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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 last June in Atlanta) captures the unabashed mix of romance and pathos that made her source material, a Sara Gruen bestseller, so wildly popular.
Like the novel, Rick Elice’s book alternates between the present of elderly Jacob Jankowski (Gregg Edelman) and 1931, the fateful year he joined the circus. Having dropped out of veterinary school just before his final exams, young Jacob (an attractive Grant Gustin, who played the title character on the CW series “The Flash”) finds a job and refuge from an ever-changing life, with the Benzini Brothers.
The team’s owner and ringmaster, August (Paul Alexander Nolan), is a dashing charmer, but the character was played by Christoph Waltz in the 2011 film adaptation, so you know he has a dark side. To make the point, every time August opens his mouth to sing, the score, from the seven-man group PigPen Co. Theatersuddenly sounds like sub-Kander and Ebb, those masters of sinister charm.
Those on the receiving end of August’s brutality are, well, everyone and everything in the circus, but mainly his wife, Marlena (a silver-voiced Isabelle McCalla, confirming the promise he showed in “The Prom”), and the elephant he attracts. crowds. , Rosie.
Like all the beasts in the musical, Rosie is a puppet, and the production’s use of that artistic device is cleverly integrated. This means “Water for Elephants” will draw comparisons to “The Lion King” or even the underrated “Life of Pi,” but the new show uses puppets a little differently. Because the circus here is both a stage and a storytelling tool, the boundary between spectacle and life is porous, and it makes narrative sense for humans and animals to combine with each other. The most striking example is the horse Silver Star, brought to life by acrobat Antoine Boissereau. The scene in which Boissereau performs an aerial number while Marlena sings the aching ballad “Easy,” cradling the head of a puppet horse, might as well be sponsored by Kleenex.
Similarly, stunts fill Benzini’s acts, but the cast’s precision and physicality also drive seemingly mundane tasks like hammering stakes to erect the tent: this is a life of ever-present risk, requiring ever-present athleticism. Those elements are fluidly woven into the show by Shana Carroll, founder and artistic director of the Montreal collective. the 7 fingers who is credited with designing the circus and choreographing it with Jesse Robb. (Gypsy Snider, Carroll’s 7 Fingers colleague, worked on the circus revival of Diane Paulus’ “Pippin” a decade ago.)
It’s telling that it took me so long to get back to music, because it’s not what makes the strongest impression. At best, the numbers sound like the 1930s filtered through the folk rock of the late 1960s and early 1970s: “Wild,” a duet between Jacob and Marlena, it emulates the early romanticism of Joni Mitchell, while the melodic melancholy and period atmosphere of some songs recall Randy Newman’s American explorations. However, the lyrics never come remotely close to Newman’s sharp angles and too often succumb to a dull seriousness. If only the score had been willing to be as free of gravity as the rest of the show.
Water for elephants, in progress at the Imperial Theater in New York. 2 hours, 40 minutes. waterforelephantsthemusical.com.