PigPen Theater Co.
‘Water for Elephants: Original Cast Album’
Ghostlight Records

In earlier years of musical theater, the casts were always much larger, mainly because the concept of “triple threat” performers wasn’t yet in vogue: Every show had to have a full chorus of singers as well as a separate one of dancers, and both groups existed to support the singing-actor principals. 

In the 21st century, every cast member is expected to be able to sing, dance, and act — and, famously, in the productions of Michael Doyle, to play an instrument as well. In a new Broadway show, “Water for Elephants,” the cast is not only required to sing, dance, and act, but also to be able to do both acrobatics and puppetry — the members are all quintuple threats, if that’s even a thing.

This compounding of duties and expectations seems appropriate when we consider the source of the music for “Elephants”: the credit in the program, and on the newly released original cast album, read, “Music and Lyrics by PigPen Theatre Co.” 

For the majority of theater goers who might not be aware, PigPen Theatre Co. is a collective of composers and musicians that could be described either as a modern folk band or a team of musical theater creators. The seven members first began working as a group in 2007, and they have completed at least six major works, four that have taken the form of shows that have played off-Broadway and regionally, and another two released as albums. “Water for Elephants” is their first project to open on Broadway and now is also an original cast album.

The group’s two major recordings, “Bremen” and “Whole Sun,” show that PigPen Theater Co. possessed, from the beginning, a propensity for superior musical storytelling. So does their 2019 production of “The Tale of Despereaux” — so far there’s no album, but there’s a video on YouTube that shows how the PigPens were able to combine the band with actors and puppets in this modern classic of a children’s novel about a heroic mouse.

Befitting its polyglot source, the score to “Water for Elephants” reflects a wide range of styles. When the British Invasion was launched 60 years ago, Mick Jagger was quoted as supposedly saying his worst fear was that someone would mistake the Rolling Stones for a rock ’n’ roll band. Likewise, there’s no mistaking the music by this collective, and on this project especially.

“The Road Don’t Make You Young,” for instance, is classic bluegrass, à la Doc Watson or Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, with emphasis on banjo, fiddle, numerous guitars, and harmony singing. “Easy,” a number performed with mostly just voice (Isabelle McCalla) and percussion, has the wailing quality of an Appalachian folk ballad.

The show opens with “Anywhere,” a driving, folksy tune for which the band has also filmed a video — it’s the only tune from “Elephants” that PigPen Theater Co. has formally recorded or performed on their own thus far. The band’s own version, which is minimalist when compared with the performance in the show and on the cast album, conveys its message and its mobile energy with just the band; it never sounds like just a demo.  

“Just Our Luck,” in which the veteran Gregg Edelman — hard to believe it’s almost 35 years since he starred in the now-classic “City of Angels,” another period piece — and the formidable Sara Gettelfinger lead a merry quintet, is one of several songs that references pre-war jazz and pop styles. After all, the bulk of the show is set in 1931.

Paul Alexander Nolan, who plays an amalgam of two characters in the original Sara Gruen novel — combined into one very bad, albeit occasionally sympathetic heavy — plays August, the circus owner and ringmaster, and he gets two elaborate story songs, “The Lion Has Got No Teeth” and “The Grand Spec,” which brings Act One to a thrilling conclusion. Both have overtones of art deco swing — the female vocal group that coos behind him evokes the Boswell Sisters, plus there are Benny Goodman-like clarinet obligatos and Gene Krupa-style percussion patterns.

Act II opens with “Funny Angel.” Sung by Grant Gustin as young Jake, it is an endearing character song — okay, I’ll grant that this one could have been heard as part of the score to “Cabaret” by Kander & Ebb. “Zostan,” essentially meaning “stop” in Polish, resembles a children’s song or a novelty song partly in a foreign language, like “Que Sera Sera,” and it also has the fun of sheer nonsense, like “Shipoopi” in “The Music Man.” 

“Water for Elephants” is one of those musicals, like “Ragtime” and “Titanic,” reviewed recently in these pages, that tells its story significantly better than its cinematic counterpart — in this case the 2011 movie adaptation. The album is a highly entertaining piece of work that holds attention even without the visual charms of dancers, acrobats, and puppet circus animals.  PigPen Theater Co.’s songs are that good.