Meet Simon Hammerstein, the creator of Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular
Epic new immersive theatre and circus experience Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular is now playing in London.
Inspired by the smash-hit movie The Greatest Showman, Come Alive! officially opened earlier this month at the Empress Museum in London’s Earls Court, in a 700-seater Big Top circus.
Blending the hit songs from The Greatest Showman with dancing and circus, Come Alive! boasts a huge cast of actors, singers, dancers and circus performers, led by West End star Simon Bailey (Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Heathers, Jersey Boys) as The Showman, and exciting new talent Aaliya Mai in the lead role of Max.
The show is created by Drama Desk Award-winner Simon Hammerstein, the grandson of legendary Broadway lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. Read an interview with Simon, below.
Q&A with Simon Hammerstein
Q: What makes this show spectacular?
It starts with the scale of the production. Marrying the interlocking mediums of theatre and musical, circus and concert, in service of an original story within an interactive, immersive world creates the full spectacular.
Q: What should audiences takeaway from this?
I would love audiences to feel a sense of a collective journey: that we’ve touched on a deep language of theatre with a communal sense of catharsis at the end. Let’s take a ride together!
Q: What were some of the biggest challenges in marrying musical theatre with circus?
The biggest challenge was bridging the gap between the traditional ways of creating circus and musical theatre and the new language we strove to invent.
Q: How do you see Come Alive! contributing to the evolution of circus arts in contemporary entertainment?
Traditionalists may view this differently, but I feel we haven’t been totally pious in maintaining every element that makes a traditional circus a circus, so we were able to prove to ourselves that there is a physical language, like dance, that circus could contribute to the narrative.
Q: What personal experiences or influences have shaped your artistic vision for Come Alive!?
These would have to include the surrealist circus of Archaos I saw as a kid, to the imagistic highly theatrical work of Theatre de Complicité as well as a healthy dose of classic musical theatre. Each part helped me effectuate reality – bending meets impressionism meets elements of a good old fashioned musical.
Q: What was one of the most memorable moments you have had working on this show?
The first time we saw it all come together. With the band, the loud voices, the song and dance – the first time we ran it in tech, we were floored. I was so deep inside of it from the beginning that perhaps it became easy to lose sight of the potential, when people were so bullish about the early run-through.
Then seeing it all put together in the big top when the tent itself came into its own as an integral character, I felt it really began to jell.
This interview was first featured in the official programme for Come Alive!
Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular is now playing at the Empress Museum, booking to 30 March 2025.
Book tickets to Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular in London
Empress Museum, London
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