The Depression-era circus — complete with acrobatics and a deliberately disheveled puppet menagerie — is the star of Water for Elephants, the new musical adaptation of Sara Gruen’s bestselling 2006 romance novel (which inspired a limp 2011 movie starring a miscast Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson). While the gently rootsy score sometimes matches the energy and cleverness of the spectacle-focused production numbers, too many key dramatic songs feel like they’ve been written by committee — in this case, the seven-member PigPen Theatre Co. collective.
You can read my full review in the upcoming issue of Musicals magazine.
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