Water for Elephants Broadway Reviews

Circus sagas so easily lend themselves to bathos: “Ridi, pagliaccio” and all that. Director Jessica Stone’s stage rendition of Water for Elephants – adapted by book writer Rick Elice from the best-selling novel (2006) and film (2011) – captures all the drama, but it’s clean-cut and concise, propulsive with passion and action. Unlike some other literary adaptations in the works or already on the boards, this production stands on its own merits as theatre. You could walk in with no prior knowledge, no expectations, and be transported.

They fly through the air with the greatest of ease… literally. Right in front of your eyes is the show within the show – the circus. The most astonishing artistry included acrobatics, hand-balancing, tossing partners, aerials, gymnastics, trapeze, clowning, juggling and pole dancing. All interwoven into a big bang of a Broadway book with music and choreography. It was stunning to see the exquisite work, to hold your breath as the kinkers performed their magic moves. And the puppets. The menagerie of circus animals was created in individual splendor, each handled by their own puppeteer. But nothing was more riveting than the emergence of the star elephant, Rosie. One huge leg at time, she stomped her way across the stage. Then, the entire elephant… appeared! That tremendous puppet was so relatable, we felt the same kinship with Rosie as the kinkers.

What a pleasure it is to be treated that way by a brand-extension musical, a form usually characterized by craftlessness and cynicism. Indeed, at its best, “Water for Elephants” has more in common with the circus arts than it does with by-the-books Broadway. Sure, it features an eventful story and compelling characters, and apt, rousing music by PigPen Theater Co., a seven-man indie folk collective. But in the director Jessica Stone’s stunning, emotional production, it leads with movement, eye candy and awe.

Stone shares credit with Shana Carroll, “circus director” and co-choreographer with Jesse Robb for the show. I don’t know who did precisely what, but the result is one of the most authentic circus-themed shows to make it to Broadway. There’s almost none of the sparkly smiles found in “Pippin” or “Barnum,” but the piece is a richer accounting of why many Americans fell in love with a world constantly in motion and filled with equal measures of pain and joy.

For followers of the book and film, the climactic moment on stage remains equally thrilling — and the most creative stampede since the wildebeest run in “The Lion King” (whose co-producer Peter Schneider is also top-lined here). This underdog circus troupe may promote its entertainment as “Benzini Brothers’ Most Spectacular Show on Earth,” but for this rube’s nickels, “Water for Elephants” could be the greatest show on Broadway.

Their performances, Stone’s direction, and Takeshi Kata’s ever-moving set are enough to keep the production on its track, though Rick Elice’s book often steers itself away. Each circus member has a backstory that’s hinted at during their introductions, then largely discarded. An interesting thread about animal cruelty is left undisturbed and, if I haven’t mentioned a plot yet, it’s because its wispy existence only materializes in the final moments of the first act, when the love triangle between Jacob, August, and Marlena musters up some drama. A frame story about Jacob in his senior years (Gregg Edelman), visiting a more modern circus, is tender but useless. But PigPen’s score, period appropriate with strumming ukuleles and happy-go-lucky lyrics, creates a strong thread to tie together the production’s tendency to roam. And the ensemble — by far the best arms on Broadway — provides endless visual richness. You’re never supposed to look too closely at the circus but, here, there’s more than enough to keep you staring.

On paper, it’s straightforward rom-dram stuff. On stage at the Imperial Theatre, everything ascends thanks to its energizing and poetic elements. Jacob’s story unfurls amid legit acts – acrobats, daredevils, trapeze swingers, and more – that add a different dimension. The score is a folksy mix of bluegrass and blues that fits the 1930s like a glove. One wishes Jacob and Marlena’s big duet, “Wild,” didn’t meander so much lyrically. But, on the plus side, side characters also express themselves in song. After all, every circus member matters and makes the whole. Director Jessica Stone (Kimberly Akimbo) deserves a big shout-out for combining all of the elements – the actors, circus feats, puppetry, song and dance breaks – so beautifully. Stone really can juggle.

The circus setting is the excuse for what’s most awe-inspiring about this musical adaptation of Sara Gruen’s 2006 bestselling novel, which opened tonight at Broadway’s Imperial Theater. It’s the Big Top-like entertainment, especially the heart-stopping acrobatics, which are not just athletically spectacular but often visually beautiful and emotionally expressive, enhancing the dancing and even advancing the story. Much else in “Water for Elephants” has its pleasures – the score, the singing, the puppetry, the acting, even the love story — but nothing else matches the circus artistry for its originality, variety and consistency.

That’s faint praise, to be sure, but credit where it’s due: Despite source material whose hold on at least some segment of the popular imagination remains inscrutable to the rest of us, the new musical is never less than diverting, with its gorgeous aerial acrobatics, solid work from director Jessica Stone (Kimberly Akimbo) and a plucky pastiche of a score that hints, to my ears, at ’30s-era novelty songs, old timey banjo music, Tin Pan Alley, Black gospel, Jesus Christ Superstar-era Andrew Lloyd Webber and 21st Century stage musical pop.

