Musical Barnum may return to Chichester

The musical Barnum is set to return to Chichester next summer, a revival that would be staged in a 1,400-seat tent in the grounds of Oakland Park while the Chichester Festival Theatre  - a 50-year-old venue - undergoes a £22 million redevelopment project.

However, Alan Finch , CFT executive director said that construction of the venue is dependent on the theatre raising the money it needs for its proposed 'Renew project' – confirmation of which is expected  later this year.

Finch said: "We are now at a point of being able to seriously think about whether we might be able to start Renew within this calendar year. As a second wave, we are now looking at what we might do to engage our audience during the period that we would be delivering our campaign.

"We have submitted a planning application for a 1,400-seat theatre. It being a tent, and because of Chichester's success at producing musicals, we thought it would be a no-brainer to do Barnum."

The musical  is based on the life of P T Barnum , an American showman.  The original production opened  on Broadway 1980 starring Jim Dale, later opening at the London Palladium in 1981 with Michael Crawford as the lead.

If the production goes ahead in 2013 it is then expected to move to London.