I saw this in Boston, first a few disclaimers: I loved War Horse and thought the puppets and humans were seamless; loved Lion King and thought the puppets were genius, in spite of the children’s story.
1. The Boston cast was not good. Are they moving with the show to Broadway? Pretty much stock characters, over acting
2. The puppets in Life of Pi are clunky, the humans intrusive, takes 3 or more humans to manage a smallish tiger and it wound up just being awkward, instead of majestic.
3. The script is not good. Way too much time on the front end in the zoo, in town, on the boat, and yet when tragedy strikes, it feels empty. And the resolution with the question “which version of the story do you prefer?” falls flat and, in this production, I didn’t much care for either. |
