Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants Will Be Adapted Into Broadway Musical

Sara Gruen’s acclaimed 2006 best-selling novel Water for Elephants is being adapted into a Great White Way tuner. Producers Peter Schneider and Elisabetta di Mambro, in association with Broadway Across America (Broadway.com’s parent company) and Mehr! Entertainment have acquired the worldwide rights to reimagine the book as a musical for the stage. No word yet on the creative team or timing of the project.

In this Depression-era novel, young Jacob Jankowski's life is dramatically changed when he is tossed by fate onto a train that is the home of the “Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.” Just shy of his veterinary degree, Jacob is hired to doctor the circus's animal menagerie. During this time, he bonds with Marlena, the beautiful equestrian star married to August, the charismatic but emotionally troubled superintendent of animals. The tempestuous triangle that develops becomes even more complicated when Rosie, an Asian elephant with a personality to match any of the humans, enters the picture. “The Great Gray Hope” for this third-rate traveling show raises the stakes—both literally and figuratively—in this romantic saga of love and trust pitted against danger and evil.  

The book has been published in 43 countries and sold more than 10 million copies sold worldwide. The 2011 film adaptation was directed by Francis Lawrence with a screenplay by Richard LaGravenese and starred Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson, and Christoph Waltz.