So NOT creative

That title sounds like I am going to go off on AI again, but not this time. 

I've decided to get to my other three movie notes this week. I think it will lead me back into talking about the current political situation and dominator culture.

This first one also comes from distinct works with similar source material. Instead of Walter Mitty, it's P. T. Barnum.

Back in the day (it was 1989), my high school put on a production of Barnum! for the spring musical. Many of my friends were in it, so I saw it and heard them talking about it.

One thing I do remember is that some of them got together to watch the movie and were disappointed. I was surprised, because I had enjoyed their performance. One of them said that they did a great job with maybe not great material. I don't know if they had noticed an issue with the material before they saw someone else's version.

I also do not know whether they saw the stage performance led by Michael Crawford and filmed in London or the made-for-TV movie led by Burt Lancaster. I did not know there were multiple versions. I now know that both of those came out in 1986. They may have been part of why the drama department chose it, but the stage musical only debuted in 1980, so it may have still felt kind of new and exciting.

Having enjoyed it but learned that there could be disappointing versions, I was interested in what was going to happen with The Greatest Showman when it came out in 2017.

I did keep thinking of it at "Barnum!" but it was its own thing. Again, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was one of the last movies I took my mother to see in the theater.

The thing I hated most about Barnum! was the subplot with his affair with Jenny Lind, that rat.

Except, he didn't. There are no indications that there was ever any romantic intrigue between Barnum and Lind. They ended their business agreement because she was somewhat uncomfortable with the relentless (perhaps crass) commercial promotion side; she wanted to be more about the art and philanthropy. 

I think the business relationship was beneficial for both, probably beyond the time it lasted. They parted amicably.

I mean, how can you write a splashy musical number about that? 

The credit I can give The Greatest Showman is that they did not make Barnum a cheater; they just made Lind a clingy, delusional mess.

They probably didn't think anyone would buy Hugh Jackman as someone who would leave his adored wife and the mother of his children for... never mind.

In The Greatest Showman it still caused marital discord because it reminded Charity of her husbands monumental self-absorption and selfishness. Of course he didn't love Jenny; he couldn't love anyone!

It's a good line, though I don't think accurate to either the real or the movie people.

I don't know that you can successfully make an accurate musical about anyone. We know Hamilton and Night and Day didn't... that list could go on and on.

It might be better to make fictional ones that remind you of real people but leave some room to maneuver. 

Mainly my frustration was the way the material goes to cheating over and over again. There can be so much conflict without that!

Then my other frustration, possibly connected, is that it's something that happens in real life so much too.