All I knew about Water For Elephants was that it is a romantic drama set in a traveling circus during the Great Depression. I expected a circus with a rich color palette, beautiful costumes, acrobatics, and an elephant.
Having first seen Water for Elephants: The Musical on an early tour stop in Louisville, KY, I came to the Arnoff Center with a sense of familiarity for the show. But also, very curious about how it might resonate a second time.
Individual tickets for the North American Tour of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS in Chicago are going on sale! Individual tickets range from $30.00 to $130.00, with a limited number of premium seats available.
Sometimes people really do run away and join the circus. Author Sara Gruen had great success with that idea in her award winning novel WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, and Hollywood soon after took the story to the silver screen. Now a Broadway musical has hopped on the bandwagon and the result is often a often a captivating three ring circus of intrigue.
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS is dazzling audiences with extraordinary theatrics, creative visual concepts, and emotional moments. Adapted from the New York Times bestselling novel, WATER FOR ELEPHANTS has a book written by Rick Elice, and features a score by PigPen Theatre Co.
If I told you I spent an evening last week watching a surrealist dramedy about performers in a circus run by a needy, codependent and violent ringmaster with bipolar disorder, you'd have two options to choose from.
Water for Elephants has officially set up shop at the Orpheum Theatre, and it honestly doesn’t take long to get swept up in it. From the start, it feels less like you’re sitting in a theatre seat and more like you’ve wandered backstage at a traveling circus that just happens to break into song.
The national tour of Water for Elephants is the latest show to stop at DCPA as it makes its way across the country. I only just last year read the novel by Sara Gruen followed quickly by the feature film starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson.
A true circus act, WATER FOR ELEPHANTS has it all.
Based on Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel of the same name. Water for Elephants follows Jacob Jankowski, a Polish-American college student who during the Great Depression, loses both of his parents in a car accident. As a result, he jumps on a moving train unsure of where the road will take him. Yet, he finds a new home with the remarkable crew of a traveling circus, and a life, and love, beyond his wildest dreams.
The biggest issues with the musical adaptation of 'Water for Elephants' is that it doesn’t seem to know what it’s trying to be, and the choreographic and performance talent in this tour would be better served by stronger material.
Providence Performing Arts Center presents “Water for Elephants,” a moving, spectacular musical based on Sara Gruen’s bestselling historical romance novel and the 2011 movie adaptation starring Reese Witherspoon. With music and lyrics by Pig Pen Theatre Co. and book by Rick Elice, “Water for Elephants” debuted on Broadway in 2024 and was nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
Casting has been announced for the North American Tour of the hit Broadway musical, WATER FOR ELEPHANTS. Based on the critically acclaimed bestselling novel, this engagement will kick off the 25–26 Broadway in Wichita Series.
The North American tour of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS has announced full casting ahead of its 2026 engagement at Playhouse Square. The musical, based on Sara Gruen’s bestselling novel, features a book by Rick Elice and music and lyrics by PigPen Theatre Co.
The 2024 production earned seven Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical, which I feel is an earned acknowledgment that speaks more to the craftsmanship, the ambition, and the emotional journey present in the show. The stage production’s direction, choreography, puppetry design, and ensemble synergy create moments of theatrical awe that are impossible to deny. What the songs lack in dramatic momentum, the production more than makes up for in its combination of narrative intimacy with large-scale visual storytelling.
This was a breathtaking circus of beauty, brutality, and heart. This is one of those musicals that you will be talking about on the drive home - how the actors transformed seamlessly from present to past, the music, and simply the beauty of a simple set.
Circus fans of all ages, step right up to the latest Broadway national tour to hit downtown Greenville! Water for Elephants is a new adaptation of the 2006 novel by Sara Gruen, which was also brought to the big screen in 2011 by Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence.
Rise and shine, BroadwayWorld! It is October 27, 2025 and it's time to catch up on all of the theatrical happenings you may have missed over the weekend.
Get a first look at the North American Tour of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS in this all-new video. The tour is led by Zachary Keller (Jacob), Helen Krushinski (Marlena), Robert Tully (Mr. Jankowski), Connor Sullivan (August), Javier Garcia (Camel), Ruby Gibbs (Barbara), Grant Huneycutt (Wade), and Tyler West (Walter).
You can now get a first look at new photos of the North American tour premiere of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, captured by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade. Learn more!
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