PicksInSix Review - Water for Elephants-Broadway in Chicago
‘WATER FOR ELEPHANTS’ IS TRUNKING AMAZING!
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Catey Sullivan
Chicago’s Nederlander Theatre may well be the most thematically appropriate venue in the country for the first national tour of “Water for Elephants.” The endlessly ornate venue opened in 1926, a scant five years before the musical based on Sara Gruen’s 1931-set novel about a travelling circus trying to outrun the Great Depression. There are literally elephants in the vestibule of the 100-year-old Nederlander, their tusked heads holding orb-like lamps. There’s also at least one elephant built into the house, a fanciful pachyderm amid the sea of gryphons and other fantastical creatures sculpted into the walls around the seats.
It’s a marvel of an interior, and a place that ups the ambiance in the stellar production (book by Rick Elice, music and lyrics by Pigpen Theatre Co.) running through July 5. There are a few significant departures from the novel, including the inexplicable decision to excise a pivotal plot point involving the Brookfield Zoo. Directed by Ryan Emmons (original direction by Jessica Stone) “Water for Elephants” is a whiz-bang of a show, beguiling, jaw-dropping, and irresistible.
Crucially, an astounding array of circus acts are incorporated into a story that takes the brutal impact of the Great Depression and wraps it around a star-crossed romance, a host of indelible circus folk and, obviously, an elephant. Shana Carroll’s circus design has cast members flying on wings of billowing silk, spinning on gleaming hoops and acrobat-ing up and down 15(ish)-foot pools. There are jugglers, burlesque dancers, roustabouts and extraordinary puppet creatures (designed by Ray Wetmore, JR Goodman and Camille LaBarre) that look every bit as sentient as the humans on stage. Rosie is the showpiece with massive lumbering legs, a swinging trunk and expressive, saucer-large eyes.
The cast knows its business: As Jacob Jankowski, who joins the circus after his parents die, Zachary Keller delivers just the right mix of vulnerability and leading man bravissimo. The love interest is Marlena (Helen Krushinski, navigating the score’s treacherous modulations with ease) who performs, trains, befriends and tries to protect Rosie. Working against her: the villainous ringmaster August (Connor Sullivan), whose final confrontation with Rosie is immensely satisfying. But arguably the most memorable member of this rag-tag troop is Walter the clown. Tyler West is a hilarious showstopper, combining physical slapstick and rapid-fire wit and impeccable comic timing. West has one of the best, most ridiculous death scenes I’ve seen in 35 years of reviewing musicals. (He’s actually got a couple of death scenes, it’s the first one that’s snort-level side-splitting.)
Pigpen’s score is a terrific mix of up-tempo, energized, stunt-filled numbers (the all-hands on deck opening “Prologue”) slower, fluid ballad-like tunes (Krushinski’s flowing “Easy”) that come with a dream-like quality.
“Water for Elephants” unfolds as a memory, bookended by Jacob as an elderly man (Robert Tully) from the nursing home he is desperate to get out of. The show then gracefully vacillates between soft-focus beauty and vivid detail. Either way, the production is—if not the most spectacular show on earth—surely one of the best musicals on the tour circuit.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | CATEY SULLIVAN has been covering Chicago theater for more than 30 years. Her work has been published in the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Reader, Windy City Times, Playbill, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Tribune and New City, among others. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Illinois.
PHOTO|Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade
Broadway in Chicago
presents
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
James M. Nederlander Theatre
through July 5, 2026
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