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Disney announced at D23 in Anaheim on Friday that a live version of The Greatest Showman will soon be making its debut. The extravagant musical about legendary circus impresario P. T. Barnum is among a bevy of musicals it hopes to bring to Broadway and London’s West End.
As part of the promotional hoopla at D23, Ryan Vasquez appeared dressed as Barnum, accompanied by four other cast members. Vasquez recently starred in The Notebook on Broadway.
The Greatest Showman will be the first 20th Century Fox film that Disney will be adapting for the live stage. Wette Nicole Brown, who hosted D23, added later that the project was currently in development, but revealed no specifics about timing or venue. However, it’s already being reported in the press that the new musical is expected to open at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where another Disney show, Hercules, is currently playing. It’s also been reported that Casey Nicholaw (of Aladdin and The Book of Mormon) has been tapped to direct Showman.
The upcoming musical will be produced by Disney Theatrical, which already has two long-running shows on Broadway: The Lion King, which opened in 1997, and Aladdin, which opened In 2014. The group also produced several earlier hits, including Mary Poppins, Aida, Tarzan, and Newsies. Disney Theatrical also created Frozen, which opened in 2018 but did not survive the coronavirus pandemic that shuttered Broadway theaters for some eighteen months.
The movie version of The Greatest Showman was immensely successful, having grossed more than $435 million worldwide since its release in 2017. In addition to Hugh Jackman, the film starred Zac Efron, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, and Michelle Williams. Several of its award-winning songs by Oscar winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul also became hits, such as “Greatest Show,” “This Is Me,” and “A Million Dreams.”
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