Water for Elephants, currently on tour at the National Theatre, is visually and choreographically stunning, but somewhat confusing in song and story. Penned by Rick Elice based on a novel of the same name by Sara Gruen (which was also made into a movie with Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson), the show ran on Broadway in 2024. Basically a boy-meets-married-girl-with-nasty-husband romance set in the Depression, it is enlivened by a frame story of an old man (the craggy and compelling Robert Tully) recounting his days in the circus, when he was present at one of the greatest ever Big Top disasters. He transforms into his younger self, Jacob (Zachary Keller), and the story unfolds of how he hopped a circus train after his veterinary plans were derailed by his parents’ death in a car crash. He wangles a job caring for the animals, and after having to put down the show’s injured star horse, he finds and buys an elephant named Rosie. With the horse’s beautiful rider, Marlena (Helen Krushinski), they manage to train the elephant and begin to fall in love. But Marlena is the wife of the Ringmaster, and it becomes clear that he is a dangerous and violent man. Trouble is surely in store. Helen Krushinski as Marlena in ‘Water for Elephants,’ Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade The Jacob and Marlena love story is fairly mundane, but the beauty of the production is in the unusual details. The ballads are not particularly memorable, but the songs about the circus are more striking — literally. One, The Road Don’t Make You Young, is sung by the chorus of workers as they set up the circus tent, and sports innovative choreography by Jesse Robb and Shana Caroll involving hammers pounding, rope jumping, and acrobatics. The music (by Pigpen Theatre Co.) also uses Appalachian harmonies and instrumentation to great effect.  What sets Water for Elephants apart is its use of circus performances (designed by Shana Caroll), and they are indeed spectacular. Members of the ensemble are also acrobats, dancing in the air above as much as on the stage itself, on trapezes, rings, ropes, and simply being tossed by or balancing on other actors. And as thrilling as all that is, the most endearing part of the performance is the puppetry (by Ray Wetmore, JR Goodman, and Camille Labarre). First, an adorable dog is passed among the actors, who bring his head and wagging tail to life. Then, performers take on the roles of the circus animals, impersonating an orangutan (Nancy Luna), a peacock, a lion (Adam Fullick), and more by manipulating heads, plumes, and fur. The star puppet, Rosie the Elephant, appears in stages, beginning with a performer bearing large fan-like ears standing on another’s shoulders, then as simply a trunk operated deftly and expressively by a player (Ella Huestis), and then as four individual legs (Bradley Parrish, John Neurohr, Carl Robinett, Grant Honeycutt), and finally as a full animal made of a textured collection of gray fabrics. Director Jessica Stone makes good use of silhouettes in the scenes of training the elephant and keeps all these spinning plates in the air.  Perhaps the most moving scene in the show involves both puppetry and acrobatics. Krushinski as Marlena, the circus’s leading lady, sings a heartrending song, “Easy,” to comfort her horse, Silver Star (Yves Artières), who has a broken leg. The horse is depicted by a beautiful white puppet head and mane, at first wielded by Artières, but then, as the song begins to soothe Silver Star, Artières passes the puppet to Krushinski and rises up to swing on aerial silks, showing the horse’s spirit running free. The moment is sublime, poignant, exquisite theater. TOP: Helen Krushinski as Marlena and Zachary Keller as Jacob; ABOVE: Connor Sullivan (center) as Ringmaster August and the Cast, in ‘Water for Elephants.’ Photos by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade. Keller and Krushinski do their best with standard young-lover roles, but the more interesting characters are the featured players. As Walter the knife-throwing clown, Tyler West is by turns funny, threatening (amusing given his small stature), and tender toward his (puppet) puppy. Ruby Gibbs provides plenty of pulchritude as the bold and brassy Barbara. Javier Garcia is touching as the alcoholic and increasingly disabled old carny Camel. And Connor Sullivan (the spitting image of Jon Hamm) both entertains and terrifies as the volatile ringmaster August — which makes the ending, in which he seems to return from the dead to cheerfully absolve the perpetrator of his death, rather bewildering. The entire story looks to be hurtling toward tragedy when everything suddenly wraps up in sweetness and light. There is nothing wrong with a happy ending, but this one seems to come out of nowhere. Water for Elephants is a thoroughly enjoyable night out at the theater, notable particularly for its circus magic and puppetry. It is worth braving the cold to get down to the National to see it.  Running Time: Two hours and 30 minutes, including one intermission. Water for Elephants plays through December 14, 2025, at The National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC. Performances are Friday at 7:30 pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm. Purchase tickets online or at the National Theatre box office.  The cast and creative credits for the North American tour of Water for Elephants can be found here. The post Big Top aerial acts lift ‘Water for Elephants’ on tour at the National appeared first on DC Theater Arts. ...read more read less