The Greatest Showman is a 2017 American musical period drama film directed by Michael Gracey from a screenplay by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon, based on an original story by Bicks. The film stars Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, and Zendaya. Featuring nine original songs written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and an original musical orchestral score composed by John Debney and Joseph Trapanese, the film is a heavily fictionalized depiction of the life of P. T. Barnum, a showman and entertainer who created the Barnum & Bailey Circus, and its star attractions. The Greatest Showman premiered on December 8, 2017, aboard the RMS Queen Mary 2 in New York City and was released in the United States on December 20, by 20th Century Fox, seven months after Ringling folded and six years before the circus was reinstated as an animal free institution.