Step right up, come one, come all, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step right up to the greatest—well, okay, not the greatest show on Broadway, but a dang fine show nonetheless. Although Water for Elephants is set at a circus, and includes several moments of thrilling spectacle, what makes it so appealing is its modesty, not glitz. Like the story’s one-ring Benzini Brothers Circus, a scrappy company touring the country in the early years of the Depression, this original musical knows it’s not the ritziest show on the circuit. But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in wonder, and it’s pretty wonderful at making things up.

If nothing else, we never wonder how Jacob is swept away by the circus. The romance may fall short, and the songs lack a certain luster, but the magic of the circus is winning. Grade: B–

in the case of Water for Elephants, whenever we leave the sappy present behind, there’s suddenly a great deal to enjoy. As is so frequently the case, the show’s stagecraft outstrips its script by a mile. Under Jessica Stone’s exuberant direction, a huge ensemble of ridiculously talented acrobats ebbs and flows—and flips and flies—through the house, coalescing into gorgeous paintings in front of projection designer David Bengali’s lush, shifting cloudscape of a backdrop.

Not everything works in Jessica Stone’s production — there’s a reason the words “dream sequence” tend to set off alarm bells — but at least it summons a coherent theatrical universe. And more often than not, the show (whose world premiere was this past June in Atlanta) captures the unabashed mix of romance and pathos that made its source material, a bestseller by Sara Gruen, so wildly popular.

There’s a lot to take in at the new musical based on Sara Gruen’s best-selling novel (which has already inspired a 2011 film). The show features a melodramatic storyline set amidst a Depression-era traveling circus, puppetry, and numerous circus acts including aerial work, juggling, acrobatics, knife throwing, and even a clown routine. It would be nice to report that all of these elements have blended together to create a magical musical theater experience, but Water for Elephants feels more clunky than transporting. There are many things about it to enjoy, but it falls far short of being the greatest show on earth.

In addition to Boissereau’s horse, “Water for Elephants” gets off to a good start when a number of talented acrobats set up the circus tent for the first time. The Cirque du Soleil effects (“circus design” by Shana Carroll) are dazzling when they are first introduced. By the time the second act rolls around, the acrobats have been turned into filler by director Jessica Stone to prop up a story with little drama going on – unless your idea of drama is contemplating what happens when acrobats miss their mark.

Post-War Horse, large-scale puppetry on Broadway is expected to wow. When the titular elephant makes her entrance at the end of the first act, she appears undersized, and there’s no life in her blank eyes. The circus and the theatre may have a lot in common, but there’s little of the thrill of either here.

It’s all quite entertaining, but also a bit vexing, since these activities keep getting in the way of the show’s main plot. But eventually you realize that there’s not of lot a plot here, nor is it all that original (even if Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel which forms the basis for the musical, was a number one best seller, and the show’s book is by three-time Tony Award nominee Rick Elice). In fact, all the diversions simply add up to a major cause of coitus interruptus.

Still, the largely pasteurized manner in which the musical depicts the often-sordid lives of circus folk of the period lends “Water for Elephants” an anodyne weightlessness, at least until the denouement. I’m not sure if a more faithful adaptation of the book would make for a better musical—although John Kander and Fred Ebb, in their heyday, might have taken a good crack at it—but it certainly would have made for a more provocative and adventurous one.

A life raft in this troubled “Water” is the production's elastic ensemble, which jolts you awake with their spring-loaded flips and death-defying stunts, ranging from aerial hoops to tightrope walks to trapeze swings. A sequence of the cast pitching a big top is wondrous to behold, as is the effortless athleticism they bring to numbers like "Zostan." In these moments, the show feels like a divine celebration of those restless spirits who run off to join the circus. But the magic is fleeting, and by the final curtain, those in the audience may wish they'd just stayed at home.

“Water” has more exuberance than wit; more catchphrases than character. While the second half lumbers along like a pre-flight Dumbo, the wrong scenes and songs are given too much breathing room and important events such as, you know, murders and catastrophic stampedes are raced through to curtain call. Although “Water” is a love story, that becomes one of its less appealing aspects.

After suffering through the new Broadway musical The Notebook, I thought I had seen the worst of what the 2024 season would bring. I was wrong. I had not seen Water for Elephants yet. Now I have. It can’t get any deadlier than this.

Water for Elephants is a thoroughly dazzling theatre experience. The design elements are almost as breathtaking as the ensemble full of circus kinkers performing acrobatic stunts, graceful aerial silks, and highly impressive leaps, twirls, and flips. Despite great leading and featured cast members who did their best with the material they were given, the trust and connection in the ensemble was the greatest strength and most impressive feat of this show. FULL REVIEW: pagesonstages. .com