Circus and choreography combine in touring production of ‘Water for Elephants’

The movement for the Broadway musical “Water for Elephants” needed more than a choreographer.

It needed a circus.

That’s why the musical, which stops at Century II for three Broadway in Wichita performances this week, needed co-choreographers: Jesse Robb, who has established foreign companies of “Les Miserables” and was associate choreographer for “Miss Saigon” on Broadway; and Shana Carroll, co-founding artistic director of the Montreal-based circus company The 7 Fingers, a 20-year veteran trapeze performer and a Cirque du Soleil performer.

“It’s a complicated piece in terms of the circus and how the choreography tells the story,” Robb said from a hotel room in his native Toronto.

“I had been approached to other Broadway shows before, and quite often they just want the spectacle of it – like flips in the middle of the choreography – which really wasn’t very interesting as far as the storytelling potential for circus,” Carroll said in a separate interview from Montreal.

“Water for Elephants” is based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Sara Gruen, which also spawned a 2011 movie with Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson.

The musical is a memory play, where an elderly man named Jacob is visiting a circus and reminisces about his days under the big top in the 1930s, and romancing the star of the show, horse rider Marlena.

“I felt like that was me,” Carroll said of the Jacob character. “I spent my life in circus and feel like I’m the type of person who can see life through the lens of circus.”

Jessica Stone, the director of the Broadway version of “Elephants,” had approached each of them individually about working on the production, with Robb asked to create choreography for the song “The Lion’s Got No Teeth” in Act I, where unbeknownst to him, he showed his finished product to a group of the show’s producers.

Carroll, meanwhile, had been in conversations with Stone since 2019, and even through the pandemic kept in contact about ideas each had for the production.

“Shana and I became an arranged marriage, which I say with a ton of love,” Robb said.

The 23 cast members, he said, were equally Broadway musical veterans and those with circus experience.

“The story is told from a traveling circus troupe’s perspective, and that piece of it was in the immediate origins,” Robb said. “There were a lot of objectives from the producers that this group had to look very much like a unified company traveling the road, traveling west. There was a big demand on that relationship between a circus designer and a choreographer, and how that would be built into the show.”

Robb said that by the time “Water for Elephants” opened in Atlanta in 2023 and made its way to Broadway in 2024 for a nine-month run, each became more familiar with the other’s expertise.

“That was an outstanding challenge,” he said. “It put us both into heavy motion in learning each other’s language.”

“Slowly as we started to understand each other’s language and each other’s strengths, we realized we had a lot of each other’s information inside the circus design and choreography,” Robb continued. “We started fusing as we hurtled toward Broadway. . . . Lo and behold, our relationship grew into this very symbiotic, very loving sort of communication process.”

“Water for Elephants” was nominated for seven Tony Awards in 2024, including best musical, directing and choreography for the Carroll-Robb duo. While it didn’t take home a trophy, Stone did win the prize for outstanding direction of a musical by the Outer Critics Circle Awards and Drama Desk Awards. Robb and Carroll won an award for outstanding choreography in the Chita Rivera Awards.

Taking “Elephants” on tour, which began last fall, did not mean the end of the line for Carroll and Robb. They worked with the performers in the traveling show, and made it more compact to travel from city to city.

“We had a very heavy lift with how to stage and how to choreograph and how to create a language that resonated between circus-trained artists and Broadway-trained artists, to create something that looked like they belonged in each other’s worlds and their organic backgrounds,” Robb said. “There’s a ton of voices that are collaborating with superb artistry. To make those pieces work, everyone is pushing and giving and taking and, in that process, you’re constantly trying to find the truest storytelling. That takes a lot of work, in terms of relationships and collaboration.”

Although animals were a part of circuses during the time “Water for Elephants” takes place, there are no non-humans on stage. Puppets take the place of Rosie the elephant, Queenie the dog, Silver Star the horse, Iris the orangutan and Rex the lion.

A separate puppet director is in charge of that aspect of the show, Carroll said.

“They treat them like an actual animal, with people in charge of each puppet,” she said.

Carroll said those with circus training – including seven acrobats she had worked with previously – and Broadway musical training learned to work together.

Robb said the opening number, “The Road Don’t Make You Young,” is his favorite, where the circus tent is constructed by the 23 performers on stage.

“It’s palpable how you’re there in the moment, and you’re feeling like you’ve run away with the circus,” he said.

‘WATER FOR ELEPHANTS’ BY BROADWAY IN WICHITA

When: 7:30 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, Jan. 12-14

Where: Century II concert hall, 225 W. Douglas

Tickets: $50-$142, from broadwaywichita.com, Century2,com, selectaseat.com and the Century II box office, phone 855-755-7328