Water for Elephants at the Orpheum
Water for Elephants is the musical equivalent of a carnival barker’s sales pitch to potential audiences: Do you want a love letter to the bygone era of three ring circuses, complete with sanitized references to pervasive worker exploitation and animal abuse? Step right up! Are you longing for a romantic love story, but willing to settle on a bizarre love triangle between a bi-polar abuser and a homewrecker? Through this curtain! Want to see daring acrobatics and elaborate animal puppets that get far too little stage time? Right this way! How about some maudlin flash-forwards to the main character as an old man trying to relive his past… Hey, wait, where are you going? Did I mention the cold blooded double murder for absolutely no discernible reason?
If you’re still here, then Water for Elephants is right up your alley! Overall, it’s a decent production, but it is difficult to figure out who the target audience is. The circus element would make you think it’s a family show, but the content is definitely too mature for the kids under ten. The main character, Jacob, is a young man who just lost his parents in a car crash, so he accidentally ends up joining a traveling circus. As a veterinary student, he uses his skills to help the show’s overworked and abused animals. He falls in love with Marlena, the beautiful animal trainer, who happens to be married to August, the ringmaster and owner of the circus. The tension mounts as Jacob and Marlena’s illicit romance builds. August is torn between his need of Jacob’s ability to communicate with Rosie, his crowd-pleasing elephant and Jacob’s increasingly brazen flirtations with his wife. After months of putting up with Marlena’s emotional infidelity, August snaps. His anger at being trapped in this bind is understandable, but in order for the story to justify sidelining him, August inexplicably turns to abusing Rosie before ordering the killing of two circus hands that he has no use for instead of just firing them and leaving them behind. His sudden death in an animal rampage after Rosie is let out of her cage almost feels too contrived because now Jacob and Marlena don’t have to take responsibility for their actions.
Tweens and older teens may be open to the circus aspects of the show–especially if they’re willing to overlook the confusing plot and questionable morals of the two leading men–but it may be hard to impress a generation of kids who watched a guy free climbing a skyscraper in social studies class by sending a few people out to do some OSHA-approved tumbling passes and aerial silk work.
For those just looking for a nice night out, the circus acrobatics are impressive enough and the lead actors’ singing voices are rich and powerful (even if most the songs are forgettable). It’s an enjoyable couple of hours that leaves you wishing for less plot more circus, but to its credit, the story feels propulsive in a way doesn’t drag on too unnecessarily. Marlena (played by understudy ZaKeyia Lacey on opening night) has a beautiful solo in the second act, as well as a sweet duet with Jacob (Zachary Keller). The puppeteering on the elephant, Rosie, is in many ways a highlight of the show. It takes a lot of coordination to get that working smoothly and they pull it off beautifully. In all, it’s an entertaining night of theater if you don’t think about it too much, which is sometimes what we want from a show. Leave the machinations to the Scottish Play down the road! Sometimes you just have to choose the ride!
Tickets are available through March 8, go to Hennepin Arts for details.
