“Life of Pi” reviewed

Sometimes, although not commonly, sheer visual spectacle without significant content is enough to qualify a play as a success. A lot of critics recently have been opining this about the Harry Potter play, which certainly is a dazzling show, although I would argue that it has more to offer than special effects. Musicals have been guilty of this sort of thing for as long as there have been musicals, with Moulin Rouge! being an especially egregious example. Just now floating into view in our part of the theatrical ocean at the Ahmanson Theatre, Life of Pi (an adaptation of Yann Martel’s novel) features fantastic puppets and impressive technical wizardry, but in terms of intellectual content it feels unconvincing and hollow, and the production is essentially stranded at sea.

In 1978 Mexico, a 17-year-old young man called Pi (Taha Mandviwala), the sole survivor of the shipwreck of the Japanese freighter Tsimtsum, is being interviewed by Japanese transport representative Mr. Okamoto (Alan Ariano) and Canadian consular official Lulu Chen (Mi Kang) about his experience. Pi claims to have survived 227 days at sea in a lifeboat accompanied by a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Okamoto expresses frustration and disbelief, feeling that the teenager is wasting his time, but Pi assures the non-religious man that this story will make him believe in God.

Mandviwala certainly works hard as Pi, and he’s onstage almost every moment. He’s let down by the writing, however, which doesn’t really present Pi as a three-dimensional character but more as an earnest blank who provides exposition. Okamoto and Chen are similarly one-note as written, but Ariano and Kang manage to imbue their roles with more depth and humor. Among Pi’s family, Sorab Wadia fares best as Father, exuding anxious care for his zoo animals, and Jessica Angleskhan is sympathetic as his mother, Amma.

The puppets in the production are splendid, vivid creations that are one of the major successful elements of the show. Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell’s puppet design and Caldwell’s puppetry and movement direction are a massive part of the show’s appeal. The puppeteers (too many to be mentioned here) do superb work, from the predatory circling of a cackling hyena to the panicked running of a doomed zebra. The tiger, Richard Parker, is why you’re here, however, and he doesn’t disappoint. The puppeteers somehow manage to make him feel powerful and menacing even when he’s just casually walking around, and when he roars, the sound fills the theater.

Director Max Webster keeps this technically ambitious show firing on all cylinders and has a coup de théâtre moment just before intermission in which the tiger is leaping through the air to attack and the action stops on that breathtaking freeze-frame image. Tim Hatley’s scenic design is strikingly versatile, changing from a zoo to a market to the open sea in mere moments. Andrzej Goulding’s video and animation design, Tim Lutkin and Tim Deiling’s lighting and Carolyn Downing’s sound all combine beautifully to create amazing storm sequences, with projections of water rushing across the stage being particularly effective.

Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation seems somewhat in a hurry to get to the shipwreck, and as a result the characters never register very deeply, including Pi. I rarely felt emotionally moved by Pi’s plight, which seems like a pretty low bar for a writer to reach for. I haven’t read Martel’s novel, so I don’t know how much of the religious material derives from that, but in the play it seems like a poorly fitted frame – wait, this two-hour story about a tiger on a lifeboat was all about believing in God? Is this the most expensive episode of Davey and Goliath ever made?

Life of Pi is presented by Center Theatre Group at the Ahmanson Theatre and plays through June 1, 2025. Plays at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa from June 3 – June 15, 2025. Tickets are available here.