The Greatest Showman serves up a PT Barnum smaller than life

New York

EARLY in The Greatest Showman, PT Barnum, played with gung-ho sincerity by Hugh Jackman, says he has long served up hokum but now wants to do more for his audience: "Just once I'd like to give them something real." What fun is that?

Even after the long-running circus bearing his name closed up shop this year, Barnum remains firmly lodged in the public imagination because of his gift for blurring the line between truth and fiction. When he presented the 161-year-old nurse of George Washington as a star attraction, some of his audience knew she was phony, others did not, and then there were those who did not care and went along for the ride.