(©Sophie Holland)
In the 1980 Broadway musical, PT Barnum implores, “Join the circus as you wish.” Burnham. In Sarah Gruen’s best-selling 2006 novel, a young veterinary student named Jacob Jankowski, who has just suffered a tragedy, does just that. give water to elephant.
Nearly 20 years after the novel’s publication, the novel is now directed by Jessica Stone, with music by Pigpen Theater Company, and starring Grant Gustin, Isabella McCullough, Greg Edelman, and numerous real-life circus members. It was made into a Broadway musical with the cast. Starring at the Imperial Theater.
Theater Mania recently spoke with Gruen and the show’s three-time Tony Award nominee Rick Ellis, the show’s librettist, about the challenges of adapting the novel to music, what they learned from the pre-Broadway tryouts in Atlanta, and how audiences will be able to make this film a reality. He talked about the message he got from the program.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Why did each of you decide to run away, so to speak, to the circus?
Sarah Gruen: The book arrived to me in pieces. When I came across this vintage circus photo by Edward J. Kelty, I realized that I had an environment where anything could happen. I just jumped in and never looked back. In the end, he realized that he could extract 100 stories from that photo.
Rick Ellis: In 2015, producer Peter Schneider contacted me and brought the novel, which I read as part of a book club and often discussed at social gatherings.I just went through a very difficult personal experience [the death of husband Roger Rees], I was thinking about how to continue. And since this novel deals with this main character experiencing loss, both as an old man and as a young man, I thought this was the perfect show for someone at my stage of life.
Did either of you have any apprehensions about adapting the novel to music?
Rick: not much. We thought the theater group PigPen would be a good fit for our collaboration, even though it’s unusual to have seven composers/lyricists. So we went to Sarah and told her how we wanted the show to go, what could be in the book, what couldn’t be in it, what would have to be mixed up. Luckily, she was very enthusiastic about how we did it and was accommodating to our ideas for the play. Then we took it to Jessica Stone, who we wanted to direct, and she had some of her initial ideas about how to develop this piece. And from then on, there was no looking back.
How much has the musical changed between Atlanta and New York?
Rick: When we came to Broadway and were told that the only theater that could physically perform the show was the Imperial, we knew how much work we had to do. Ta. The main purpose was to sharpen the story and make it more powerful. I also changed some numbers and did some recasting. People in Atlanta probably think it’s better here, but they may not know why.
Sarah, what message do you want viewers to take away from this show?
Sara: I never want people to think. But this is a story about love and compassion and caring for other people. That’s what I have.