‘Water for Elephants’ Musical Adaptation Will Arrive on Broadway in 2024

A musical adaptation of Sara Gruen's 2006 bestselling novel Water for Elephants has set a Broadway premiere date.

With a book by three-time Tony Award nominee Rick Elice (Jersey Boys), the show will be directed by Tony Award nominee Jessica Stone (Kimberly Akimbo). Previews are set to begin at Broadway's Imperial Theatre on Feb. 24, 2024, ahead of its official opening on March 21, 2024. 

Water for Elephants follows a grief-stricken young man who impulsively boards a train with no destination in mind. Told from his perspective as an elderly man, his travels bring him a chosen family and a complicated love in the form of a circus crew.  

Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz starred in a 2011 film adaptation of Gruen's novel. Casting for the Broadway musical adaptation has not yet been announced.

"What excites me most about Water for Elephants is working with our enormous design and creative team, an incredible group of artists from different avenues of storytelling," director Stone said in a statement. 

"From Broadway veterans to puppeteers to circus artists — we have an eclectic collection of internationally acclaimed and innovative creators. What's amazing about the culture of the circus is that you're dependent upon one another to do a trick safely, so as a team we really all must lean on one another," Stone continued. "If we do our jobs well and connect with our audience we will, quite literally, get the story off the page and into the air." 

The Broadway-bound production features circus design by Shana Carroll (The 7 Fingers), choreography by Jesse Robb and Shana Carroll, scenic design by Drama Desk Award winner Takeshi Kata, costume design by David Israel Reynoso, lighting design by two-time Tony Award winner Bradley King (Hadestown), sound design by Tony Award nominee Walter Trarbach (SpongeBob SquarePants), projections by David Bengali, hair and makeup design by Campbell Young Associates (A Beautiful Noise), puppetry design by Camille Labarre (Into the Woods), music supervision and arrangements by Drama Desk Award winner Mary-Mitchell Campbell (Some Like It Hot) and Benedict Braxton-Smith, orchestrations by Tony Award winner Daryl Waters and production stage management by Timothy R. Semon (Company). 

Casting by Tara Rubin Casting will be announced at a later date.