Adapting a beloved novel for the stage is no easy feat. Add a circus, a love story, dangerous animals, acrobatics, and decades of memory, and the challenge becomes considerably greater. Water for Elephants rises to it with an intoxicating mixture of spectacle and heart. Now at Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre, the musical adaptation of Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel, with a book by Rick Elice and music and lyrics by PigPen Theatre Co., brings its traveling circus vividly to life.

At the center of the story is Jacob Jankowski, played by Zachary Keller, a young man who jumps aboard a moving circus train while fleeing the grief of his parents’ death. He soon finds a place caring for the animals and falls for the circus’s star performer, Marlena, played by Helen Krushinski. Their tender chemistry gives this enormous production an intimate emotional center. As the older Jacob, Robert Tully brings a poignant sense of nostalgia to the story, allowing the circus to exist not merely as a place, but as a memory he has carried with him across a lifetime.

“The production does not simply show us a circus; for a few hours, it makes us feel as though we have stepped inside one.”

What distinguishes Water for Elephants is the way circus artistry becomes integral to the storytelling. Acrobats fly, tumble, climb, and seemingly defy gravity, transporting the audience into the exhilarating and precarious world beneath the big top. Yves Artieres, appearing as Silver Star, turns physical virtuosity into something unexpectedly poetic. And then there is Rosie. Brought to life through ingenious puppetry and stagecraft, the elephant quickly transcends the mechanics of her creation. Her expressive movements, right down to those irresistible eyelashes, give her such personality that she becomes not simply a theatrical marvel, but a character the audience genuinely cares about.

The darker edge of this world comes through Connor Sullivan, whose commanding presence as the story’s antagonist immediately alters the atmosphere whenever he appears. Elsewhere, Javier Garcia as Camel and Ruby Gibbs as Barbara lend rich, powerful voices to the score, while the company moves effortlessly between musical theater and breathtaking circus performance.

Ultimately, it is the fusion of music, choreography, acrobatics, puppetry, and stagecraft that gives Water for Elephants its particular magic. The production does not simply show us a circus; for a few hours, it makes us feel as though we have stepped inside one, into a world of danger, romance, laughter, and wonder. Beneath all that spectacle lies something more intimate: a story about love, courage, memory, and those unexpected moments that redirect a life. Water for Elephants reminds us of one of theater’s oldest pleasures, the willingness to believe, if only for an evening, that the impossible might actually be possible.

— Rosane Grimberg

Water for Elephants
Hollywood Pantages Theatre
6233 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles
Through September 27, 2026
Running time: approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes, including intermission.

Tickets and performance information: Broadway in Hollywood – Water for Elephants