After watching the strange and relentlessly cheesy trailer for The Greatest Showman, I was all ready to dismiss the upcoming musical based on the life of P.T. Barnum as one I would never have to see or care about. Then, after a quick bit of researched, I learned the names of the writers behind its original songs and realized the film would soon become my enemy.
In the past six months, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have won an Oscar for La La Land’s City of Stars, and a Tony for their work on Broadway’s Dear Evan Hanson. That means we will not be able to escape The Greatest Showman come December. Winter is coming, my friends, and it will be marked by extreme weather fueled by climate change, and a new set of inescapable songs by Pasek and Paul—performed this time by the likes of Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, and Zendaya.
For months, I haven’t gone more than six hours without “City of Stars” pulsing through my brain. I haven’t met a single New York City resident—babies and rats included—who hasn’t implored me to see Dear Evan Hanson “as soon as possible.” It’s already too much, and in six short months, it will be so much more.
But despite my dread, I’m looking forward to what I hope will be the musical’s uplifting final number, “Contraception Is the Devil.”