Matthew Murphy
Water For Elephants, the musical opening tonight at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre, is maybe greatest considered as a redemptive try to adapt Sara Gruen’s standard 2006 historic romance novel into one thing, something, to dam from reminiscence the middling, grim 2011 movie starring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon.
That’s faint reward, to make sure, however credit score the place it’s due: Regardless of supply materials whose maintain on at the very least some phase of the favored creativeness stays inscrutable to the remainder of us, the brand new musical is rarely lower than diverting, with its beautiful aerial acrobatics, strong work from director Jessica Stone (Kimberly Akimbo) and a plucky pastiche of a rating that hints, to my ears, at ’30s-era novelty songs, previous timey banjo music, Tin Pan Alley, Black gospel, Jesus Christ Celebrity-era Andrew Lloyd Webber and twenty first Century stage musical pop.
Like that different romance-novel-turned-musical taking part in simply down the block, Water For Elephants, as with The Pocket book, has few surprises in retailer even for many who haven’t learn the e book or seen the film. Each musicals characteristic pretty predictable love tales, flashback constructions (all the way down to the near-identical old-man narrators) and wistful melancholy moods which might be not often damaged.
However whereas The Pocket book drags (and bores), Water For Elephants is a pleasing, visually beguiling present, with a forged, led by The Flash‘s Grant Gustin in a sweet-voiced Broadway debut, that places some appeal into a skinny e book by Rick Elice that in all probability veered too near the novel for its personal good.
Gustin and the forged
Matthew Murphy
The present begins in a vaguely drawn fashionable period (one other similarity with The Pocket book – each reveals appear detest to current their present-day scenes with any specificity; the non-flashback scenes of Water might be set in any time between MTV’s heyday and Y2K). A nursing dwelling “escapee” wanders behind the curtains of a touring circus, the place he’s greeted by some very “Hey, Massive Spender”-type old-school carnival ghosts, who beckon “Hey, mister, I’m talkin’ to you!,” amongst different entreaties.
The ghosts – we’ll get to know their corporeal selves quickly sufficient – are then changed by the actual, modern-day circus employees, who inform previous Mr. Jankowski (the ever dependable, if maybe a tad too youthful trying, Gregg Edelman) to beat it. However earlier than you’ll be able to say “bozo” the previous man is impressing everybody along with his veterinary recommendation and “I used to be there” reminiscences of a way back, now-legendary circus story that resulted in a stampede of historic significance. We’ll get to that.
Paul Alexander Nolan, Isabelle McCalla, Gustin
Matthew Murphy
Again in 1931, younger and on-the-run Jacob Jankowski (Gustin) hops a transferring locomotive (introduced merely and niftily with a floating ladder and the wheeled scaffold platforms that develop into the circus practice). After some delicate hazing, Jacob finds a brief dwelling among the many animal trainers, knife-throwers, acrobats and clowns that make up the gimcrack spit-and-greasepaint Benzini Brothers Circus.
Most particularly, Jacob makes a direct reference to Marlena (Isabelle McCalla, The Promenade, Shucked), the attractive horse-trainer and rider who occurs to be married to circus proprietor August (Paul Alexander Nolan, Slave Play), an erratic man given to eruptions of violence. Somebody is gonna get harm. Audiences are required to take the instantaneous Jacob-Marlena bond on religion.
As for August, we first see the extent of his mood along with his therapy of the circus animals, a menagerie delivered to life by way of the charming, full-size Lion King-like puppets (designed by Ray Wetmore, JR Goodman and Camille Labarre). The star of Water‘s critters – in addition to of the Benzini circus – is Rosy the elephant, an impressive creation that director Stone cleverly introduces very steadily – a glimpse of a trunk right here, a floppy ear there, one leg after which one other.
Jacob and Marlena set about coaching Rosy, gently, and with compassion, falling in love with the massive beast simply as certainly as they’re falling for one another. The risky August, in fact, isn’t so affected person, and quicly resorts to the dreaded bullhook for outcomes. (The musical’s animal rights messaging, whereas laudable, is greater than a bit of heavy-handed and anachronistic.)
By now, each final clown can see an enormous reckoning coming, with the circus practice on a collision course with secret lovers, an indignant husband, and one very giant pachyderm. Toss in a cool-looking, if considerably anticlimactic stampede of all of the animal puppets and also you’ve received Water For Elephants. (That title, by the way in which, is a circus in-joke, ultimately defined.)
The forged of ‘Water For Elephants’
Matthew Murphy
Whereas the story’s dramatic stress isn’t precisely edge-of-seat, Water For Elephants holds our consideration with some terrific acrobatics, tumbling and high-flying aerial feats (Shana Carroll, the creative director of the up to date circus and theater collective The 7 Fingers, did each the circus design and, with Jesse Robb, the choreography).
So, too, does the rating by Pigpen Theatre Co., a seven-member collective of music-makers, performers and multi-media artists. Some musical numbers of explicit notice: the statement-making anthem “I Select The Experience,” the catchy-goofy “Zostan” (a type of carny counterpart to Frozen‘s “Hygge”) and the Chicago-style razzle-dazzler “Squeaky Wheel.”
The present’s look is an applicable mixture of Massive Prime Flash and Despair Threadbare – Takeshi Kata did the creative scenic design, David Israel Reynoso the rags-to-pizazz costumes, Bradley King the beautiful lighting design and Walter Trarbach the barker-friendly sound design. David Bengali’s mood-setting projections are invaluable.
Along with the tremendous three lead actors, the ensemble forged features a few stand-outs, notably Stan Brown because the grizzled, used-up emotional coronary heart of the employees and Sara Gettelfinger as a bawdy dancer one or two bumps and grinds previous her prime.
Finally, Water proves to be a reasonably disappointing alternative by director Stone as a follow-up to the sensible Kimberly Akimbo (however, actually, what wouldn’t have been?). It’s modest pleasures are by no means something however protected, even with out a internet.
Title: Water For ElephantsVenue: Broadway’s Imperial TheatreDirector: Jessica StoneBook: Rick Elice, Primarily based On The Novel By Sara GruenMusic & Lyrics: Pigpen Theatre Co.Forged: 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 WestRunning time: 2 hr 40 min (together with intermission)