Full of Sparkle, ‘Water For Elephants’ Is Also Unapologetically Sentimental and Moving

As has been admitted before, I’m a sucker for a four-legged hero. In theater, that’s usually a dog — it’s tough to get a cat to follow direction, on stage or off — but thanks to the magic of puppetry, a whole menagerie of non-human mammals, or facsimiles of them, have won (and occasionally broken) my heart in Broadway venues.

The latest is Rosie, the title character in the new musical “Water For Elephants,” based on the Sara Gruen novel that also inspired a 2011 film. Like most of her predecessors, Rosie isn’t really the show’s protagonist, but no matter: Her strength and chutzpah are essential to what, I’ll assure you without dropping any spoilers, is a most satisfying ending.

Designed by the duo Ray Wetmore & JR Goodman and Camille Labarre, Rosie is an imposing but sweetly modest creation. Other representations of animals in the production, which follows a traveling circus, are primarily vehicles for the human performers who animate them, appealing more to our imagination than our sense of awe. 

The flash in “Elephants” comes instead from the choreography supplied by Shana Carroll, a Cirque du Soleil veteran and co-founding artistic director of the innovative troupe 7 Fingers, and Jesse Robb, who have given the company — which includes a number of performers with circus experience — routines so relentlessly and flamboyantly acrobatic that you may get exhausted, or nervous, just watching them.

The show’s heart, though, is provided by librettist Rick Elice, whose previous credits include the crowd-pleasing “Jersey Boys” and the whimsical and poignant “Peter and the Starcatcher,” as well as Pigpen Theatre Co., a “band of storytellers” whose fetching, theatrically savvy music and lyrics deliver more style and substance than most contemporary Broadway scores.

Director Jessica Stone has recruited a winning cast to serve the material. Broadway newbie Grant Gustin, best known for his roles in the series “The Flash” and “Glee,” brings a keening tenor and low-key charisma to the part of Jacob Jankowski, a down-on-his-luck young man who lands a job as veterinarian for the Benzini Brothers circus company.

Musical theater vet Gregg Edelman plays Jacob, movingly, as an older man, now relegated to a nursing home, who reflects on this youthful experience while visiting the latter-day O’Brien’s One-Ring Circus. Isabelle McCalla does charming double duty as June, a star of that troupe, and Marlena, her counterpart in Benzini’s outfit, who bonds with the young Jacob over, among other things, their love of animals, Rosie in particular.

Paul Alexander Nolan also juggles characters, proving as likable as O’Brien’s owner, Charlie, as he is sinister as Marlena’s tyrannical and jealous husband, August, who doesn’t take as much of a shine to Rosie, to put it mildly. Stan Brown, Joe De Paul, and Sara Gettelfinger bring an easy zest to their roles as other Benzini employees, who also suffer August’s cruelty in varying degrees — quite extreme, for a couple of them. 

Ms. Carroll’s circus design and David Israel Reynoso’s costumes add further sparkle to the proceedings, but again, it’s not the spectacle that gives that unapologetically sentimental musical its surprising appeal. In the end, the players in “Water For Elephants” will move you at least as much as they dazzle you — and for an outing of this sort, that’s a feat in itself.