One tricky part of being a theatre critic is not all musicals and plays offer the same types of entertainment. Some we go to for the story, others the great music, some the choreography and spectacle, as well as many other elements that can make a show special. I might say a show is great and someone else see’s it says ‘but the story was so trite’ but my praise had little to do with the story it was the spectacular dancing or singing. You get the idea. With the national tour of Water for Elephants what makes it special is the circus performers and acrobatics. The story and music is less memorable. I still enjoyed it because I’m a sucker for dance and acrobatics but your mileage may vary.

I should clarify upfront that I have not seen the movie or read the book Water for Elephants is adapted from so I can’t speak to its authenticity in that regard. The story is pretty thin gruel to go off of with hunky kind-of-vet Jacob meeting star circus performer Marlena in the 1930s. They hit it off immediately. The only problem is Marlena’s husband is the ringmaster of the circus, August. One of my least favorite plot contrivances is the ‘let’s justify an affair because the spouse is a jerk.’ Nope. It just doesn’t make me swoon when people are cheating even if they are cheating on a jerk. So that aspect of the plot was not going to work for me.

They also have an older version of Jacob (referred to as Mr Jankowski in the program) kind of narrating the story and that felt very poorly integrated and random. It wasn’t as bad as the old Neil Diamond at the psychiatrist element of the recent musical Beautiful Noise but it felt very out of place. I also didn’t love the way they integrated the animals into Water for Elephants. Some animals like the monkeys are played by humans in costumes but then others are puppets with the elephant being introduced in pieces. Sometimes we’d get a trunk, other times ears. When we finally get the big reveal of the elephant I was left thinking ‘why didn’t we have this whole time?’

Anyway, the entertaining part of the show is the circus performers. Particularly all the aerialists are some of the best I’ve ever seen. Yves Artieres plays a horse and that might sound strange but it was one of the more beautiful dance performances I’ve ever seen. He manages to capture the majesty of this animal perfectly and what he does with the silks is unbelievable. I also really enjoyed Tyler West as Walter the little person clown and all the rest of the ensemble of dancers and performers. They really make the show a delight to watch and the dancing is no small aspect. It’s a huge part of the show.

The songs are pleasant to listen to but not especially memorable. The highlights are probably Jacob singing “Silver Stars” and the company with “The Road Don’t Make You Young.” In the national tour Jacob is played by Zachary Keller with leading man charisma but he doesn’t have much chemistry with Helen Krushinksi’s Marlena but I can’t really blame them because the story makes it tough for them to develop that chemistry (I just don’t love cheater love stories!) Connor Sullivan is appropriately sinister and sniveling as ringmaster August.

The tour is directed by Ryan Emmons with Jessica Stone the original Broadway direction. The circus design is Shana Carroll and the choreography by Jesse Robb and Shanna Carroll. There is some beautiful lighting by Bradley King and the sound design by Walter Trarbach help the animals feel as real as they can especially when we are only getting a piece of said animal.

But when it comes down to it, Water for Elephants is all about the circus. Of course one could just go to a circus performance (we had Cirque du Soleil in Salt Lake this holiday season with Twas the Night Before and I’d say these performers were as good if not better.) If aerialists and dancers appeal to you than go see Water for Elephants. If you need more than that you can probably skip this show at the Eccles. It is playing through August 30th and tickets can be purchased here.

Water for Elephants is a musical with music and lyrics by PigPen Theatre Co which is a indie folk band and theater company consisting of 7 musicians. They have been performing together since 2007. The musical book is by Rick Elice based on the novel by Sara Gruen. It premiered on Broadway in 2024.

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