Cirque promises The Greatest Show in Crawley and Hastings

It was a film which resonated so much with him about his own life in showbiz, says Max who is both producer and lead singer for the tour which plays The Hawth Crawley on June 22 (also White Rock, Hastings, August 18; Brighton Centre, August 25; Portsmouth Guildhall, September 30-October 1; and The Capitol, Horsham, October 7). He is promising us a night like no other, a world where the very best of musical theatre showstoppers meets jaw-dropping circus spectacular, a “world that explodes into colour as everyone’s favourite West End and Broadway hits combine with breath-taking, amazing performances, incredible contortionists and thrilling feats of agility and flair” in a brand-new variety spectacular.

“The show started first of all back in 2019 just before Covid but it was more of a condensed version of what we're doing now,” Max says. “The show has really grown but really back when The Greatest Showman came out in 2017 that was when I became really obsessed with it. I just thought the film was absolutely amazing. I just fell in love with it, this idea of putting a show together that was more engaged towards family. When we first did this show it wasn't just kids that came along, though. It was just whole families which was great.

“When I saw the film it just reminded me of when I first started performing and it just feels like a little bit of my life too. I suppose I would be the Barnum character in a way. In this business you have got so many obstacles in front of you and you've got the ups and downs but just like Barnum in the film you just have to pick yourself up again and keep going. You just have to understand that this business is all about the peaks and the troughs and you just have to keep rolling with it. And now with this show I think we've really reached the top. We have achieved something that has not been achieved before, musical theatre combined with circus. There are traditional circuses and big tops which are more for children and then you've got something like the Cirque de Soleil which is more for adults but this one is really for everyone.”

Inevitably the pandemic was bad timing for the show just as it was bad timing for absolutely everyone and everything: “But we just had to do other things. We were the first people to develop the concept of drive-in which was fabulous and then after the pandemic I spoke to a company called Entertainers who are the promoters for this show. They delve into the tribute market and put on shows in theatres and we've helped them to expand their repertoire by doing something that's a little bit different with our show. There are some songs from The Greatest Showman but really it's a variety of musical theatre numbers including Hairspray and Moulin Rouge and things like that and I have integrated different circus acts throughout the show, a roller-skating duo, a mime artist, the cyr wheel, fire and the spinning cube.”