REVIEW: Water for Elephants on Broadway

Step Right Up to Broadway’s Newest Circus-Related Musical!

Have you ever finished a conversation with someone and thought to yourself “this could have been so much better, but I enjoyed myself”? That is how I would describe my feelings towards Water for Elephants, currently playing at the Imperial Theatre on 45th Street. A story that oozes Big Top-type romance but only comes across as another, dare I say cheap, vaudeville act on Broadway. Not at the fault of the performers, but the music. This should have been a straight play with some music sprinkled in. We do see glimpses of greatness, but so few and even farther between.

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Sara Gruen (and a solid film adaptation with Reese Witherspoon and an underrated Robert Pattinson), the story takes place during the Great Depression-era in the Benzini Brothers Circus. The musical opens with Mr. Jankowski (Gregg Edelman, bringing sincerity to cliche narration-style dialogue) browsing around a circus post-performance. He mentions to some of the crew that he used to work at the Benzini Brothers Circus, particularly on the night of some sort of Great Stampede. We are then thrust back in time and meet a younger version of Jacob Jankowski (Grant Gustin, Glee!!), who hops on the Benzini Brothers train to start a new life.

This is where we meet the eclectic cast of characters. Standouts include Camel (Stan Brown), Barbara (Sara Gettelfinger) and Walter (Joe De Paul). The ringleader of them all is August (at this performance played by Ken Wulf Clark), followed by his wife Marlena (Isabelle McCalla). Jacob ends up falling for Marlena, which is where the drama really starts. August is hesitant to hire Jacob until he realizes Jacob has 3 years of Ivy League vet education under his belt. Marlena is the caretaker of the animals, so she and Jacob end up working together and kindling a flame which August cannot seem to extinguish. After an instance with one of the animals, they are on the search for another marquee “star” to get ticket sales up and running.

Enter Rosie, the title Elephant. All of the animals in the production were puppets, all of them stronger than Rosie’s design. Not to say that it is bad, it is built up to be better. It is just…there. I wanted Rosie to lift the emotions to another level as was earlier shown by one of the horses puppets (and accompanied by Antoine Boissereau whose acrobatics I am still thinking about). Rosie starts off as a stubborn animal who they cannot seem to tame, but eventually becomes a huge asset to the entire company. It eventually leads to a climactic stampede, which, again, looks nice but does not feel as intense as it really wants to. That is because the music surrounding this scene makes it feel more shallow than it deserves to be.

Another example of this is August. The character wants to be scary, but with songs like “The Lion Has Got No Teeth”, it is medium bark and little bite. The dramatic moments provide some nice heft, but then get undercut by musical moments that remind you that are at a Broadway show watching a character sing. I wanted more moments like “Easy”, where Marlena is comforting Silver Star, one of the horses, while Boisserau is flying throughout the theatre emanating the horse’s emotions without a single word. It is a nice combination of art, music, and performance that I wanted more of the rest of the performance. If anything, give the acrobats more time!