WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
now playing on Broadway at The Imperial Theatre
Directed by Jessica Stone
Book by Rick Elice
Music and Lyrics by PigPen Theatre Co.
“Miracles do happen. A gorgeously imaginative Broadway musical.” - Jesse Green, The New York Times, Critic’s Pick
HONORS:
Seven Tony Award® Nominations including Best Musical
as well as many others including Drama League, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle…
PRAISE:
“Apt, rousing music… Trenchant lyrics…The songs ace the double-duty test, never repeating catchy choruses just to drill holes in our ears but to expand, modify and turn ideas in different directions. ”
- Jesse Green, The New York Times, Critic’s Pick
“PigPen has a knack for showmanship and a keen understanding of what music can do onstage. Water for Elephants isn’t just the frontrunner for the 2024 Tony Award for Best Musical, it’s a bold assertion that this still young artform has plenty of tricks left to reveal. It is most certainly the best new musical on Broadway.”
- Zachary Stewart, Theatermania
“The score by the musical collective PigPen Theatre Co. captures the tuneful Americana mood of the era, and mixes it up with songs ranging from swing to folk. Especially fine is the infectious ‘The Road Don’t Make You Young,’ the romantic ballad ‘Wild’ and ‘Zostan,’ the rollicking celebration of Polish commands. ‘Water for Elephants’ could be the greatest show on Broadway.”
“The score by the collective PigPen Theatre Co. ranges across styles capably, from the country-flavored ‘The Road Don’t Make You Young,’ to a jubilant boogie-woogie tune, ‘The Lion Has Got No Teeth,’ describing how illusion is at the heart of any circus’s appeal, and a more traditional, moody love-cementing duet for Jacob and Marlena. The songs are flavorful and well-wrought, and perhaps the show’s most accomplished achievement.”
- Charles Isherwood, Wall Street Journal
“Water for Elephants has a book by Rick Elice, and songs by the seven-man collective PigPen Theatre Co., which specializes in dark-edged musical story theater. This team knows how to craft magic moments out of spare parts. They have found the right tone for this adaptation of Sara Gruen’s novel… ‘One beautiful, one bestial / One strong, one celestial,’ August sings of Marlena’s animal act. (Somewhere, Stephen Sondheim is chuckling.)”
Photos by Matthew Murphy, Arya Shahi, and Emilio Madrid