The Greatest Showman | #MusicMonday2018 + #MovieMonday2018

This is a really LONG #MusicMonday2018, and that's because it's been a post I've been working on since the end of December (yep, I spent a month on this one. You're welcome.). It's also a #MovieMonday2018, so you're kinda getting 2-for-1. Sorta. :P

You've no doubt already heard of the phenomenon that is "The Greatest Showman" and given my love of music and movies, it's should come as no surprise to you that I am absolutely obsessed with this movie.
Here's the film synopsis (as I don't want to give any spoilers for those who have not yet seen it, though I genuinely don't understand why you wouldn't have yet lol): 
Inspired by the imagination of P. T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman is an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business & tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.

Quite frankly, I would REALLY like to do a MusicMonday post for each song in the soundtrack, but you guys'd probably get really bored with me...really fast. But let my general enthusiasm for the whole thing convince you that it's worth watching if you haven't already, okay?

In addition, I highly recommend watching just about any interview involving Hugh Jackman for The Greatest Showman. I've liked him as an actor for a while now, but with the sudden realization (via Les Mis) that he could sing and now his ON POINT portrayal of P.T. Barnum in The Greatest Showman (his acting, singing, and DANCING all put on full display), I'm more of a fan now than ever before. I've watched five different interviews already and I've loved them ALL.
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The Movie + The Music

I love the way this was filmed. AB-SO-LUTE-LY LOVED IT. The high standards to which they adhered themselves.

Zendaya was told to go work on her upper body strength because they wanted to refrain from using a double as much as possible. They literally had her doing trapeze stunts with no net (she was wired, obviously) because nets weren't used at the time. The QUALITY of this show is killing me and I love it!

They actually danced/ran and sang at the same time for all of the scenes. The seamless cuts from studio recording to live recordings that we can't even pick apart have me wanting to just rewatch and relisten to it all to remind myself of what a great job they did. The great showmanship and professionalism of the whole movie just shone through in EVERYTHING and I was loving every second.

I did have one small "criticism"... I love the show, don't get me wrong, just the one thing where I was like "so close!". In my opinion, Zac Efron's dancing wasn't as sharp as everyone else's. However, this really only caught my attention in the last "The Greatest Show" scene, where he was literally put right in front of Zendaya (who just won Dancing with the Stars recently), so it may have just been my untrained eye thinking that his movements weren't as sharp as the others'. Like I said, small matter and I had absolutely no problem with any of his other dance scenes (e.g., The Other Side, Rewrite the Stars). Loved both of those very much. <3

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The Soundtrack

I'm gonna * the ones that I especially love from the soundtrack, but just to be clear, I love the whole thing very much. There's no song that I'd skip, but the ones with the *s are the ones that I could have on repeat for an hour just on their own.

1. The Greatest Show
2. A Million Dreams* 
3. A Million Dreams Reprise
4. Come Alive
5. The Other Side*
6. Never Enough*
7. This is Me*
8. Rewrite the Stars*
9. Tightrope
10. Never Enough Reprise
11. From Now On*

We're gonna be here all day if I take the time to go through and list what I love about each song (even just my faves), so I'll just sum it up in a quick list:

- stunning harmonies

- emotions. feels. whatever you call 'em, they're there in full force.

- authenticity: Broadway level portrayal of a character in song

- interplay between characters, natural flow of "conversation" in verse

- POWERFUL LYRICS. seriously, I could swim in the depth that these ones provide.

- quality voices (I may not care for some of them, but you'll get no argument from me about their singing ability)

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The Feels from the LIVEs

So, when you're going through what's essentially a quick "presentation" or run-through of something like The Greatest Showman, you obviously have to SING all of the relevant songs. The two videos you're about to see here are FROM their run-through. Also, FEELS WARNING! Keep tissues nearby. 

...I have no words. 
I cried from watching both of them. My heart was SINGING from the emotion and the raw power that I could hear coming through my earbuds from these two videos. 

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I hope you've enjoyed this #MusicMonday2018 / #MovieMonday2018.

If you remember nothing else from this post, remember to go watch The Greatest Showman. It's officially on my favorite movies list and it's going to be one I'll rewatch over and over again in the years to come.

Don't quite know what's going to be on this week's #WeeklyWednesday2018, so it'll be a surprise for both of us. haha XD

~ See you next weeek!

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