The Greatest Showman Trivia
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This Greatest Showman trivia quiz has 105 free questions with answers and covers the 2017 movie musical from every angle: the cast (Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Zendaya, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, Keala Settle), the songs Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote, the awards run for This Is Me, the soundtrack's record-breaking stay at number one in the UK, the Reimagined covers album, the film's slow-burn box office legs, and the stage adaptation and sequel talk that followed. Because the film is famously loose with history, the last third of the quiz turns to the real P. T. Barnum: his American Museum, the Feejee Mermaid, General Tom Thumb, Jenny Lind's actual tour, and what the film changed. Early questions suit anyone who has seen the movie once; later ones are for people who own the soundtrack and the Blu-ray extras. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and its cited sources before publishing, and no lyrics appear anywhere in the quiz.
30 of 105 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed The Greatest Showman?
Michael Gracey
Michael Gracey got the job through an iced-tea commercial: he directed Hugh Jackman in it, the two hit it off, and the star sent him the script for the film.
Q 02What do the initials P. T. stand for in the name of P. T. Barnum, hero of The Greatest Showman?
Phineas Taylor
Phineas Taylor was his maternal grandfather, a noted wag and practical joker, and the future showman was named after him.
Q 03Which actor plays Phillip Carlyle, the playwright who becomes Barnum's partner in The Greatest Showman?
Zac Efron
Zac Efron plays Phillip Carlyle, returning to the genre that made him famous in High School Musical and Hairspray a decade earlier.
Q 04Which actress plays Charity, Barnum's wife, in The Greatest Showman?
Michelle Williams
Michelle Williams plays Charity, who in the film leaves her wealthy family's comforts to marry the tailor's son who once worked for them.
Q 05Zendaya's character, Anne Wheeler, performs which circus act?
Trapeze
Trapeze is Anne Wheeler's act, but no such performer ever worked for Barnum: she and Phillip Carlyle were invented for the film to carry its love story.
Q 06Who plays the opera singer Jenny Lind in The Greatest Showman?
Rebecca Ferguson
Rebecca Ferguson acts the celebrated soprano, but the voice is not hers: a studio singer recorded Lind's showpiece and Ferguson performs it on screen.
Q 07Who provides Jenny Lind's singing voice in The Greatest Showman?
Loren Allred
Loren Allred, once a contestant on The Voice, joined the film's recording ensemble to sing demos, and that work won her the part of Lind's singing voice.
Q 08Which songwriting duo wrote the original songs for The Greatest Showman?
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote every song, and returned years later to write new numbers when the film was turned into a stage musical.
Q 09Which song from The Greatest Showman won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song?
This Is Me
This Is Me won the Golden Globe; in the film it is the bearded lady's big number, an anthem of defiance from performers who were used to being hidden away.
Q 10At the 90th Academy Awards, The Greatest Showman's nominated song lost Best Original Song to a track from which film?
Coco
Coco won with Remember Me, a song heard first as a film star's crowd-pleasing showpiece and only later as a father's quiet lullaby to his daughter.
Q 11Which Broadway performer plays the bearded lady Lettie Lutz in The Greatest Showman?
Keala Settle
Keala Settle plays Lettie Lutz, a name invented for the film, though real bearded women such as Annie Jones did tour as Barnum attractions.
Q 12What sank the ships Barnum pledges as collateral?
Typhoon
Typhoon: the storm that sank his employer's fleet cost Barnum his clerk's job, then gave him his collateral, the deeds to ships lying on the seabed.
Q 13Where was the world premiere of The Greatest Showman held?
Aboard the liner Queen Mary 2
Aboard the liner Queen Mary 2, berthed in port for the night: Cunard billed it as the first Hollywood premiere on a passenger ship, and the real Barnum had himself crossed the Atlantic by Cunard steamer.
Q 21What did the dying Barnum ask a newspaper to print?
His obituary
His obituary: gravely ill at 80, the showman wanted to read his own send-off, so the paper obliged and ran it for all to see before he died.
Q 22Which studio distributed The Greatest Showman?
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox distributed the film, and only gave it the go-ahead after watching the cast perform the whole script and score at a 2016 read-through.
Q 23Being taller than the real Tom Thumb, what did Sam Humphrey do to play Charles Stratton?
Walk on his knees
Walk on his knees: Humphrey said the filmmakers wanted a bigger height gap between him and Hugh Jackman, so he played the whole film kneeling, which he called very painful.
Q 14During which song did Hugh Jackman defy doctor's orders and sing at the 2016 Greatest Showman read-through?
From Now On
From Now On closed the read-through: Jackman, told not to sing after surgery on his nose for skin cancer, stood and sang it anyway, and the studio greenlit the film.
Q 15When owners of the Cardiff Giant hoax refused to sell, what did the real Barnum do?
Made a copy
Made a copy: Barnum had a replica of the stone giant built and exhibited it as the genuine article, turning a famous fake into a fake of a fake.
Q 16With which song does Barnum talk Phillip Carlyle into joining his show in The Greatest Showman?
The Other Side
The Other Side is a haggle set to music: Barnum offers a way out of a gilded cage, opens at seven per cent of the show, and Carlyle counters with eighteen.
Q 17Where did the cast of The Greatest Showman rehearse before filming began?
New York City
New York City hosted the rehearsals as well as the shoot, and Jackman said the dancing made this musical physically tougher than his superhero film Logan.
Q 18The Greatest Showman's songwriters wrote the lyrics for which film musical?
La La Land
La La Land won the pair an Oscar, but the Barnum job came first: they joined that film in 2013, when its director had no idea who they were.
Q 19The real Jenny Lind gave her American tour earnings mainly to fund what?
Free schools
Free schools in her homeland were the goal from the start: Lind agreed to the tour for the money it would raise, then gave her profits away instead of keeping them.
Q 20Which film topped the US box office the weekend The Greatest Showman opened fourth?
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Star Wars: The Last Jedi led that weekend while the musical made just $8.8 million, but its second weekend rose 76% instead of falling as films usually do.
Q 24The Greatest Showman's director went on to make Better Man, a biopic of which singer?
Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams appears in Better Man as a computer-generated chimpanzee, a choice drawn from how the singer has long described himself as a performer.
Q 25The stage musical of The Greatest Showman had its world premiere in spring 2026 in which UK city?
Bristol
Bristol's Hippodrome hosted the first run as a pre-West End engagement, and in August 2026 its producers announced a London transfer to Theatre Royal Drury Lane for spring 2027.
Q 26After the fire in The Greatest Showman, where does Barnum pitch his new tent?
By the docks
By the docks: with no money for a building, Barnum finds a site that costs almost nothing and puts the whole show under canvas.
Q 27Which song do Barnum's new recruits sing as his museum takes off?
Come Alive
Come Alive marks the turn in his fortunes: wax figures had drawn few visitors, so on his daughters' advice Barnum fills the museum with living performers instead.
Q 28Whose 2010s record for UK number-one album weeks did The Greatest Showman pass?
Adele
Adele's 21 had held the decade's record; the soundtrack's runaway sales also gave its label the idea for a second album, the same songs covered by pop stars.
Q 29Which singer covered A Million Dreams on the Reimagined album, with her daughter singing the reprise?
Pink
Pink and her daughter Willow Sage Hart were filmed recording the song together, and their two tracks came out first, weeks ahead of the album, to launch its pre-orders.
Q 30Which artist covered Never Enough for The Greatest Showman: Reimagined?
Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Clarkson sang Never Enough for the covers album; in the film itself the song is performed on screen by one woman and sung by another.