‘Life Of Pi’ Broadway Review: A Boy And His Tiger Show Their Stripes
deadline.comWhen a character promises a life story so inspirational it’ll make a believer of an atheist, the tale better come through on some big-time convincing.
Life of Pi, Lolita Chakrabarti’s stage adaption of Yann Martel’s heart-tugging 2001 novel opening tonight at Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, won’t likely be churning out any religious converts, but renewed faith in the art of puppetry is all but guaranteed.
Starring the winning young actor Hiran Abeysekera, reprising his Olivier Award-winning London turn as the title character, Life of Pi, directed by Max Webster, sticks closer to the novel than to Ang Lee’s 2012 film adaptation, building the plot around a maritime investigation rather than the writing of a book – and, of course, replacing CGI beasties with enough fully articulated life-size puppets to populate a zoo, or at least a lifeboat.
All aboard, at one time or another, are a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra, the odd sea turtle, a hyena-bait water rat and, most impressive of all, a massive Bengal tiger with the unlikely name of Richard Parker.
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