Music Review: Water for Elephants – Original Broadway Cast Recording

Water for Elephants – Original Broadway Cast Recording (Ghostlight Records).

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

Water for Elephants – the musical adaptation of the 2006 bestselling novel by Sara Gruen of the same name – began its Broadway run at the Imperial Theatre in February this year and received seven Tony Award nominations including one for Best Musical.

In 2011, the book was adapted into a film starring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon and the subsequent stage adaptation by Rick Elice had its debut in Atlanta in 2023. The Original Broadway Cast Recording has since been released with music and lyrics by indie folk band and theatre company, PigPen Theatre Co.

The story is told through flashbacks from the perspective of Jacob Jankowski, an old man living in an assisted living home. He looks back to when he joined a travelling circus, working as a vet, after finding himself lost in life. The story follows Jacob, played by Grant Gustin, as he attempts to train an elephant bought by the ringmaster alongside Marlena, the ringmaster’s wife, played by Isabella McCalla. Jacob soon finds himself falling for Marlena as the two attempt to train the stubborn elephant, all the while slowly realising the ringmaster’s cruelty.

Water for Elephants is PigPen’s fifth musical production. The soundtrack blends many music genres from bluegrass to swing. It is not surprising that the music has been written by a collective, given that the score heavily features ensemble numbers. There is good use of animal motifs, featuring in particular lots of trumpets to represent the elephants. The songs about the circus set the scene well with an upbeat tempo. PigPen Theatre Co’s indie and folk background is evident throughout the score as the songs are largely upbeat and use humble instruments like banjos and fiddles, adding to that circus feel.

The soundtrack swings back and forth between country and jazz and there are various moments where there is evident inspiration taken from the Great American Songbook, the ensemble number ‘Just Our Luck’ has a certain ‘Puttin’ On the Ritz’ feel about it.

However, this style begins to get repetitive and some of the numbers sound quite similar to each other. Moreover, the songs do not seem to move the plot forward massively and it would be difficult to follow the story of the musical listening to the soundtrack alone.

Nevertheless, the soundtrack has some highlights such as ‘Wild’, a duet between Jacob and Marlena. The characters compare their lives to that of the circus animals who are kept in cages rather than being allowed to roam in the wild, a theme that runs throughout the musical. The song starts slowly and builds from despair into something positive and beautiful. Water for Elephants proves that there is room for more than one musical about a circus in the space.

Rebecca Sinclair