The Art and Making of The Greatest Showman

by Signe Bergstrom

The glorious world of P.T. Barnum and the holiday movie The Greatest Showman come to life in this lavish art book. Featuring unit photography and concept art of stars Hugh Jackman, Zac Ephron, Michelle Williams, and Zendaya as well as behind-the-scenes tales of the film’s making. Lyrics to the movie musical’s showstopping tunes, by the song-writing team behind La-La Land. Foreword by Director Michael Gracey.

Genres: Nonfiction, Media Tie In, Reference, Art, Behind The Scenes, History

160 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 2017

Reviews

[AMEERA]

3.5 👏🏼’

[Christine]

The art and photography are the stars of this book. Any fan of the film will enjoy seeing the concept art next to the finished images and the details of certain shots and costumes. The text provides a light look at the production process with quotes from the cast and production team and there is a nice focus on several of the film's larger musical numbers complete with printed lyrics. Really though, this book is driven by the beautiful imagery and the rest is just a bonus.

[Books'N'Tracks]

The Greatest Showman is one of the best films I‘ve ever seen. Its just breathtaking with all this overwhelming feelings it sets free. „Hopefully,“ the Producer Larry Mark said, „the film will touch your heart and dazzle your eyes.“ For me, it absolutely did.
Reading this book and seeing all those wonderful pictures revived the feelings I had while watching the film. Unfortunately, the descriptions could’nt keep up with the pictures. I would have wished for more interesting information. That‘s why I had to deduct one star. Nevertheless, it is a wonderful book.

[Sophie Crane]

If you love the film, get this brilliant book, taking you behind the scenes with the stars, it's great to have a look at the amount of hard work that went into this fabulous film. Highly recommend.

[Natha]

Bukunya bagus banget astagaaaaahhhh!!! xD

[Flavia]

Happy The Greatest Showman release on DVD and Blu-ray day! If you haven’t read my gush review for the film itself, you can find it here. This tie-in book is just as awesome as the film was too! I love hardcover books like this, especially when the pages are glossy and of amazing quality. I love the cover of this book. It’s beautiful! And just as much effort has gone into the interior, as the exterior. The top of each section was formatted to look like something out of a newspaper from the 1800s (P.T. Barnum’s time).

There are many glossy photographs about the make of The Greatest Showman, which I really enjoyed, because one of the things that I loved most about the film were the visuals (and the visuals in this book were just as colourful and just as much a pleasure to look at). The topics discussed in the articles, or sections, within this book, were also quite interesting. Subjects ranging from the life of the real P.T. Barnum, to choices and decisions made regarding the film, and I found myself enjoying each of the topics. I definitely recommend this book to those who enjoyed the film, and who also enjoy art books like this one!

[Joy]

I absolutely loved this book and will enjoy rereading it many more times. The art work is amazing and I can stare at the pages forever.

[mayday]

man, this book is lucky it has pretty pictures and that i loved the movie so much, because this would have been a 2-star read otherwise. it's a nice collector's item for anyone who's a fan, for sure--but as a /book/, it is......Not Good. for a making-of book, the text is strangely flavorless and sorely, soooorely lacking in specificity. it doesn't delve deeper into the work that went into making the film at all; there's little you'll learn from this that you wouldn't already know just from a quick google search, or heck, from /watching the movie/.

the writing is often repetitive, and sometimes, infuriatingly hastily generalized--i nearly lost it when the book claimed, "unlike other musicals where the songs just happen out of nowhere, the greatest showman's songs serve the plot moving forward." UMMM, NO SHIT??? have you ever WATCHED any other musicals?????? rather than read the same sentence over and over about how *~unique~* this musical is, i want to know about the /work/--what processes exactly went into making every aspect, the step-by-step evolution of every story arc and every song. tl;dr, this book will please people who are easily dazzled and like to conceive of dreaming big dreams, but will disappoint the people who know exactly how much toil and labor goes into making those big dreams come true.

[Elien]

As a huge Hugh Jackman fan, there was a lot I already knew about the making of The Greatest Showman, but this books expands on the things I already knew and features some amazing concept art and pictures. If you liked the movie, you'll really like this.

