The run closed May 16, 1982
- Opened
- April 30, 1980
- Closed
- May 16, 1982
- Performances
- 854
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- St. James Theatre
Of the 465 productions we hold that opened in the 1980s and record a performance count, this is the 17th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Other stagings of Barnum 2 more that season
| 1981 | Transfer Transfer | |
| 1986 | Victoria Palace Theatre Transfer |
Who was in it29 named
Karen Gustafson
Edward T Jacobs
Dirk Lumbard
Barbara Nadel
Peter Phillips
Bruce Robertson
Sophie Schwab
Bradley Steven Fields
Andy Teirstein
Karen Trott
Kelly Walters
Marshall Coid
Colleen Flynn
Catherine Gaines
Richard Gervais
R J Lewis
Navarre Matlovsky
Robert Melvin
Deborah Reagan
Missy Whitchurch
Andrea Wright
8 of these 29 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 21 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name — so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.
Characters11 roles recorded
Jim Dale Phineas Taylor Barnum
Glenn Close Charity (Chairy) Barnum
William C. Witter Ringmaster
Terri White Joice Heith
Marianne Tatum Jenny Lind
Leonard John Crofoot General Tom Thumb
Kelly Walters Amos Scudder
William C. Witter James Bailey
Terrence Mann Chester Lyman
Dirk Lumbard Mr. Stratton
Sophie Schwab Mrs. Stratton
Only 512 of 13,459 productions carry role names, and these came out of a wiki table — the names arrived with the table's own cell markup on them and have been stripped back. They are not linked to person records because the identifiers in that table do not resolve to ours.
Creative team
- Director
- Joe Layton
- Choreographer
- Joe Layton
- Producer
- Judy Gordon, Cy Coleman, Maurice & Lois Rosenfield
- Orchestrations
- Hershy Kay
A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.
Tony Awards 0 from 1 nomination
| Best Musical | Nominated |
Around this production
BARNUM (30 APRIL 1980, ST. JAMES, 854 PERFORMANCES). Music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Michael Stewart, book by Mark Bramble, directed and staged by Joe Layton. Historical Dictionary of the Broadway Musical Volume 22 William A Everett Paul R, p. 62
- On April 30, 1980, the hit musical Barnum arrived and won a Tony Award for its star, Jim Dale, as well as for its sets (David Mitchell) and costumes (Theoni V. At This Theatre 100 Years of Broadway Shows Stories and Botto Louis Viagas Rober, p. 281
- Aldredge). The fanciful musical about the mighty circus impresario P.T. Barnum ran for 854 performances. At This Theatre 100 Years of Broadway Shows Stories and Botto Louis Viagas Rober, p. 282
- Michael Stewart, with 1980 hits Barnum and 42nd Street running, was especially skeptical about exposing the half-baked sequel to the harsh glare of Broadway; but Lee Adams had been undergoing a dry spell since Applause in 1970 (a dry spell that continues to this day), More Opening Nights On Broadway A Critical Quotebook of Compiled By Steven Suski, p. 131
- Stewart, with 1980 hits Barnum and 42nd Street running, was especially skeptical about exposing the half-baked sequel to the harsh glare of Broadway; but Lee Adams had been undergoing a dry spell since Applause in 1970 (a dry spell that continues to this day), More Opening Nights On Broadway Steven Suskin, p. 130
- Even if based on literary texts, concept musicals were not really conceived in the spirit of textual adaptations at all. Many looked directly to diverse forms of musical theater presentation, often for the purpose of exploring the very meanings through which they had been culturally constructed as "shows"-that is, as f… Showtime A History of the Broadway Musical Theatre Larry Stempel, p. 561
Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.
What this page does not know
- No photograph of this staging. 48 of 13,459 productions hold one.
- No recording is held for Barnum at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.