There's One Born Every Minute.

Rating: 9/10 (21 October 2018)

Those are the ACTUAL words of P.T. Barnum, and NOT the words you often hear attributed to the man, "There's a sucker born every minute". Barnum NEVER said the previous sentence.
That being said, I worked on many LIVE musicals in a number of theatres. By the time I was fourteen, I had a mustache and a deep voice, and as Technical Director, I was telling ADULTS what to do. I only mention this because all those musicals I put on stage (pretty much always with the same crew, ALL of whom were talented and terrific!) because those shows were what are now considered to be "Classic" Musicals - shows like Gypsy, The Music Man, Carnival, West Side Story" and TONS of others - ALL followed the same formula, with minor variations. You know... "Boy Meets Girl, Boy and Girl fall in love, Boy loses Girl, Boy gets Girl back: HAPPY ENDING!
ALL of the "Classic" musicals do this, and The Greatest Showman follows the formula. HOWEVER...
This musical is like NOTHING written since the early 1960's, and whether it's an accurate portrayal of the life of Barnum or not, THIS musical could be destined to become a "Classic" musical that gets performed locally by County, Municipal and High School Theatre Companies all over the USA.
Granted, although the music in this show was VERY good, it's certainly NOT period-correct for the time in American History when the events depicted took place (and that goes for the stuff the writers made up, too). But I can't say I didn't enjoy it. I DID!
So, to wrap this up without giving much away, I shall use terms Early Hollywood borrowed from Barnum himself: "IT'S COLLOSSAL! IT'S STUPENDOUS! ONE COULD GO AS FAR AS TO SAY: IT'S GOOD!!"