How do they create an elephant on stage? may be the question on "Water for Elephants” ticket holders minds. And the answer is: she is revealed bit by bit and beautifully, just like the story itself.
First there’s a hint of Rosie as a woman, perched on another’s shoulders, waves fabric flags for her ears. Then we see her trunk, moving and emoting thanks to a skillful puppeteer. Then there’s a foot, a leg, another leg, the full shadow of her entire body in silhouette, until finally she emerges at the end of Act I as a full-sized elephant made real not by projection or CGI, but with two puppeteers as her body and one controlling her trunk and head.
Slightly shimmery, with long eyelashes on her expressive, blinking eyes, she’s a sight to behold.
And she’s just one of many astonishing delights in this spectacular musical currently in its first national tour with a stop at DeVos as the 2025-25 season opener for Broadway Grand Rapids.
Based on both the 2011 film and the 2006 historical romance novel by Sara Gruen, the musical (book by Rick Elice with music and lyrics from Pigpen Theatre Co.) tells the Depression-era story of a young veterinarian student who, running from personal tragedy (which isn’t revealed until late in Act II), hops a train that happens to be transporting the Benzini Bros. Circus. He joins the motley crew of kinkers to care for the animals but gets caught in a love triangle with the abusive, controlling owner/ringmaster and his wife. Much like “The Notebook”, it is told surprisingly effectively in a split narrative with the older man recalling his younger self’s adventures.
There’s everything we want and more in a dramatic story: compelling characters, lively action, all kinds of complications and strong desires, romance, violence, and comic relief—with fantastic movement and sometimes stark contrasts between the world of performance, in the circus tent, and the dramas playing out behind the scenes.
But most importantly, this show is visually astonishing. They don’t just create an elephant, they create all the animals and players to make a full-fledged circus with spectacular high-valence moments that make the audience literally gasp. Under Jessica Stone’s inspired original direction, Shana Carroll’s circus design, Bradley King’s lighting design, Takeshi Kata’s scenic design, David I. Reynoso’s costume design, and puppet design from Ray Wetmore, JR Goodman, and Camille LaBarre, all work seamlessly—and wildly successfully—together.
And the ensemble of acrobats, highlighted by the marvelous technical elements, positively defy gravity. They raise the circus tent’s center pole with one man attached by his hands like a flag, flying 20 feet up in the air; others climb, glide, slide then stop abruptly, balance, and jump over one another up and down that same pole.
Jesse Robb and Shana Carroll’s incredibly creative, connected choreography drives every scene with intentional movement. There’s rope wrangling and jumping, trapeze work, back flipping, tumbling, twirling, spinning, death defying aerial work with hoops and silks, balancing on balls, balancing on heads, people balancing upon people upon people balancing on people, and swaying en masse to show them riding the train. Through their movement, this sweeping staged production seems to have the scope of cinema with the intimacy of live theatre.
In one thrilling and gorgeous scene, a sick horse is made real with a white horse head attached to white fabric that becomes silks suspended from the ceiling. Yves Artières embodies the horse’s spirit, ascending the silks, then tumbling down them in a moment of death. It’s breathtaking.
Other standout performances include Zachary Keller as a warm Jacob whose pleasing voice makes the most of the rousing, period-reminiscent score (played exquisitely by the orchestra led by Music Director Sarah Pool Wilhelm) peppered with bluegrass- and jazz-inflected songs among sweet lullabies and romantic ballads, and he even makes what at first sound like boring ballads utterly moving.
Connor Sullivan captures the complexity of the cruel, repentant August, and Helen Krushinski is a lovely, sympathetic Marlena. The romance and drama of the love triangle is more told than felt, but there’s so much to marvel at on stage it hardly matters. And the relationships do effectively build and grow. Secondary characters, including Camel (Javier Garcia), Wade (Grant Honeycutt) are wonderful; Tyler West is a genuinely funny clown as well as a complex ordinary character; and Robert Tully has exactly the right touch as Mr. Jankowski, the narrator.
By the time disaster strikes, the story resolves, and the cast is singing “I Choose the Ride”, we’re right there with them. Utterly convinced: “The most spectacular show on earth”? Indeed.
Water for Elephants
Broadway Grand Rapids
Oct. 7-12
https://grandrapids.broadway.com/shows/water-for-elephants/
