Photo courtesy of Deb Del Valle | The highly anticipated film featured a star-studded cast that included Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron and Zendaya from the producers of La La Land.
If John Matarese were to see this show, you probably wouldn’t hear the end of it because this was the worst way I spent $20 all break.
Before the movie even began, a clip of Hugh Jackman and the director, Michael Gracey, graced us with a foreboding thank you for being the sort of audience to support this type of film. Retrospectively, I resent being associated with such a doltish bunch. As a proud ex-theatre kid, I eagerly anticipated a new musical. I was prepared by the trailers for the sap and the meet cutes, but I was less prepared for there to be at least 14 story lines, only about half of them going anywhere. The plot moved quickly and was jam-packed with clumsy dialogue without many layers.
Worst of all, perhaps, was the music. In a post-La La Land stupor, I had hope for good musicals to re-enter the big screen, but I was let down harder than the only interesting plot sequence. The modern, poppy jingles did not match the time period or accent the show in some ironic edgy way.
Despite some good lyrics, the performance simply fell short for me. PT Barnum begins as a likable underdog, but wait, then the fame goes to his head, but then that’s ok because at least while he was profiting off the genetic misfortunes of others he gave them community? Sorry, Hugh, I’m going to need more than your best to rescue this garbage script.
And don’t worry! I think the authors realized their mistake. Luckily, they threw in a second set of star-crossed lovers to distract from the first. A generous critic might dub this juxtaposition, but I’m still bitter about that $20.
If lip dubs that looked like you were facetiming on 2G and overcrowded orchestration wasn’t enough to turn you off, the blatant use of trashy autotune was meretricious and distasteful to say the least. If the acting wasn’t unbelievable on its own, the CGI acrobatics were the final nail in the coffin of yet another superfluous movie musical. I wanted to love this movie, but not even Zendaya and Zac Efron could stand in the way of this trainwreck.
By: Brittany Wells ~Staff Writer~