A new production of the long-running stage musical about P.T. Barnum comes to Dublin next month. We spoke to leading man Lee Mead
He was "the prince of humbug" who is often said to have coined the phrase "there’s a sucker born every minute" - and now a stage musical about the ultimate showman P.T. Barnum is coming to Dublin.
Barnum was the Connecticut-born businessman, politician, hoaxer and hoodwinker who pretty much created the modern theatre spectacle over 150 years ago and gave the world such curios and oddities as Jumbo the Elephant and General Tom Thumb.
He was a self-confessed prankster and chancer who wouldn’t be out of place in today’s world of political hucksters and the snake oil salesman of big tech.
His story has been enjoying a surge in popularity following the huge global success of Hugh Jackman’s 2017 movie The Greatest Showman, and next month, the all-singing, all-dancing musical Barnum comes to the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin.
Leading man Lee Mead says it’s the role of a lifetime. The 44-year-old is a West End veteran having appeared in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Wicked and Legally Blonde. He also won BBC talent search show Any Dream Will Do and has released several albums of show tunes and performed with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
Speaking via Zoom from Brighton where Barnum recently enjoyed a week-long run, he says. "I have been doing shows for the last 23 years but I honestly believe my career has led me to Barnum. This role is iconic.
"It’s exhausting but the pay-off is incredible. There is so much going on. It’s a rollercoaster, really, a joyous rollercoaster. There’s music, there’s songs, and a cast of 25. They sing and play about 15 instruments so technically, it’s a real challenge."
Barnham was originally produced on Broadway and arrived in the West End in the early nineties with Michael Crawford in the lead role.
Mead’s own connection to Barnham goes way back. He first appeared in the show when he played the Ringmaster in a school production when he was 14 in his home town of Southend-on-Sea in the UK.
"I really wanted to play Barnum but my friend Chris got the part," the actor says. "The Ringmaster was a great role as well but it’s really mind-blowing to think that I’m playing Barnum all these years later in a professional theatre production. It’s crazy really."
And as with Crawford over thirty years ago, the centrepiece of the show is the nightly tightrope walk undertaken by the leading man - without a harness or floor mats. As Mead ruefully quips, "it’s the kind of thing you learn to do when you’re 24, not 44".
He laughs and says, "I am absolutely knackered after every show. I come off stage dripping with sweat and I come back to my hotel and it’s a hot bath and straight to bed.
"No harness and no mats is quite daunting. It’s scary every time I step on it but the technique kicks in and it helps that you’ve got 2000 people watching you and the drums are rolling. You go into a Zen zone."
Hand in hand with his wife Charity, the show traces Barnum’s life and career twists and turns as he schemes and dreams his way to headier heights and it features show tunes including Join the Circus, Colours of My Life, Come Follow the Band and Love Makes Such Fools of Us All.
It is very much a family affair that steers clear of Barnum’s darker side. He was a showman for sure but he also had a less than enlightened view of women (he cheated on his wife with opera singer Jenny Lint), and his exhibitions and circuses would be unlikely to meet modern standards of morality.
"He did have a dark side and I’ve been talking this through with the show’s director," Mead says. "We don’t go too dark with it because this is a family-friendly, commercial musical. It would be fascinating if someone wrote a play of Barnum’s life.
"He was a very selfish person in many ways. His wife Charity adored him and supported him but he had an affair with Jenny Lint. He had to have ego and drive to achieve what he achieved. Anyone with success on that level generally has an ego.
"But he was also very charismatic and it’s a tricky role for me because the audience have to like you from the off."
Sometimes we want to be suckered and be in on the act. "We don’t always want to hear the truth, do we?" Mead says. "We go with people who can humbug us . . . without getting political, we can get into the whole Trump thing. It’s similar to that in a way . . .
He adds, "It’s like Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses. He humbugs people in a way. Barnum was a bit of a Del Boy. He had to get all these people on his side; he started with nothing. He achieved a lot and that takes a lot of confidence and a lot of blag."
Barnum is at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin from 14 to 18 of April. Tickets from €24.40 are on sale now through Ticketmaster.
