Death-defying aerial performances and breathtaking acrobatic feats, stunning animal puppetry, and forbidden love at its most forbidden, Water For Elephants, now dazzling Pantages Theatre audiences, has them all.

Still, unless you’re a real musical theater buff, you may not even know that Sara Gruen’s New York Times Bestseller was adapted for the Broadway stage given its relatively brief 300-performance run two years ago, no matter that it scored seven Tony nominations opposite the year’s big winner The Outsiders (next at the Pantages) and the season’s most nominated show Hell’s Kitchen (which stunned Pantages audiences this past May).

But don’t let not having heard about Water For Elephants on Broadway stop you from making a beeline to Hollywood Boulevard because what you’ll be treated to is a musical quite unlike any other you’ve seen.

The story is the same one that captivated not only book readers but audiences who swooned over Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon committing adultery right under Christoph Waltz’s nose in its 2011 movie adaptation.

Both movie and musical start off by introducing us to nonagenarian assisted living resident “Mr. Jankowski” (Robert Tully), whose memories of the past take us back to 1931 when a recently orphaned, then 20something Jacob (Zachary Keller) hopped a train as it transported the traveling circus known as the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth towards its next stop.

When Jacob, who was forced to drop out of Cornell University’s Veterinary program due to a family tragedy, reveals his veterinary skills to circus owner August (Connor Sullivan), he becomes part of a band of traveling performers and roustabouts that includes among others August’s beautiful young wife Marlena (Helen Krushinski), who has so far put up with being married to the volatile, controlling, physically abusive August, but perhaps for not much longer given the heat generated whenever the raven-haired beauty and the hunky young vet find themselves in close proximity as is beginning to occur far too often.

Also figuring in Water For Elephants’ cast of characters are seasoned roustabout Camel (Javier Garcia), clown (and dog daddy) Walter (Tyler West), maternal “cooch tent” dancer Barbara (Ruby Gibbs), and Wade (Grant Huneycutt), so blindly obedient to August that he’s willing to “red-light” off a moving train any circus worker or performer who’s gotten on his boss’s black list.

Everyone else in the Water For Elephants is a either a “Kinker” (acrobat or gymnast) or a “Roust” (laborer or crew member) and it is here that Jesse Robb and Shana Carroll’s choreography (a mix of 1930s-style jazz and swing moves alongside aerial silks, trapeze, tightrope, Chinese pole tricks, and hand-to-hand acrobatics) steals the show again and again, that is when it’s not being stolen by some of the most imaginatively conceived and designed puppets in town, from performing horse Silver Star to Jack Russell Terrier Queenie to the titular Rosie The Elephant.

Rick Elice’s Tony-nominated book bumps up Mr. Jankowski’s role from present-day (early 2000s) narrator to “memory play” participant in which his caregivers Charlie and June step into the roles of August and Marlena, though because the older Jacob’s memories are fragmented, the animals he recalls are seen in fragments as well, e.g., only Silver Star’s head is depicted literally as an aerialist embodies the white stallion’s soul from high up in the air.

Pigpen Theatre Co.’s songs play a major role in the show as well, their early-1930s-style bluegrass, swing, jazz, and boogie-woogie melodies giving the cast plenty of opportunities to show of their dance chops while the song writers’ soulful, tender, romantic ballads give Keller and Krushinski the chance to reveal Broadway-caliber vocal chops in addition to revelatory dramatic work that I’m confident will lead them to the Great White Way.

Sullivan commands the stage as the deeply flawed August, and not just because he towers over the rest of the cast; Tully’s Mr. Jankowski proves that age need not dim a man’s power to enthrall an audience; and Garcia, Gibbs, Huneycutt, and West’s richly executed featured turns make them cast standouts as well.

Last but definitely not least, Yves Artieres, Gabriela Diaz, Adam Fullick, Ella Huestis, ZaKeyia Lacey, Jose Martinez, John Neurohr, Bradley Parrish, Carl Robinett, circus captain Serafina Walker and Yemie Woo’s extensive circus and theatrical credits make them ideally qualified to more than meet the unique performance demands required by this most unique of musicals.

All of this adds up to a show that not only captivates and moves an audience in equal measure thanks in large part to tour director Ryan Emmons and original director Jessica Stone, it’s a veritable feast for the eyes and ears thanks to the talents of Shana Carroll (circus design), Takeshi Kata (scenic design), David Israel Reynoso (puppet design), Bradley King (lighting design), Walter Trarbach (sound design), David Bengali (projection design), Ray Wetmore, JR Goodman, and Camille Labarre (puppetry design), and Luc Verschueren and Campbell Young Associates (hair & makeup design), not to mention music director Sarah Pool and her fellow pit orchestra musicians. (Benedict Braxton-Smith is music supervisor,)

Chris Carsten, Glenn Doyle, fight captain Andrew Meier, circus captain Marina Mendoza, dance captain Summer Severin, and Kayden Woodbridge are swings.

Water For Elephants may have lasted less than a year on Broadway, but don’t let that stop you from catching its spectacular First National Tour at the Hollywood Pantages. Expect to be blown away like rarely before.

Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles. Through September 17. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 7:30 Fridays at 8:00. Saturdays at 2:00 and 8:00. Sundays at 1:00 and 6:30
www.broadwayla.org

–Steven Stanley
September 9, 2026
Photos: Matthew Murphy

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Broadway In Hollywood, Los Angeles Theater Review, Pantages Theatre, Pigpen Theatre Co., Rick Elice