[Kimberly Karalius]

This was wonderful. I loved the film, so I loved being able to look at the concept art and costuming.

[Megan Skeens]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[Charlotte]

Is there anything more amazing for a coffee table book!

[Martein Joaquim]

Watch the greatest showman

[MKF]

Me and my daughter love this movie so I decided to surprise her with this book. The photos and art is great but the text isn't that great.

[Christine]

At the brink of the Industrial Revolution, Barnum taught a generation of Americans to dream. For Barnum, the only thing that separates dreams from reality was belief. This inside look at the director Michael Gracey's 7 year pre-production process for making this film is as marvelous as the final film itself.

[Alyssa]

The art in this book is stunning, but that is about the extent of its value. The write ups are generic, self-indulgent and repetitive, doing little to shed work on the actual film. Having to said this, there were some sections that were absolutely fascinating to read. It was these and the art (I really cannot stress how breathtaking it is) that saved this book from a much lower rating.

[Naomi]

OH-MY-GOODNESS! I absolutely love this book! I watched the movie and it was terrific, then, I read the book and it was even more fantastic! I have to admit, the songs in the movie were amazing and wished it could be in the book. I love the details the author wrote and the words he chose. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend this book to anyone! This book is worth it.

[Adrianna Denise Hanna]

Best book I ever read can't believe I never read it before

[Emily Morgan]

P.T. Barnum, an entrepreneur who is struggling In the world is trying to make his ends meet. His wife and 2 kids are the most important things to him in the world. This man is someone who gets an idea, and sticks to it! When his new idea takes off, he has to make some tough decisions in his life. What will he leave behind and what will he grow? If you have seen the movie you will love this book. The book is just as good as the movie if not better.
This book is one of my favorites. It is such an escape from our world today. It provides new insights and is known to make me think outside of the box. I really loved reading this book. I would definitely read it again. I have recommended this book to many friends and they have loved it as well. I did a movie night with family and friends after I finished it and I think it is a great way to end the book. Enjoy your reading!

[Denise Gale]

I received a finish copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. So let’s be honest this is really only going to appeal to fans of the film, which I am and if you are a fan you will love this beautiful book. With wonderful art work and stills from the film thats accompanied by interesting information about how characters and scenes were brought to life this is a perfect book to dip in and out of. If you know anyone who loves The Greatest Showman then this will be the greatest gift you could give them this year for Christmas.

[Lucy Walters]

Really interesting book with beautiful images and quite an in-depth insight into the production of the film. However, it would have been nice to see more behind the scenes information and images. Also, the ‘exclusive interviews’ it advertises were really just quotes from the actors/production team etc, it would have been nice to have some features focusing on full-length interviews. Overall, this was a good read and I am glad I gave it a go!

[Cindy Richard]

This book is nearly as magical as the movie. Bursting with conceptual art, inspiration, and behind the scenes interviews, fans of this film will not be sorry for reading this book. I read it cover to cover in one sitting, and I was totally transfixed. I can’t wait to make some of my own art based on the images in this book.

[Rubi]

For those who loved the movie, this book doesn't go into extreme detail but it does give nice insight into the directors, crew, designers and actors ideas for this movie. It was also beautiful to note how love and family were the main theme and feeling of the film. I LOVE this movie and reading about how long it was worked on to make it perfect was amazing.

[Kate Willetts]

Brilliant companion to the film. So interesting to hear about behind the scenes and interviews with the cast and crew. Fabulous pictures, a mix of concept art, shots from the film and character portraits. As joyful to read as the film is to watch

[Rebecca Pickering]

The Greatest Showman is one of my favourite films so I loved being able to read about how the production came together, especially the wardrobe section. The photos and concept art used throughout were stunning!!

[Whenimnotreadingharrypotter]

I absolutely love The Greatest Showman, it is one of my favourite films and the soundtrack is perfection!
However the book didn't really bring much to the table and didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know!

[Allie]

Could outline the oddity stars more and missing Loren Allred info but gorgeous book on an incredible musical

[Jordan johnson]

Love the arts

[Susie]

Adored the film and loved this book!

[Grace]

The photography in this booo blows me away. Learnt quite a bit about the filming process too and it was obviously a long time in planning it.