SBG 172: The Greatest Showman
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Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast where the gays get to be in the room even when Hollywood would rather hide us backstage.
This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out and talk about why the 2017 musical The Greatest Showman Should’ve Been Gay. All circuses are inherently queer and this circus is no exception. We’ve got outsiders finding their people, Lettie the Bearded Lady (Keala Settle) choosing to fully embrace herself, and This Is Me, which may be one of the gayest songs ever put on film. Meanwhile, PT Barnum (Hugh Jackman) is busy exploiting the very people who make his show a success, and somehow Hollywood straightwashes him into the hero he never was.
We’re getting into Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson) and Charity (Michelle Williams)’s VERY interesting chemistry, the forbidden-love duet that desperately needed a lesbian rewrite, and our theory that PT and Phillip (Zac Efron) are one lingering eye contact away from this becoming a very different movie. Then Jenny Lind arrives, PT is practically levitating over her performance, and she somehow thinks he’s into her. Jenny, babe, he’s looking at you like you just walked onstage at Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour. Phillip is right there, but apparently the movie’s gaydar is on airplane mode.
For a movie about outsiders, The Greatest Showman sure does spend a lot of time telling PT Barnum’s story while giving us surprisingly little of the people who actually make the circus worth watching. We barely know half their names, let alone who they are beyond the spectacle. Nearly a decade later, we’re still asking: why does the garbage man get the hero edit?
We know one thing for sure, The Greatest Showman Should’ve Been Gay.
Give us your own answers to our Q & Gay and follow along on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and BlueSky @lezhangoutpod. Email us at lezhangoutpod@gmail.com. Connect with us individually: Ellie Brigida (@elliebrigida). Leigh Holmes Foster (@lshfoster).
