The Greatest Showman is a phenomenal film that brings past and present together in a raucous, glorious symphony of discord and resonance.

When characters speaking to one another or miming out a scene just aren’t enough to convey the depth and potency of a situation you turn it into a song. Disney made a mint off this concept for decades, though they certainly didn’t invent it.

Theater has been in the know for centuries — how else would opera have come to be? Rodgers & Hammerstein, anyone?

“Where words fail, music speaks”  – Hans Christian Andersen

Today’s musicals are a celebration of this theatrical mechanic that so effectively taps into the hearts and souls of audiences, playing on imagination and creating a sort of middle-world between the tangible and the fantastic.

“Musicals don’t get enough credit for being so surreal. It’s like an alternate universe.”  – Ezra Koenig

Think of…