Come early for the interactive pre-show experience; enjoy close-up performances, curious characters and savour delicious food and drink. Then take your seats in a 700-seat Big Top where circus meets musical theatre in an epic Spectacular featuring a brand-new story inspired by the 20th Century Fox Motion Picture and featuring all the hit songs by Pasek and Paul including ‘This Is Me’, ‘Rewrite the Stars’, ‘A Million Dreams’, ‘Tightrope’ and ‘The Greatest Show’.
‘COME ALIVE!’ will feature the finest international circus stars (Cirque de Demain Medal Winners, Cirque du Soleil) and musical theatre talent from the West End. At the helm of the production is Drama Desk award-winning Creative Director Simon Hammerstein. As co-founder of The Box and the mastermind behind Usher’s sold-out ‘My Way’ Las Vegas Residency and producer of Queen of the Night, Hammerstein brings his unique flair and live experience expertise to ‘COME ALIVE!’.
The acrobat performers are next level in terms of talent. Featuring all the tricks you’d hope to see in a show, but reimagined in an ‘old circus style’ way - the show feels as much of its era as much as it does modern - lending itself to potentially becoming a timeless production that could easily be lifted and lowered onto a new plot. I continuously found myself on the edge of my seat as they performed nail-biting stunts. I don’t think I've been that engaged with a show in a long time
Arguably the circus is mostly there as something to look at to accompany the songs, although rather than just random setpieces, Hammerstein’s show attempts to extrapolate a plot from the tunes. Which is a bit peculiar when you consider they’re already part of the plot of The Greatest Showman, but Come Alive is attempting to extrapolate a different plot from them. Admittedly a lot of the appeal of the film’s soundtrack is down to the fact the songs aren’t very specific, lyrically speaking. Nonetheless, it’s often bizarre to hear them rearranged into a wafer-thin, bordering-on-incoherent story that has nothing to do with PT Barnum, but rather something about a young woman named Max who visits the circus with her boyfriend, takes on the mantle of The Greatest Showman from the previous holder, and then possibly feels a bit guilty about the whole thing.
2024 | West End |
West End |
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