First look: Matt Rawle back as P.T. Barnum on the UK and Ireland tour

New production images by Pamela Raith have been released for Barnum, the Bill Kenwright Ltd staging of the Watermill Theatre production, which is touring the UK and Ireland until 31 October. The show opened at Theatre Royal Windsor on 3 February 2026 and finishes its run at Malvern Festival Theatre.

Matt Rawle returned to the title role on 11 August and stays with the production until 31 October, reprising a performance he had already given earlier in the tour. His other stage work includes Cabaret, Evita and Les Misérables.

He is joined by Monique Young (Mary Poppins) as Charity Barnum, Penny Ashmore (Dr Strangelove) as Jenny Lind, Dominique Planter (The Lion King) as Joice Heth and Fergus Rattigan (The Wizard of Oz) as General Tom Thumb. The company is completed by Elena Bluck, Gianpaolo Candelaria, Eamonn Cox, James Gill, Jessica Jolleys, Kevin Oliver Jones, Emma Jane Morton, Sophie Precious Muringu, Lennin Nelson-McClure, Emily Odunsi, André Rodrigues, Ben Scott, Laura Sillett, Tom Sowinski, Tom Sterling and Niki Tsonopoulou.

Built around the life of the American showman P.T. Barnum and his marriage to Charity, the musical pairs Cy Coleman's score with lyrics by Michael Stewart and a book by Mark Bramble, and hands much of the spectacle to a company of actor-musicians, acrobats and circus performers. The score includes Join the Circus, Colours of My Life, Come Follow the Band and Love Makes Such Fools of Us All. The Observer called the show "a dazzling, all-singing, all-juggling musical".

British audiences first took to it at the London Palladium, where Michael Crawford walked a tightrope across the stage every night. In this production that walk has fallen to Lee Mead and now Matt Rawle.

The production is directed by Jonathan O'Boyle (Picture You Dead, The Last Five Years) and choreographed by Oti Mabuse, with Matt Nicholson as co-choreographer. George Dyer is arranger, orchestrator and musical supervisor and Kevin Oliver Jones musical director, with set and costume design by Lee Newby, lighting by Jai Morjaria, sound by Tom Marshall and circus direction by Amy Panter. Puppets are designed by Mervyn Millar and Tracy Waller for Significant Object, with Helen Foan as puppetry director; Zippos Circus and the National Centre for Circus Arts are circus consultants.