There’s a song in the musical “Water for Elephants,” now playing at the Nederlander Theatre on a national tour, titled “The Lion Has Got No Teeth.” The song describes the deceptions of the circus and how the circusgoers — whom they cynically call “rubes” — are fooled into thinking the onstage feats are more impressive than they are.
It’s a dangerous thought to put in the heads of an audience. A traveling show about a traveling circus runs the risk of having its talk of showbiz and artifice backfire.
“Water for Elephants” follows Jacob Jankowski (Zachary Keller), a veterinary student who leaves school after the death of his parents. Jacob hops a train, which happens to carry the Benzini Brothers circus. He proves himself useful by identifying the hopelessness of the case of the horse Silver Star and is immediately hired as the circus’ vet.
Silver Star performs with Marlena (Helen Krushinski), who is married to August (Connor Sullivan), the ringmaster and circus owner. August is abusive to both animals and his wife, providing Jacob and Marlena with a structural impediment to their predestined romance.
After Silver Star’s death, the circus acquires Rosie the elephant, and Marlena sets to developing an act with her. It’s going badly, until Jacob blurts out “Stop!” in Polish, in one of many contrivances that drive the story. Suddenly the circus is saved, as Rosie is evidently fluent in Polish but unable to learn any English.
In the second half, Marlena and Jacob make a plan to take Rosie and run off together, presumably somewhat slowly. This, of course, goes awry, as all the payoffs of the overt foreshadowing throughout the show come to pass in a chaotic stampede.
The impulse to make this story, which began its life as a novel in 2006, into a Broadway musical seems just right. Putting the circus performers onstage, live, works organically inside the show’s world and provides the juice to make it a spectacle.
The circus acts are the highlights of the show. The acrobatics were impressive, and when they were sprinkled in around the choreography in the bigger numbers, it all felt well integrated, like Broadway dancing taken up a notch. At several moments, the directing paid homage to the attention overload of the classic three-ring circus, where there are so many things happening simultaneously you don’t know where to look.
The artier uses of circus also land. The animals in the show are portrayed through puppetry. Silver Star, for example, consisted of a horse’s head and a white-costumed performer on aerial silks (Yves Artières). A downward tumble elegantly represented Silver Star’s death. There’s also a sort of dream sequence in the second half shuffling together elements from elsewhere in the show amid acrobatic dancing, rings and trapezes.
The art direction, more generally, successfully vibes with the aesthetic of a traveling, temporary show. Rolling scaffolds serve many purposes, and the cast puts up the pole of a big top right in front of us, including a fun moment when a performer pushes up the pole, then the pole pulls up the performer, staying rigid as he rises and winding up parallel to the ground.
During the song about the lion having no teeth, Jacob objects that you can’t fake all these impressive physical feats. “Water for Elephants” excels at circus, but where it has no teeth is in the story and the music.
The series of contrivances constructed to motor the swerving plot, such as the Polish deus ex machina, do not feel earned. The set-’em-up, knock-’em-down quality to the story construction makes the unfolding too obvious and leaves holes. For example, we’re told early on that if the band ever starts playing “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” everyone should drop everything and run. So we’re meant to keep that in mind, but then when we hear it during the stampede, we are not meant to question why the musicians are playing a Sousa march instead of, say, fleeing.
The music, too, does not stick, despite some excellent voices presenting it. Marlena’s lullaby to Silver Star, “Easy,” is aimless pentatonic noodling delivered in a pure-toned, soothing, lovely voice. “Wild,” a duet between Marlena and Jacob, leans way too hard on its title word. “Zostań,” a companywide folky verse-and-chorus song, is painfully repetitive.
And why is it called “Water for Elephants,”? you might ask. In the first half, we’re told only that it’s an old joke in the circus to ask someone to carry water for elephants. In the second half, we hear that you can’t carry the water for the elephants, because they drink too much to make it practical to carry. What we never hear is how the elephants actually get enough to drink.