor (PT) Barnum (played by Lee Mead). Set between 1835 when Barnum’s American Museum opened, and 1880 when the Barnum and Bailey Circus was formed, the audience are treated to a whistle-stop tour of the highs and lows of showbiz, and introduced to a few famous acts and people in Barnum’s life along the way.

Let’s address the elephant in the room first (and not the fantastic and underutilised life size puppet of Jumbo, who rightfully gets his own programme credit alongside creators Mervyn Millar, Tracy Waller and Helen Foan plus the team at Significant Object). Barnum was not a nice man. His entire career as a showman was based on hoaxes and fooling people out of money, built on the backs of the enslaved and marginalised people who he exploited for entertainment. And he didn’t make a show of denying the fact. Thankfully, unlike The Greatest Showman, Barnum doesn’t seek to overly sanitise the man. The opening song There is a Sucker Born Every Minute tells the audience exactly what they are getting, and Barnum’s numerous uses of the word ‘humbug’ make it clear how much of an act all the acts are.

With that out of the way, is Barnum worth seeing? Well, it depends on what you are looking for. As a musical, it’s not the best. The songs are rather samey, and aside from the famous songs Come Follow the Band and Join the Circus, all are pretty forgettable. The plot is moved along so quickly that it’s hard to stay engaged due to there being a lot of tell not show. Mead is an excellent performer, and is trying his best, but he is hampered by a thick Boston accent and a good number of patter songs. Half of his singing is essentially just unintelligible noise – it’s unclear if this is because of unbalanced sound levels between music and singer, or if he just doesn’t annunciate clearly (unfortunately this is true of all the singers). His chemistry with both wife Charity (Monique Young) and Jenny Lind (Penny Ashmore) is great, but the script doesn’t appear to want the audience to root for one or the other of them. It also doesn’t seek to make us actually like it’s title character either, giving him a hefty dose of ‘cheeky’ misogyny (which hasn’t aged well) and a cheating storyline with no historical basis (why can’t shows talk about how Jenny Lind donated a lot of her salary to set up schools, and instead choose to make her a cheap seductress?). It all adds up to not much really.

Luckily, as a circus spectacle, Barnum shines. The set is a stage within a stage, and the costumes wonderfully evoke a Victorian sideshow while somehow managing to also look quite modern (kudos to designer Lee Newby). While the principles sing another mediocre song, watch the ensemble instead. Ringmaster Eamonn Cox gives the drama announcing each scene (very like Emcee in Chicago), and the troupe of acrobats (Gianpaolo Candelaria, James Gill, Lennin Nelson-McClure, Emily Odunsi, André Rodrigues and Niki Tsonopoulou) are a delight every time they enter stage. Watching them set up a café while clowning and flipping and contorting their bodies could be a whole show in itself. The marching band musicians are also a highlight, and although there sounded to be the occasional bum note, seeing them joyfully play instruments live while dancing and stepping in and out of playing various smaller characters is so impressive that it is easily forgiven – the ensemble scenes are certainly the best part of the show.

While it can’t be said that Barnum will have its audiences rushing to see the show a second time, it is an enjoyable experience if taken at face value, and it certainly might inspire a few viewers to rush off and join the circus. One to see if you have a night free and a hankering for a little razzle dazzle over anything of greater substance. 

Runs until Saturday 4 April 2026