Very enjoyable, family friendly

Rating: 9/10 (10 February 2019)

I have to plead ignorance here...I did not know that this movie was a musical until shortly after it began. At first, I questioned whether contemporary music could be successfully used in a period piece set in a time with horse drawn carriages. To my pleasant surprise, the music, the choreography, and the overall story hit on all cylinders. The telling of the rags-to-riches story of PT Barnum, eternal optimist and salesman, entertains from start to finish. While the script is somewhat simple, the audience feels the joy and pain of Barnum's vision as he rises from nothing through his imagination, and the joy and pain of the freaks and sideshow acts that he recruits from the shadows to become his faithful family.