Theatre / Reviews
Review: Barnum, Hippodrome
The largest elephant in the world, the oldest woman in the world, the greatest showman in the world: Barnum at the Bristol Hippodrome has it all.
A revised version of an original Cameron Mackintosh production sees Brian Conley play an only just exaggerated version of himself as a small town impresario who takes his show across America and then across the world throughout the late nineteenth century.
Like all the best tales, it’s based on a true story. PT Barnum was America’s second millionaire, was twice bankrupted, went buffalo hunting with General Custer and was friends with Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln.
Conley plays him with gusto as a man always thinking of the next business opportunity, fiercely ambitious but never forgetting his humble beginnings.
Unscripted audience interaction sees Watford-born Conley at his best, like when he blames the light reflecting off someone’s bald head in the front row for his slip from the tightrope – a similar excuse to a football fan he played in Elton John’s Glasses who blamed the reflection off the glasses of another of Watford’s favourite sons for distracting the goalkeeper in the 1984 FA Cup Final.
Barnum at the Hippodrome was quite possibly like entering his Greatest Show on Earth, a touring circus that seated 10,000 people.
Even before the curtain raised, there was entertainment galore, the jugglers and gymnasts who were clambering all over the audience seats then jumping on stage to play the lively ensemble cast.
In no means subtle, the story of Barnum is sometimes as audacious as his cons – in real life convincing people to part with money to see a mermaid which is in fact the top of a monkey sewn into a fish.
You can only admire the chutzpah of the man in a show that’s good old music hall entertainment at its best.
Barnum is at the Bristol Hippodrome until September 27. Visit www.atgtickets.com/shows/barnum/bristol-hippodrome/
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