‘Water for Elephants’ Broadway Review: Big Top, Small Story

Matthew Murphy

Water for elephantsmusical, opening tonight at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre, is perhaps best seen as a redemptive attempt to adapt Sara Gruen’s popular 2006 historical romance novel into something, anything, to block the middling, bleak film from memory from 2011 starring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon.

It’s weak praise, to be sure, but credit where it’s due: even though the source material remains at least in some segment of the popular imagination inscrutable to the rest of us, the new musical never fails to be fun, with its magnificent aerial acrobatics. , solid work from director Jessica Stone (Kimberly Akimbo) and a brave pastiche of a score that hints, to my ears, of 1930s novelty songs, old banjo music, Tin Pan Alley, Black gospel, Jesus Christ Superstar-era Andrew Lloyd Webber and the stage musical pop of the 21st century.

Like that other romantic novel turned musical that plays down the block, Water for elephantsThe same as The notebook, has few surprises in store even for those who haven’t read the book or seen the movie. Both musicals feature fairly predictable love stories, flashback structures (down to the nearly identical elderly narrators), and melancholy, brooding moods that are rarely broken.

But while The notebook drag (and drill), Water for elephants is a pleasant and visually seductive show, with a cast, led by The flash‘s Grant Gustin in a soft-spoken Broadway debut, lending some charm to a thin Rick Elice book that probably came too close to the novel for its own good.

The show begins in a vaguely drawn modern era (another similarity with The notebook – both shows seem loathe to present their current scenes with any specificity; scenes without flashback Water could be set anywhere between MTV’s heyday and the year 2000). An “escapee” from a nursing home wanders behind the curtains of a traveling circus, where he is greeted by some old-school, “Hey, big spender” carnival ghosts who beckon to him, “Hey, Mr. “I’m talking to you!”, among other pleas.

The ghosts (we’ll soon meet their corporeal selves) are replaced by the real workers of the modern circus, who tell old Mr. Jankowski (the always reliable, if perhaps a little too boyish, Gregg Edelman): to beat him. But before you can say “dumb,” the old man is impressing everyone with his veterinary advice and “I was there” memories of a long-ago, now legendary, circus tale that ended in a historically significant stampede. . We’ll get to that.

Back in 1931, young runaway Jacob Jankowski (Gustin) boards a moving locomotive (presented simply and cleverly with a floating ladder and wheeled scaffolding platforms that become the circus train). After some mild hazing, Jacob finds a temporary home among the animal trainers, knife throwers, acrobats, and clowns that make up the Benzini Brothers circus, which he spits and paints with grease.

Especially, Jacob forms an immediate connection with Marlena (Isabelle McCalla, The prom, disheveled), the beautiful rider and horse trainer who is married to circus owner August (Paul Alexander Nolan, slave game), an erratic man given to outbreaks of violence. Someone is going to get hurt. The audience is required to take the instant bond between Jacob and Marlena on faith.

As for August, we first see the extent of his temper with his treatment of the circus animals, a menagerie that comes to life through the charming life-size film. Lion King-like puppets (designed by Ray Wetmore, JR Goodman and Camille Labarre). the star of WaterAmong the critters – as well as the Benzini circus – is Rosy the elephant, a magnificent creation that director Stone introduces deftly and very gradually: a glimpse of a trunk here, a floppy ear there, a leg and then another.

Jacob and Marlena set out to train Rosy, with gentleness and compassion, and fell in love with the great beast with the same confidence with which they fell in love with each other. The volatile August, of course, is not so patient and quickly resorts to the dreaded cudgel in search of results. (The musical’s animal rights message, while laudable, is more than a little clumsy and anachronistic.)

By now, every last clown can see that a major reckoning is coming, with the circus train on a collision course with secret lovers, an angry husband, and a very large pachyderm. Add in a stampede of all the cool-looking, if somewhat anticlimactic, animal puppets, and you get Water for elephants. (That title, by the way, is a circus inside joke, as is eventually explained.)

While the story’s dramatic tension isn’t exactly edge-of-your-seat, Water for elephants captures our attention with excellent acrobatics, falls and high-flying aerial feats (Shana Carroll, artistic director of the contemporary theater and circus collective The 7 Fingers, did both the circus design and, with Jesse Robb, the choreography).

The same goes for the score by Pigpen Theater Co., a seven-member collective of music makers, performers and multimedia artists. Some musical numbers of particular interest: the anthemic “I Choose The Ride,” the catchy and silly “Zostan” (a sort of carny counterpart to Frozen“Hygge”) and chicago-Dazzling “Squeaky Wheel” style.

The look of the show is an appropriate mix of Big Top Flash and Depression Threadbare: Takeshi Kata did the clever scenic design, David Israel Reynoso the rag-to-the-style costumes, Bradley King the gorgeous lighting design, and Walter Trarbach the friendly sound design for thieves. David Bengali’s mood-altering projections are invaluable.

In addition to the three excellent lead actors, the cast includes some standouts, notably Stan Brown as the workers’ grizzled, exhausted emotional heart and Sara Gettelfinger as a raunchy dancer who is one or two bumps and grinding past her prime. .

Finally, Water turns out to be a rather disappointing choice by director Stone as a follow-up to the brilliant Kimberly Akimbo (but, really, what wouldn’t have been?). His modest pleasures are always safe, even without a net.

Qualification: Water for elephants
Event: Broadway Imperial Theater
Director: Jessica Stone
Book: Rick Elice, based on the novel by Sara Gruen
Music and lyrics: Pigpen Theater Company.
Cast: Grant Gustin, Isabelle McCalla, Gregg Edelman, Paul Alexander Nolan, Stan Brown, Joe De Paul, Sara Gettelfinger and Wade McCollum, with Brandon Block, Antoine Boissereau, Rachael Boyd, Paul Castree, Ken Wulf Clark, Taylor Colleton, Gabriel Olivera de Paula Costa, Isabella Luisa Diaz, Samantha Gershman, Keaton Hentoff-Killian, Nicolas Jelmoni, Caroline Kane, Harley Ross Beckwith McLeish, Michael Mendez, Samuel Renaud, Marissa Rosen, Alexandra Gaelle Royer, Asa Somers, Charles South, Sean Stack, Matthew Varvar and michelle west
Duration: 2 hours 40 minutes (including intermission)