BWW Reviews: WAR HORSE Is a Beautifully Staged Production at Hershey Theatre

When Michael Morpurgo was approached about turning his novel "War Horse" into a play, he was dubious at best - how to stage horses? How to stage war? But Nick Stafford took a stab at the adaptation, and The National Theatre of Great Britain had a success on its hands with War Horse. It's beloved in Great Britain, Canada, and the U.S., with five Tonys to its credit in 2011 and with an enshrinement in one of the Tonys' most famous (and still You-Tubed) moments, a duet between Neil Patrick Harris and Hugh Jackman, to Cole Porter's "You're the Top," with a line of "You're the top - you're the War Horse pony!"

Because, of course, War Horse is a great play in many ways, including one that its film adaptation could never be: it doesn't take a Spielberg, though he directed the film, to take footage of horses, but finding a way to put them on the theatrical stage and do what they're supposed to from a story takes real work. In the case of War Horse, not just its star horse, Joey, but some other military horses, flying birds, vultures, and an obnoxious farm goose are puppets, the extremely fine work of Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa. Those amazing puppets, as well as the human cast, directed by Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr, are on their national tour, currently at the Hershey Theatre. And the puppeteers who maneuver Joey and his animal friends' figures on stage, actors themselves, are properly credited in the program along with the rest of the cast and who come on stage during the bows, deservedly, both as themselves and as their characters.

Although the acting is top-notch, and there's no possible argument there, the most important thing about this tour is the staging, especially for those who have never seen the New York production. War Horse is stagecraft at its finest, from the artistry in the creation of Joey and his friends to the manipulation of them - the horses twitch their ears and flounce their tails; vultures feast on dead carcases. The goose is comic relief, a horror to everyone who deals with it. And although the puppeteers are visible on stage the whole time, their ability to blend into the scenery is instantaneous and completely effective, even while they stand in front of you. But there is more than that at work here. The creation of sets from carried-on props, creating fences, barbed wire, and the like, carried off by the actors holding them, is unlike almost any other show in how it is handled and how effective it is.

Then there's the issue of projected effects. These can be horrendous, even in some national tour shows, including some recent ones in the area, and are sometimes, as in community theatre, used as a relatively inexpensive, and also ineffective, substitute for sets. In War Horse, the use of projected animated effects, especially that of showing the pencil strokes of a military artist's sketching to create background, is particularly effective and is worthy of set and lighting designer study. If this tour does nothing but to teach stage designers how to use projections properly, it will have served the highest needs of theatre.

What to expect when you see War Horse? It is, of course, the male reader's "My Friend Flicka", a modern "Black Beauty" set during the First World War - it is the inspiring love story of a boy and his horse. The colt, Joey, is bought for more than he can afford by Albert Narracott's (Michael Wyatt Cox's) farm-owning father in order to spite his brother Arthur (Andrew Long), who is wrangling with Lieutenant Nichols (Brendan Murray) over the horse. Albert names him, trains him, and rides him while Nichols, who is also an artist, sketches the horse he never owned and its rider, and Albert's father and uncle continue to fight over everything in their lives, including the horse. A bad bet between father and uncle forces Albert to train the part-thoroughbred hunter to work as a plowhorse, which, despite tragedies, later saves Joey's life in the war. When World War I breaks out and horses as well as men are called up, Albert's father sells Joey out from under him to the Army, where Albert's one small measure of hope is that Nichols has taken Joey for his own horse and has promised to bring him back after the fighting. When Nichols is killed in battle, however, Albert is determined to rescue his horse.

The one person closest to understanding Albert, and why his horse means more to him than his father, is his long-suffering mother (Maria Elena Ramirez). The one most like him, besides Nichols, is German Captain Friedrich Muller (Andrew May), who has two personal goals in the war, one of which is to save the English horses that have fallen into his hands. As with "Black Beauty," one of the foundational stories in the early English humane society movement, everyone who encounters Joey, other horses, and the other animals in the tale isn't as well-meaning or devoted as Albert, Nichols, or Muller. If this show is unsuitable for small children - and it is - part of that is the depiction of war and death on stage, which is as graphic as can be staged without blood, and part of it is the dealing with animal suffering and death. Humans and animals alike are broken during the first war to end all wars, between machine guns and barbed wire, between poison gas and the poison of hatred. The ending is happier than not - for those who need reassurance, both Joey and Albert will come through the war, which is not really a spoiler at this point in War Horse history, but both will be changed, both somewhat broken themselves.

War Horse is a great show, spectacularly produced, and the tour boasts a fine production, well-staged, well-acted, and well-sung. It's not so much a musical, for the music fans, as a drama that features a singer, the Song Man in this case (Josh Milosich singing), though there was a Song Woman on Broadway, too, carrying off what sound like folk and war tunes of the period, though Adrian Sutton and John Tams share credit for music and "songmaking". Several of the pieces are close to Irish songs of the period, though the IRA-related lyrics are conspicuously absent, for those who know Irish music; this reviewer kept supplying anticipated alternate lines mentally about a third of the time, so close are the songs to certain of the Irish revolutionary tunes of the period.

If you have not seen the New York production, you want to see this one. It's a tour that doesn't disappoint from the original. If you're interested in theatre in any way, the show is worth seeing, far beyond the acting and the story. Yes, you should see it for the puppets and the puppetry. It's also worth seeing for the excellence of the staging as a whole, and for the sheer amazement of how to show a war, live on stage, in a way that really works. The caveat, once again, is to leave young children at home - this is too much for them. If you're direly sensitive to depictions of animal cruelty, and seeing it demonstrated on some remarkably, and convincingly, lifelike replacements is likely to hurt, or if you can't handle war scenes - yes, both groups are out there - this is simply not your show. It's unavoidably violent based on the content. PTSD sufferers should probably stay home. Otherwise, it's a show that begs to be seen. At Hershey Theatre through December 15. Call 717-534-3405 or visit HersheyTheatre.com for tickets.

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