Puppet shows for adults, anyone? You bet! Just ask Broward Center for the Performing Arts whose Au-Rene Theater has been taken over by puppets of late. And not just any puppets – realistic-looking animals usually found in zoos – life size, often ferocious or regal, sometimes friendly and kind. Still, I wouldn’t rush to introduce them to the Sesame Street set.
First Broadway in Fort Lauderdale presented what’s become the classic puppetry extravaganza, The Lion King Musical. It proved equal to all the hype and more – a wild ride among Africa’s most noble and vicious creatures. Next up was Life of Pi, with Fort Lauderdale being the last stop of its national tour. While engrossed in all the drama, I couldn’t stop marveling at the play’s “visible” but emotionally invisible “beast-handlers” whose synchronized choreography was as perfect as any chorus line. And then, a couple nights ago, I attended the third (and each time I can’t help thinking: This one’s the best!) of my trifecta of Broward Center puppetry-for-adult performances. I reveled in WATER FOR ELEPHANTS: The Broadway Musical … and am still trying to catch my breath!
Water for Elephants has so much more than amazing puppetry going for it, and I’ll get to all of that soon, but it also – maybe even more than earlier puppet-heavy productions – inspired my next question. Does performing onstage with majestic stuffed animals cause their human cast counterparts to up their game? And how does this affect the puppeteers? (Happily, puppetry for the stage may be one of the few remaining technical human positions in an industry, especially film, that increasingly relies on automation and CGI.) Personally, I think mixing puppeteers with human actors challenges and supports both toward new creative heights.
Water for Elephants: The Broadway Musical (which opened just last year) represents the ultimate such challenge, and successful collaboration. Here typical musical theater triple-threats (who act, sing, and dance) are often also expected to be gymnasts and/or high-flying aerialists, tumblers, jugglers – all sorts of gasp-inducing circus performers. All the while interacting not only with each other, but with circus “animals” as well. I was a big fan of Sara Gruen’s popular Water for Elephants novel back in 2006, missed the 2011 film (I prefer to keep my personal “mind’s eye” view of a book’s characters) but can’t resist a live show – especially a musical with its additions of wondrously entertaining song and dance numbers.
And in this case, there’s sooo much more. Who wouldn’t want to experience the thrill of a live circus, full of daring aerial flights on silks and trapeze? Plus, when you watch large animals here, it’s guilt-free (even when you see them mistreated because they are puppets!). There’s also heart-stopping drama (both human and animal), non-stop action, daring circus acts, and an unusual but touching love story at the musical’s core.
We even get to enjoy a bit of schadenfreude through justified revenge before a (mostly) fairytale happy ending. In other words, for the theatrical version, Rick Elice’s book, with music and lyrics by Pigpen Theatre Co., have created everything we could possibly imagine, and more, in not only “the world’s greatest show” under the big top, but maybe one of “the world’s greatest theater performances” on Broadway.
Expert guiding hands made all the incredibly quick-moving and often dangerous-looking airborne maneuvers of their talented acrobats and aerialists work like clockwork. For which we can thank the show’s original director Jessica Stone and the uniquely gifted collaboration between tour director Ryan Emmons and the choreography team of Shana Carroll, who specializes in acrobatics and circus design, and Jesse Robb. whose focus is on jazz, swing, and lyrical dance.
Keeping all the action on beat (an almost magical feat) – from instantly placing us in the 1930s with a rousing circus welcome and then accompanying a wide variety of song styles in solos and company musical numbers – was the Water for Elephants Orchestra, led by music director/conductor/keyboard1/harmonica Sarah Pool Wilhelm and music coordinator John Mezzio.
Nothing compares to live music which (in my opinion) should always accompany live musical theater. Of course, lighting and sound design were right where they should be (not an easy task with so many moving parts), and the scenic design was both cleverly sparse and wonderous. Even the actors who weren’t circus performers (they were very active but didn’t do stunts) managed to convey the rumbling, curves, and short stops of a fast-moving circus train in a feat of verisimilitude the likes of which I’d never seen onstage before.
And it’s time I moved on, too, into a sketch of the story. Young Polish veterinarian’s son and almost vet-school graduate Jacob Jankowski (Zachary Keller) suffers a sudden, life-shattering tragedy in which he loses everything. To escape his heartache, and with nothing left to keep him in his hometown, he hops a train to nowhere or anywhere (he just doesn’t care). Older, friendlier, alcoholic Camel (Javier Garcia), and mean, oppressed and belittled foreman Wade (Grant Huneycutt) first try to push this interloper off, explaining he hadn’t just snuck onto any train, it’s the circus train of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. But Jacob argues and fights for the right to work so he can stay for one day.
When it’s discovered he has veterinary skills, the circus’s greedy, domineering owner/ringmaster August (Connor Sullivan) offers Jacob three dollars a day to stay and take care of the animals – especially his main act/wife’s ailing horse Silver Star (with aerial silk acrobatics depicted by Yves Artieres). Jacob doesn’t want to commit to anything, but once he watches August’s wife Marlena’s (Helen Krushinski) equestrian act, he’s completely smitten. He also feels compassion for the underfed circus menagerie who August regularly abuses and beats, favoring the use of a bullhook for training.
We also meet a trio of rehearsing showgirls: Barbara (Ruby Gibbs), Sue (Yemie Woo), and Vera (Zakeyia Lacey). Barbara is the lead showgirl and most aware of company’s inner dynamics. She tries, in vain, to warn Jacob of the danger of inciting August’s jealous temper by getting involved with Marlena. But whenever Ruby Gibbs (as Barbara) sings, this force of nature claims our full attention with her powerful, sit-up-and-take-notice vocals. As does highly visible Walter (Tyler West), a dwarf who steals many scenes, including a comedy routine performed with August. But Walter also harbors a mean streak and is quick to reach for the blade he uses in his knife-throwing act.
Lead actors, Jacob and Marlena, have exemplary singing voices as well, which is great as they are featured in numerous numbers. Jacob’s also onstage most of the time and while he isn’t an acrobat per se, he’s fine with high jumps, dances, and limber action, including some fist fights. Now I’ll add compliments for vocal prowess and fighting moves to hateful August, as well. Time to credit dance captain Summer Severin and fight captain Andrew Meire. Meanwhile, Jacob’s love interest, Marlena, is a quadruple threat! She’s a great actor, aerialist and trapeze artist who also has a beautiful singing voice! Circus captains Fran Alvarez Jara and Marina Mendoza did a phenomenal job as well.
When the curtains rise, we first meet Jacob as elderly Mr. Jankowski (Robert Tully) who resides at an old age home and whose sole joy now lies in visiting the small circus that comes to town and reminiscing about his unforgettable year during the Great Depression when he toured with the legendary Benzini Brothers. Mr. Jankowski sings in several company numbers, including the solo, “Funny Angel,” which opens Act II and playfully showcases Marlena and her elephant Rosie’s growing bond.
