Thursday 21th December 2023
Location: Watergate Theatre, Parliament Street, Kilkenny. R95 D320
Step right up and into the spellbinding imagination of a man who set out to reveal that life itself can be the most thrilling show of all. Inspired by the legend and ambitions of America’s original pop-culture impresario, P.T. Barnum, comes an inspirational rags-to-riches tale of a brash dreamer who rose from nothing to prove that anything you can envision is possible and that everyone, no matter how invisible, has a stupendous story worthy of a world-class spectacle.
Australian filmmaker Michael Gracey makes his feature film directorial debut with The Greatest Showman, a story that, in the larger-than-life spirit of Barnum, bursts into a boldly imagined fictional realm, one full of infectious pop tunes, glam dances and a celebration of the transformative power of showmanship, love and self-belief. Gracey braids together original songs by Academy Award winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land) with a multi-talented cast headed by Academy Award nominee Hugh Jackman to immerse audiences in the very origins of mass entertainment and mega-celebrities in the 70s, the 1870s, that is. The result is a chance to enter the newly electrified world of America’s post-Civil War Gilded Age – through the viscerally contemporary lens of the pop culture just igniting then.
Director: Michael Gracey
2017
105 mins
Cert: PG
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Zendaya
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