Simply put, War Horse is a theatrical experience unlike any other you have ever witnessed. A spectacular, breathtaking work of art that does things usually reserved only for the movies, it had this reviewer gasping in awe and blubbering like a baby. Trust me, you’ve never seen anything like it before.
 Harking back to those classic horse stories Black Beauty, My Friend Flicka, and The Black Stallion, War Horse (based on the book by Michael Morpurgo) tells the tale of Albert, an early 20th Century Devonshire teen, and Joey, the foal his father Ted bids all thirty-nine guineas of the family’s mortgage money to buy, the better to one-up Arthur, the brother with whom he has carried on a lifelong rivalry.

Boy and horse soon bond, though Albert’s mother can’t believe her drunkard of a spouse could put the ownership of their farm in jeopardy. She is even more flabbergasted and outraged when Ted bets Arthur that riding stallion Joey can be taught to plow within a week. Yes, Arthur will pay him back the mortgage money if Ted wins the bet, but if he loses, it will be Albert’s cousin Billy who takes possession of Joey.

 Though Albert does, miraculously, teach his beloved Joey to do the work of a plow horse (a fact that will prove significant in the stallion’s life), his father does the unthinkable. He sells Joey to the British Army to be a War Horse, and if Albert feels outraged by his father’s betrayal, fear trumps anger with World War I just declared and the likelihood of Joey surviving seeming slight at best.

 Now for those of you who are thinking, this sounds like it could make quite a movie but how could anyone ever turn War Horse into a play, just wait until the battle sequences begin and you’ll agree that the West End-to-Broadway-to-National Tour production, originally staged at London’s Royal National Theatre in 2007, redefines what it is possible to achieve on a theatrical stage.

The key to this magic-making are the life-sized “horse puppets” created by the Handspring Puppet Company, though “puppets” seems far too slight a term to describe these lifelike creations that will have you suspending disbelief again and again. The two lead horses, Joey and Topthorn, are manned by three cast members, two of them controlling body and leg movements from inside, the third standing outside and manipulating the stallion’s head. Other horses require only two actors to take life, while “background players” made of only the front half of the horse get around with a single handler.

 The result of this collaboration between puppet and human must be seen to be believed, though it is obvious that everyone concerned has done his or her equine research, the better to insure our absolute belief in these man-made creations that walk like horses, whinny like horses, and even rise up onto their hind legs like any great stallion worth its name must do.

As thoroughly theatrical a production as any that has been staged before, War Horse creates its world of wonder through our ability to imagine even the impossible. It may also be the most cinematic work in theater history, with sets, lighting, projections, costumes, sound, props, and players creating the theatrical equivalent of a wide-screen Hollywood blockbuster from start to finish six times a week, and on weekends twice in a day. There’s even an honest-to-goodness full-length symphonic soundtrack by Adrian Sutton that underscores the entire two-and-a-half hour theatrical/cinematic miracle.

 Battle sequences are as spectacular as they come, bringing to jaw-dropping life the horrors of The War To End All Wars that the English naively believed would be over in a mere three months. Bombs explode. Bodies both human and equine soon outnumber the living. There’s even a moment in which a monster-sized tank threatens to take over the entire Segerstom Center stage.

At the same time, War Horse never forgets that it is at heart the story of a young man and his horse, the former searching across France to find his beloved stallion, the latter simply doing its best to survive four years of gunfire, explosions, and the nearly invisible killer that was the recent invention known as barbed wire. If War Horse doesn’t have you holding back sobs by its emotional climax, then you might want to consider consulting a doctor of the heart.

 As Albert, Andrew Veenstra gives a richly memorable performance in addition to looking about as teen idol hunky as they get. Real-life marrieds Todd Cerveris and Angela Reed are marvelous as Albert’s parents, with Brian Keane (Arthur), Michael Wyatt Cox (Billy), Jason Loughlin (Lieutenant James Nicholls), Alex Morf (Private David Taylor), Lavita Shaurice (Emilie), and Andrew May (Friedrich Muller) doing equally fine work in the other major “human” roles.

 The entire supporting ensemble (including most of the abovementioned) execute multiple tracks, both as human characters and animal puppeteers, the latter of whom take turns inside Joey, Topthorn, and Coco, the better to avoid as much as possible the physical strain involved. At the performance reviewed here, Laurabeth Breya, Catherine Gowl, and Nick LaMedica were Joey as a foal; Jon Riddleberger, Patrick Osteen, and Jessica Krueger were Joey; Jon Hoche, Danny Beiruti, and Aaron Haskell were Topthorn; and Brian Robert Burns and Gregory Manley were Coco. Grayson DeJesus and Loughlin are Heine at all performances.

Equally deserving of praise are cast members Michael Stewart Allen, Brooks Brantly, Jason Alan Carvel, Mike Heslin, Mat Hostetler, Chad Jennings, Rob Laqui, Megan Loomis, Christopher Mai, Derek Stratton, and Danny Yoerges, each of them going above and beyond an actor’s usual duty.

 Last but most definitely not least are “Song Men” John Milosich (vocal) and Nathan Koci (instrumental) who narrate Albert and Joey’s tale in song, one of the production’s more inspired conceits, with John Tams credited as “songmaker.”

Bijan Shebani has directed this US Tour, superbly, based on the original direction of Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris. War Horse’s original in-the-round staging has now been adapted for a proscenium stage tour, and though I have not seen the original, the enormous proscenium arch of the Segerstrom only enhances the production’s filmic quality.

Among the many extraordinary design talents involved in this production are set, costumes, and drawings designer Rae Smith; Adrian Kohler with Basil Jones for Handspring Puppet Company for puppet design, fabrication, and direction (including some marvelous birds); Paule Constable (original lighting) and Karen Spahn (additional lighting and adaptation); Toby Sedgwick (director of movement and horse choreography), and 59 Productions (animation and projection design); and Christopher Shutt (sound) and John Owens (additional sound and adaptation). And the list goes on and on, with far too many names to list, though Seth F. Barker deserves major kudos as production stage manager, a monumental task if there ever was one.

To those who might wonder why War Horse is touring as part of an otherwise all-Broadway musical season, cast any doubts aside and simple see it. You will be standing and cheering as loudly as if the stage were filled with Wicked’s Ozians or the entire cast of Les Miz.

Segerstrom Center For The Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.
www.scfta.org

–Steven Stanley
January 22, 2013
Photos: Brinkhoff/Mögenburg