Theater review
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
Two hours and 40 minutes, with one intermission. On the Imperial Theatre, 249 West forty fifth Street.
There have to be something within the water, because “Water for Elephants,” which opened Thursday night on the Imperial Theatre, is the third Broadway musical this season to be centered around an older man who sappily relives his youthful memories.
Barry Manilow’s shuttered “Harmony” was the primary, followed by “The Notebook” — this latest lacking musical contains a rating by PigPen Theatre Co. and a hokey book by Rick Elice.
That drippy, “and-then-this-happened” frame story is an element of Sara Gruen’s novel (and the 2011 film) — just because it was in Nicholas Sparks’ “The Notebook.”
But, onstage, all of the drama-killer flashbacks and flash-forwards are likely to turn shows about flesh-and-blood people into sleepy wax museums — even one which takes place in a sporadically-dazzling circus.
This time, the man journeying to the past is Jacob Jankowski (Gregg Edelman), a former veterinarian who escapes his nursing home to pay O’Brien’s One-Ring Circus a visit.
Two skeptical employees listen as Jacob explains how he got here to are likely to the animals in Benzini Brothers’ Most Spectacular Show on Earth within the Thirties. And — here we go again — he whooshes back in time for some overripe nostalgia.
Jacob’s younger self (Grant Gustin) hops the train, joins the scrappy “kinkers” and first encounters Marlena (Isabelle McCalla), a Liberty Horse rider who then sings the show’s best number, “Easy,” while an aerialist representing her injured steed (Antoine Boissereau) twirls sublimely above her head.
The song is a luxurious marriage of music, movement and puppetry that implies what “Water for Elephants” might have been, had it not taken so many conventional, bland paths.
Thankfully, it’s rescued from total banality by a bunch of wonderful acrobats, who double as carnies and animals, and have an irrepressible desire to entertain.
Watching them artfully pitch their tent in director Jessica Stone’s production is a pleasure.
But, as conceived, it’s still not as clever or lush as similar displays in Nicholas Hytner’s revival of “Carousel,” or Diane Paulus’ three-ring “Pippin.” Takeshi Kata’s set is generally spare scaffolding and boxes in front of cloud projections (by David Bengali).
Jacob, after all, falls for Marlena. But she is already married to August (Paul Alexander Nolan), the ringmaster and owner, who cruelly abuses animals and sometimes his unhappy wife.
Nolan, fresh off playing a Broadway villain in “Parade,” is back because the bad guy. It’s such an odd trend, since the talented actor is a a lot better fit for brighter roles.
Marlena and Jacob risk growing closer while the vet begins taming a latest star attraction to maintain Benzini Brothers afloat — a pouty elephant named Rosie who won’t reply to his commands.
I won’t divulge to quirky trick he uses to coach her, but this was my first time hearing the word witaj spoken in a musical.
The elephant puppet, bulky and cartoon-eyed, gets the job done, but she’s somewhat low-rent so far as Broadway creatures go. The designs in “The Lion King,” “Lifetime of Pi,” “War Horse” and even “King Kong” blow these out of the, sorry, water.
Act Two is where the show really wobbles. Plenty happens, however the proceedings have the pacing of a pachyderm.
After a misleadingly rousing dance sequence called “Zostan” (choreography by Jesse Robb and Shana Carroll) comes an ungainly clown act that’s unfunny. And several other circus folks sing a time-filler tune, with an air of “Annie,” called “Squeaky Wheel.”
As twangy and nice as PigPen’s rating is, the music lacks the folkloric fringe of their entrancing “Old Man and the Old Moon” and “The Mountain Song.”
“Water” has more exuberance than wit; more catchphrases than character.
While the second half lumbers along like a pre-flight Dumbo, the improper scenes and songs are given an excessive amount of respiration room and essential events corresponding to, you already know, murders and catastrophic stampedes are raced through to curtain call.
Although “Water” is a love story, that becomes one among its less appealing features.
Gustin and McCalla are milquetoast throughout — nothing says the Great Depression like “Glee” — and have hardly any chemistry.
So, a solo of hers called “What Did I Do?” and their love duet that immediately follows feel longer than “Das Rheingold.”
By that time, no person cares if Jacob and Marlena get together in the long run or not. We just pray any person will come onstage and do a backflip.