Samantha Barks and Oliver Tompsett on Bringing The Greatest Showman to the West End
Samantha Barks and Oliver Tompsett have discussed their roles in the forthcoming West End production of The Greatest Showman in a bonus episode of the WhatsOnStage Podcast, recorded at Disneyland's D23 fan event in California.
Podcast host Alex Wood interviewed the pair about the stage adaptation, which Disney Theatrical Group announced on Friday, August 14. The production opens at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane — the 2,196-seat venue owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber's LW Theatres and currently home to Disney's Frozen — in spring 2027. WhatsOnStage
Tompsett will play P T Barnum, the carnival impresario at the centre of the story. Barks takes the role of Charity Barnum, his wife. Ben Joyce completes the initial principal cast as Phillip Carlyle. WhatsOnStage
The musical is a world premiere that will debut at Bristol Hippodrome before transferring to the West End — a transfer meaning the production moves from its original regional venue into a commercial London house. The official production website states that only Theatre Royal Drury Lane has been announced so far, with no other venues confirmed. The Greatest Showman
Barks is no stranger to screen-to-stage moves: she played Elsa in the West End production of Frozen and has a film career that includes Les Misérables. Tompsett's West End credits include Kinky Boots, Wicked and & Juliet. Joyce appeared in the original West End cast of Back to the Future: The Musical.
The 2017 film of The Greatest Showman, starring Hugh Jackman, became one of Disney's biggest original musical film releases, with a soundtrack led by the song "This Is Me." The stage version has been in development for several years; WhatsOnStage listed the Bristol premiere among its picks for spring theatre earlier this year. WhatsOnStage
The same bonus podcast episode also featured an interview with the makers of Secret Cinema's Pirates of the Caribbean, an immersive production running from February in Greenwich. Secret Cinema, known for staging large-scale audience-participation events around well-known films, is mounting the production in the south-east London borough.
Sarah Crompton co-hosts the WhatsOnStage Podcast with Wood. The weekly series covers theatrical topics from openings and casting to industry trends.
Disney Theatrical Group's involvement places The Greatest Showman within a slate that already includes The Lion King — the longest-running show at the Lyceum Theatre — and the recently opened Hercules at the Piccadilly Theatre. Bringing a new title into that portfolio at Drury Lane means Disney will have two musicals running within a few hundred yards of each other on the same stretch of the Strand.
