'See the Clown Falling Down/It's the Best Show In Town' - circus in the musical theatre

The chapter examines the treatment of the circus within the musical theatre, focussing on five shows: Billy Rose's Jumbo (1936: book by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart), Lady in the Dark (1941: book by Moss Hart, score by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin) The Grand Tour (1978: book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, score by Jerry Herman), Barnum (1980: book by Mark Bramble, score by Cy Coleman and Michael Stewart) and Aspects of Love (1989: music and book by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart.)

My central subject is the contrast between two different narrative functions of circus within the musical. The first is in those shows set entirely (or almost) within a circus environment (Jumbo, Barnum) which treat the circus as a working space, and use circus spectacle and skills as part of their appeal – Jumbo featured a live elephant on stage, where Barnum requires the lead actor to demonstrate skills such as unicycling and wire-walking. The second category in in shows which feature a single circus sequence within a larger narrative (Lady in the Dark, The Grand Tour, Aspects of Love). In these, circus functions as a version of the ‘second world’ of Shakespearean comedy, an alternative space in which relationships and hierarchies can mutate and change.